First Prunning of a Newly Planted Patio Apricot Tree

[Artisan]

Yesterday I planted in a container my first Patio Apricot tree. In fact my first Apricot. I have read that it is advisable to prune the young tree’s branches back by one third not long after planting. I have also read some other conflicting pruning advice which, of course, has left me confused. If anyone has experience of pruning container grown fruit trees please could they let me know how they pruned their trees. I have attached some pictures of my new tree for reference.

[mosstrooper]

Hi Artisan, not a great deal there to prune yet mate. I don't have any experience of patio trees, but i would expect your apricot to need all it's leaves this year to get established.
If it was me i would leave it till next july and then prune lightly to encourage bushing out

[Artisan]

Hello mosstrooper, thank you for your thoughts on the Apricot pruning. You're right, there isn’t a great deal of leafy branches there at the moment so I will leave it to get established and give it a prune next July. I'm sure the time will fly!

[BUFFS]

Take off half of those useless long branches, this will promote side hoots on the branches, very quickly, and when the new side shoots have 4-5 leaves I would pinch that back to 3, these will then start to put out side shoots so you are building the branch structure to support the fruit, having done this for 2yrs, on the third year you can let it fruit, knowing that the plant can carry the weight. I did all this ,followed this advice given on here and we finished the last of our own apricots last weekend and the taste was fab, definitely worth the effort as we will get years of good fruit from a strongly framed tree..

[Artisan]

Thank you for the valuable information. Following your method, do you remove any flowers in spring the first and second year to prevent fruiting? Also, does your apricot suffer from leaf curl?

[Artisan]

One other question. Do you have a Nectarine tree? I am thinking of getting a dwarf variety that I can aslo grow in a container. I would be grateful of any advice.

[BUFFS]

hi Artisan, I would definitely remove all flowers this year and it might be possible to keep one next year, but when you do get the flowers you need a small kiddies paintbrush to stroke the inside of each flower, to pollinate it, so for next year you would initially have to keep 4-5 flowers and stroke each centre each day (I do it first thing so I don't forget) for a week to ten days. when you see a small pea shape forming, pick the strongest branch that has one on and remove the rest, so little or no strain on the young plant. my peaches are a few weeks off being ready, and the apricots were lovely, and I am half way through training nectarines as I described, and it has gone from a spindly stem to having 8 branches, which now have lots of side shoots , so the branch structure is forming nicely. I keep mine under cover of a cold greenhouse, they do not mind any amount of cold in winter, its the wet from our constant rain that would give them peach leaf curl, which you do not need, so under cover they escape this. they are in 50+ltr tubs of John Innes No3 compost , a real must as ordinary compost has no feed left after 4-5 weeks, I give a handful of BFB at the end of february and when the foliage starts to grow I give each tub at least a gallon of water on a sunday, and again on a Wednesday, so they never get too dry, and want to drop the fruit, you will not believe the amazing taste straight off the tree as none of the sugars have had a chance to turn to starch which happens with the old age fruit you buy from shops..

[lookbettertomorow]

I too would shorten that long one, if you don't it's just going to continue as it is,out of balance and looking silly. Above Guy is right. Guy on YouTube greengardenguy1 says
(My get out of jail card, I didn't say it) some apricots only flower on first half of last year's growth. Hence you will hear cut back a third.