Top work apricot tree

[James_SD]

Hi all

I have this apricot for 5+ years total. Got a total of 25 apricots from it in 5 years. So I’m looking to stump this tree. It has 3 main branches with each branch about 2.5" to 3.5" in diameter. I will stump 2 of the 3 main branches and graft something else. Is mid summer a good time to do bark graft? What type of graft give the best chance in mid summer? The tree is currently gold kist on unknown rootstock (probably citation). San Diego area.

[GraftNseedcollector]

Im not sure about what graft is most succesfull since i graft only early spring. Yet i do think to know what scion-wood u need to use in summer, i believe you will need to take scions from the parts where to wood is changing from brown to green.

[James_SD]

brown to green? green is the most recent wood and brown is older wood. How can a wood go from brown to green?

[GraftNseedcollector]

Green to brown, brown to green… You know what i meant

[mamuang]

No bark graft in the sumner. You can try budding in late summer.

Search for T-budding or chip budding on this forum on how to do. Here is one.

T-budding tutorial

very informative thread. Reviving this to add my experience. I am grafting citrus now and tried both with and without the wood in the bud. Removing the wood for the latter is very hard and finicky with the thin budwoods from CCPP. Lets see how many will take. Also, it is soooo much more easier to do the inverse T than the regular T on the rootstock. The starting point of the bud is the sharpest as I tend to start the cut from there. With inverted T, its easier to poke the separated bark with th…

[plumcots]

I have a third leaf self-incompatible apricot that needed pollenizers in it and this year the tree was large enough.

The sunlit shoot is ‘Robada,’ having been t-budded on 27 April. the shoot is ~ 16" now and growing vigorously.

This growing bud is ‘Twocot,’ with the t-budding occurring on 29 May. I will attempt to keep it growing vigorously as long as possible.
The technique is also called ‘June-budding,’ with the propagation season usually being May and June, so you are still within the general timeframe. When rootstocks are budded sooner in the growing season they will typically get larger calipers, bringing better tree prices.

[lordkiwi]

What was the reason for the poor performance. Did it flower and not set? Did you give it potassium and phosphorus at bloom and in the fall. Anything else near by to pollinate it?

[James_SD]

It flower and set fruit. But when it got to size of a quarter, it dropped.

[lordkiwi]

any insect damage?
Potasium Phosphate seemed to help this other apricot.

Chinese apricot tree flowers sparsely

Consider applying up to 2 lbs of potassium phosphate under the tree canopy next winter, but not close to the trunk.