I didn’t get a chance to prune my mother-in-law’s apricot tree last summer. I have read that you should prune apricots in California only in summer because of Eutypa disease transmission in the wet season. What should I do next? I visit her about once a month
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Wait for a period of dry weather and cut them out as late as possible before bloom and apply a fungicide labeled as a pruning wound protectant. I typically apply a bit of latex paint over large pruning cuts.
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i second the motion
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I’ve learned it hard way not to touch apricots with pruners in the rainy season. Every time I made this mistake, the pruned branch ended up with gummosis. Even if the forecast shows no rain, it can change in several days, and dormant trees do not heal pruning cuts fast enough. I would wait at least until late March or early April, until dry weather establishes for a prolonged period of time, and the tree can heal the cuts really fast. Apricots usually produce a lot of new growth even after summer pruning, so there is no urgency to prune them too early.
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What they all said. Don’t tempt eutypa.
In 2017 and 2018 the bloom was poor according to my mother-in-law and there was very little fruit. This year looks better so far.
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I have been pruning the tree every summer after harvest. I prune off the water sprouts and i try to gradually cut back some of the branches. It’s a big tree and doesn’t need to get bigger
Here is the tree today after pruning the water sprouts, I didn’t take off any branches. I guess it’s ok to prune now? I don’t know when I will be back here. It has a good amount of fruit that will be ready in a few weeks. I don’t think the fruit is very good, but my mother-in-law likes the tree.
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Now is a great time. It’ll also help get some more sun on the fruit. I would also prune in the fall as needed. In CA, I won’t prune Apricots in the winter/early spring.
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