Hi I planted this Apricot Tree 3-4 weeks ago.
I’m in Zone 6 in New Jersey. Leaves are looking very droopy and sad. We had snow 2 weeks ago. Other than that 34-80 degrees. It rained for two days. The Plum tree behind it is fine. Should I move it into a sunnier spot? It already has fruit popping up. Thanks!
Is the soil wet in that area?
Water collects at the bottom of our slope about 30 feet Southwest from here, but here it seems fine On top of the slope. Also this used to be woods, and the soil under the next tree was black about 6 inches down, but under the apricot was brown and I removed a lot of rocks. There are still 3 native Oaks nearby.
That’s got a lot of leaves for just 3-4 wks since planted. I’d suspect it’s dry. If it was a potted tree make a depression right over the rootball and water that area frequently, maybe once a day, to rewet the rootball. If it perks up with watering try to keep it moist not wet.
Your tree looks good. I think it will be fine once it gets rooted into the native soil.
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Yes it looks like transplant shock of some form. It will hopefully get over it.
Whatever you do, don’t dig it up and move it now! That will probably kill it. Also resist the urge to put fast-acting fertilizer on it.
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This was April 2 Planting Day. Why is Fast acting fertilizer bad? Yeah I also didn’t trim it back bc I’m still waiting for shears to come in the mail order. Should I cut the non-fruiting branches? Thanks for all your tips everyone!
Very often they dig up trees and put them in the pots just before sending them to the stores. Roots sometime cut severely. I once helped a friend to buy a tree in nursery, we selected beautifully structured, healthy and large tree. When we brought it to his home I noticed it wiggles in the pot, so we washed out the soil. The root ball was 3 times less than the pot itself, roots severely cut. But it did grow eventually. I recommend to remove the fruits - it will help the tree to establish and as Scott recommended, water it right near the trunk.
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Fast acting fertilizer is a salt. Salty water makes it even harder for the tree to absorb water. And it can burn the roots. It doesn’t need fertilizer now. It needs more roots.
Your soil looks pretty good. I think the tree will be fine by this time next yr.
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I think my apricot is dying and I’m pretty sure it is from too much water. I transplanted it from someone else’s garden when it was dormant and cut the top back to compensate for the root loss. It leafed out and seemed to be doing quite well, but we’ve had a lot of rain lately and not much warmth or sun to dry things out. It started looking unhappy about a week ago and worse by the day. With my clay soil, I think the drainage is worse than I thought in this spot where I previously had a very happy pomegranate. Is this tree a goner?
If it is from being too wet then that doesn’t look good. Maybe you could dig down around the roots to see just how wet it is. The cure or aid at least would be a raised bed. Probably too late for that this yr.
So I made depression over the rootball – and as I was digging my finger, realized I put a lot of worm castings & it may have sunk a bit with the cold and rain…and there is a fair amount of apricot colored gum / gooey stuff leaking under the soil from the trunk. (ball of goop the size of a thumbnail.) The trunk has changed color also under the soil. What does that mean?
Also it snowed over the weekend, and then was 65 during the day / frost at night. So I covered it up two nights and let it dry out / warm up during the day. It has been dropping the baby fruit by itself this week.
Is it colored orange under the soil? If do, it could be crown rot , I lost one tree to it.
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Yes it is a little orange. In the daylight I saw a pretty bad gash & some little red worms. So I tried to cut out whatever is infected as much as possible and sprayed some Neem/soap/water spray. I had ordered Orchard Spray, but again waiting for online delivery. And I saw someone else used IV Guard. Is it a gon’er? Also now after digging some of the roots are above the soil. So I have to fix that. “after” pic. Thanks everyone!
This turned out to be a borer. I dug it out and stopped watering for a week, and the tree totally perked up.
Is this tree on a peach rootstock?