VEGETABLE GARDEN

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLII, Issue 20587, 28 November 1936, Page 15 (Supplement)

VEGETABLE GARDEN

APRICOT The apricot is distinct in foliage from the other members of the Primus family, and though it can be grown most successfully in the country as a standard it is better trained on a fence or wall in Dunedin. A sunny position sheltered from the cold southwest winds should be selected, and the soil, which should be trenched to a depth of three feet and well drained, should have a liberal amount of lime rubble and bone dust or basic super mixed in when planting. Unless the soil is light and poor farmyard manure should not be added.

Beginning with a young tree consisting of one upright shoot, this is cut back to within 10 inches of the ground the first year. The three top buds are allowed to develop, one shoot being taken straight up and the other two tied out to form the lowest side branches. The leader is pinched in .November to send the sap into the side ones, so that they may be as strong as or stronger than the upright growing one. At the next pruning the branches are doubled and they ought to diverge equally when they extended so as to be 15 inches apart, and when the branches resulting have extended they should be again subdivided. In this way the principal branches will be produced with regularity and there will be space for laying in young wood, and for the development of the fruit spurs. The apricot produces its fruit on the wood which is two to three or more years old as well as on the young wood of the previous season’s growth like the peach. Young shoots should be laid in at every 10 to 12 inches, and these will be shortened to about a foot at pruning time and tied in. During the summer another young shoot is allowed to develop at the base of each of these fruiting shoots to take its place when it is cut out after fruiting. In this way the branches will be furnished with both fruiting young wood and spurs, and all young growths not required are cut to two or three buds from the old wood. By careful pinching and pruning the branches should extend evenly from the base, all being about the same strength, none being allowed to become either too weak or too strong, and there should be a neven distribution of the sap so that all may be alike fruitful. A good dressing of blood and bone manure at the rate of 4oz to the square yard, also a dressing of wood ashes and lime should be applied to the surface after pruning and lightly forked in, and as the trees are usually planted against a wall facing north, they should get plenty of water during the growing season, with a mulch of farmyard manure. Varieties to plant are Moorpark, Oullin's Early Improved, and Mansfie Seedling.