Apricot tree issues

We have a very mature tree which I believe is apricot. This tree was present when we moved in a couple of years ago. The first year we got just 12 fruit. Most of them were damaged by some kind of pest (maybe wasps) but this tree is at least 15 foot and has very dense foliage, so I'd expect it to produce a lot of fruit.

This year it blossomed very early (around February, before the snow). The whole tree was covered in blossom. After a couple of weeks the lawn was smothered in the tiny pink petals and by the time our other trees were blossoming, there was no sign of any blossom left on this tree.

Our other trees (very small plum, and pear) have since blossomed (after the snow) and are now showing signs of tiny fruit starting to develop, but our apricot tree, shows no sign of any fruit. So very disappointed again.

Gardening is not really my forte so any advice would be welcome. I suspect that it is failing to produce a decent crop due to blooming so early. Is this a known issue? Is there anything we can do to have better results next year?

 

I don't have much experience of apricots but I do know that they flower early, even earlier than peaches, that fact is probably why you don't really see lots of them being grown in the UK.
So you do need the weather on your side to get a good set of fruit and you will probably need to hand pollenate.

 

Thanks for the speedy reply. When I saw the blossom so early I did doubt that there would be much in the way of natural pollinators active. I used to have plum trees and we always had bumper crops without any intervention so I wasn't even sure that pollination is needed. I'll do some research on hand pollination to be ready for next year.

 

Some thing I found out with peaches, you can spray the flowers with water on dry bright sunny days, around midday.
It sounds odd but the fine mist actually moves the pollen around the flowers, you could also try the small brush method but that gets a bit tedious on a large tree.

 

Thanks, I'll bear in mind the misting idea, but I can't even reach the flowers from ground level. All of the blossom is over 8ft above the ground. Also, if this year is anything to go by, it's still rather cold when the blossom is on the tree. It kinda worries me spraying water over it in cold weather. I've been checking out my options on hand pollination. Seems I should have another apricot tree around to get best results. I'm wondering if it may be worth getting another cultivar to graft onto this tree. We don't really have the space for a whole extra tree.

 

The fact that you actually got just a few fruits last year suggests it's capable of self pollination.
The weather was much better early last year than this year, it was pretty awful around here when my seed grown one was in flower.

The other point is do you know if it's a definite variety, or is it like mine, a seed grown plant.

I think they are grown commercially on a small scale not far from me but they use specially selected late flowering varieties, I believe.

 

I've just been out and had another look and I think it had several grafts made when it was much smaller. Which may explain how it's able to self pollinate. I have no idea which variety we have and, in fact, I'm the only one in the house that is convinced it's apricot. Using online recognition apps, it originally came back as a greengage, but the fruit is definitely yellow when ripe and tastes like apricot. The rest of the family are not convinced.

 

Unless it was what's known as a family tree it should only have one graft about 4 to 6 inches above soil level.
Apricots flower earlier than plums.
I'd be interested to see some pictures.

 

I've just been out to take some photos, but I ran out of battery power before I could get a close up of the leaves. I think it's a pretty mature tree.

 

Blimey, that's a big un.
Nice tree.

 

Yes it's got some character. My wife calls it the Wamping Willow. (but it's definitely not a willow). At about shoulder height is where I think there have been several grafts in the past. It's just a mass of branches springing out from that area. Even though there are several thick ones that have been cut there. The last picture shows this section. This is one of our cats favourite hang outs.

 

It looks very old to me, who knows what it started out like.
If there were different types of apricot or even plum on there I would expect there to be slight differences between leaf and flowers on different parts of the tree.

 

Yes, I can't see any variation in the leaves. The mass of branches could just be the result of historic pruning. I notice that, in this area there are also quite a lot of small twiggy shoots, so it seems prone to producing lots of branches. In that last picture it looks like ivy but those are, in fact, new growth coming out of the trunk. I didn't know trees did this.

 

In most trees there are dormant buds lurking in the trunk, usually they don't get a chance to grow until the stuff above gets cut off, but occasionally, for whatever reason, they can start to shoot out and form weak branches.

Perhaps you could give us a close up of the leaves and new shoots at some point, when you get time, it might help with an ID.

 

Here's a close up of the tree from the far side.

And this is a close up of those shoots.


And another part of the folliage.

Sorry I'm no David Bailey and that foliage is pretty hard to reach :(