Soil

• Apricots are quite hardy and can be grown in most of the soils.
• Deep well-drained soil is the best. The soil should be about 3 m deep.
• If the drainage is good, high lime content of the soil does not depress the growth of tree.

Propagation

• Apricots can be commercially raised by vegetative methods of propagation like budding and grafting. Seed propagation can also be practiced.
• Apricot seeds require stratification for 72 days at 4°C.
• The germination of seeds can be hastened by the removal of kernel from the shell, scarification and gibberellic acid or kinetin treatment.
• Seeds are soaked in 500 ppm GA3 or 5 ppm kinetin solution for 24 hours before planting. Seeds are sown in nursery beds 30 cm apart.
• Frequent watering and mulching should be given.
• In rainfed orchards, where drought conditions prevail, apricot on peach makes better growth than on apricot seedlings.
• T-budding and tongue grafting are adopted.

Planting

• Done at the end of December to February, but early planting gives better establishment of plants.
• Undesirable trees and shrubs should be removed from the land during its initial preparations by digging and ploughing.
• On the flat land, a regular planting layout system such as square and triangular is followed, while on the hill slopes, contour system is generally practiced.
• The spacing of plants varies with the soil, climate and vigour of variety and rootstocks.
• The plants are generally planted at a spacing of 6 m × 6 m.
• The pits of 1 × 1 × 1 m dimension are dug about a month before planting and are filled with a mixture of soil and 50–60 kg well-decomposed FYM.
• About 1 kg SSP and 10 L of chlorphyrifos (4 ml/1 litre of water) is also added to each pit.
• NPK @ 100-200:80:100 kg/ha is recommended.

Flowering and fruiting

• In apricot, usually three flower buds develop in the axil of a leaf at each node on a shoot and a spur.
• The central one is vegetative and side ones are floral.
• High temperature, low humidity and wind shorten flowering duration by increasing respiration.

Irrigation

• Tree has shallow roots; so good soil moisture is beneficial. The roots are confined to 2 m from the surface, so wet the land up to a depth of 2 m.
• In rainfed conditions, mulching and water harvesting technique can be practiced.

Training and Pruning

• Apricot is trained to modified leader system.
• The main branch is cut 50–75 cm above the ground. Four to six well-spaced branches are retained.
• The main central axis is cut off 50–75 cm above the ground, and all laterals are cut off if these are not properly spaced along the central axis.
• Pruning at the end of first growing season in winter consists in selection of five to six well-spaced laterals around the trunk. The lower branch should be about 40–45 cm, and all other laterals should be completely thinned out. All the selected laterals should be headed back to get secondary branches on them.
• During the second-year growth, only five to seven secondary scaffolds about breast height are retained, and others are removed.
• At the end of the third year, pruning is confined to thinning of the branches which are either crossing or crowding each other for proper development of the framework and to admit sunlight in the tree center to promote growth of the spurs.
• The leader of the tree is modified after the fourth year of its age by cutting it back very close to a lateral branch.

Thinning of fruits

• The apricot tends to set heavily. So, to produce fruits of marketable size, it must be thinned.
• Fruit-to-fruit spacing should be kept 4–8 cm when crop is heavy, and when crop is light, spacing may be done to 4–5 cm.
• Two to three fruits may be retained on each spur. Thinning should be done within 40 days after full bloom.

Flowering

• In apricot, usually three buds develop in the axil of a leaf at each node on a shoot and spur.
• The central one is a vegetative bud, and the two side buds are floral.
• Under midhill condition, the flowering in apricot occurs in the month of March and higher hills at the end of March and April.

Maturity indices, harvesting and yield

• For fresh market, the fruits are plucked when surface colour turns green to yellow.
• Fully ripe fruits are, however, harvested for freezing, canning and drying.
• The fruits should be harvested in the morning hours, and direct exposure of fruits to the sun is avoided during grading and packing.
• Apricot trees start fruiting at the age of 5 years and give economic yield up to 30–35 years.
• Apricot attains full bearing age at about 8–10 years and yield about 50–80 kg fruits per trees.