I planted a Harcot apricot three years ago based off of reviews praising the flavor and size of fruit, as well as its canning qualities. I got one fruit off the tree last year, but was on vacation for a week and figured the reason it fell off the tree was because I’d misjudged how quickly it would ripen. There were bugs inside but didn’t think much about it since it had called on the ground. This year, we have gotten 2-3 dozen fruits but almost all of the fruits have cracked open at the bottom and are infested with earwigs, ants, and/or some sort of small black beetle. The ones that haven’t been ruined have been delicious, even when picked slightly green. I love how juicy the ripe ones are - I grew up with a Chinese apricot and those aren’t as juicy.
Is there anything I can do to prevent the splitting, or is this just how the tree will always be? I’ve been fairly consistent with watering, but we did have a sudden change to hot weather a couple weeks ago and it’s stayed in the mid 90’s ever since. I’m not inclined to keep the tree if 90% of the fruit is going to be bug damaged every year, so anyone have recommendations for a great tasting, late blooming apricot that cans well?
Let them ripen before you pick them. The apricots in your picture are very green. What zone are you in? For me cracking was mostly a problem of too much water.
Splitting is usually caused by too much water during the final ripening. Extra water during this time also dilutes the flavor of the fruit. Is there any way you can reduce how much water the tree gets during the last month of ripening? Maybe tarping off the roots to prevent rain absorption?
I don’t know where you are located, but where I am we have had about twice our average rainfall so far this spring. If your tree is getting alot of rain while finishing ripening it will affect the fruit. I would not give up on it yet.
@mrsg47 The more they ripen, the more bugs I was seeing inside. The green ones I picked so I would have a chance to eat at least some of them before the bugs got to them. I am fully aware they are unripe but didn’t feel like I had a lot of choices if I wanted to salvage any harvestable fruit.
It hasn’t rained here for weeks, I live in UT and it was a pretty dry spring even by recent standards. I thought I had been pretty consistent with my watering, but it’s not an automated system, I have to set the hose on the soaker hose and keep track of how long it’s been running. Not watering at all means the tree will likely start dropping fruits from water stress.
I will be more careful with how much water the tree gets next spring and hope that the splitting is just a result of running the hose too long at the wrong time.
