Tree fruit
How to grow apricots
Prunus armeniaca
Apricots fruit reliably in the UK if you plant a modern variety such as Tomcot or Flavorcot against a sunny, sheltered wall in free-draining soil. Plant bare-root between November and March. The tree itself is fully hardy; the crop is decided in February and March, when the blossom needs fleece on frosty nights and pollinating by hand. Unlike a peach it rarely gets leaf curl and it fruits on short spurs, so pruning is light and always done in summer.
- Hardiness
- Fully hardy wood; blossom frost-prone in Feb to Mar
- Position
- Full sun, very warm, sheltered
- Soil
- Free-draining, fertile, slightly alkaline
- Ideal pH
- 6.5 to 8.0
- Water
- Moderate
- Feeding
- Moderate feeder
Sowing and planting apricots
WhenPlant Nov to Mar; blossom Feb to Mar; harvest Jul to Aug
Starting off
Plant bare-root Nov to Mar, pot-grown in spring. Trees are budded in Jul to Aug onto St Julien A or Torinel; a stone sown in autumn needs winter cold and fruits in 4 to 5 years. Tomcot, Flavorcot and Moorpark are self-fertile; Tomcot flowers late enough to dodge most frosts.
Spacing and planting
A fan on St Julien A needs a wall 4 to 5 m wide, on Torinel 3.5 m; bush trees 4 to 5 m apart. Hole 60 cm wide, 20 to 25 cm from the wall, union 10 cm above soil. Dwarf Aprigold or Compacta crops in a 45 to 50 cm pot moved under cover Feb to Mar.
Varieties worth growing
- Tomcot
- The most dependable cropper in British gardens: masses of blossom, large orange fruit flushed red, ripe in the second half of July.
- Flavorcot
- Bred for cooler climates and flowers later than most, with firm, well-flavoured fruit in August.
- Moorpark
- The old English garden apricot, ripening in late August. Fine flavour, but more prone to dieback than the newer varieties.
- Golden Glow
- A hardy, compact variety found as a seedling in the Malvern area that crops well as a free-standing tree in a sheltered garden.
- Aprigold
- A naturally dwarf tree that stays under 1.5 m, for a large pot that can be moved under cover at blossom time.
Apricots month by month
Timings are for central England. Allow two weeks later in the north and on cold, heavy soil.
- January
Plant bare-root trees in open weather. Fix wires to the wall. No pruning.
- February
Feed in the last week. Blossom opens from late February on a warm wall: fleece on frosty nights.
- March
Pollinate the open flowers with a soft brush around midday. Keep fleecing. Mulch after rain.
- April
Once the tree is in leaf, start formative pruning and tie in the shoots you want for the framework.
- May
Water young and wall-trained trees weekly in dry weather. Rub out shoots growing straight towards or away from the wall.
- June
Pinch new side-shoots to six leaves to build fruiting spurs. Thin a heavy set to about 8 cm apart.
- July
Tomcot ripens from mid month. Pick when the fruit gives slightly and parts easily. Net against birds.
- August
Flavorcot and Moorpark ripen. After picking, shorten the pinched side-shoots to three leaves, cut out dead or diseased wood and finish all pruning by the end of the month.
- September
Remove any fruit left on the tree. Water pot trees until the leaves fall.
- October
Rake up leaves. Lime only if a pH test shows the soil is acid.
- November
Plant bare-root trees. Check stakes and ties.
- December
Nothing to do. Order fleece for February.
Feeding apricots
A moderate feeder that turns extra nitrogen into soft growth, and soft growth into dieback. One spring feed and a mulch is the whole plan on decent soil; add potash only if the fruit is small.
A moderate spring feed; lime if your soil is very acid.
Feeding plan
At planting, once
5 g per litre of root-ball volume, in contact with the roots: 50 g for a tree from a 10 litre pot, or enough to coat the damp roots of a bare-root tree.
Late February
Fruit & Vegetable Fertiliser 4-5-6
70 g/m² over the rooting area, the low end of the label range: about 210 g for a fan with a border 3 m long and 1 m deep. No second dose.
March
Garden compost
A 5 cm mulch over the same area, kept clear of the trunk, to hold moisture at the foot of the wall.
March, only where last year's fruit was small or leaf edges scorched
20 g/m², so 60 g for the 3 m² border, scattered and watered in.
After harvest or in autumn, only if a test shows the pH is below 6.0
Garden Lime (calcium carbonate)
Up to 0.5 kg/m², the label figure for a typical bed, spread evenly and left for the rain to wash in. Retest the following year before repeating.
Pot-grown trees, late February
Fruit & Vegetable Fertiliser 4-5-6
2 g per litre of compost as a top-dress: about 100 g for a 50 cm pot holding 50 litres, worked into the surface and watered in.
Signs to watch
Yellow young leaves with green veins on very acid or very alkaline ground
Iron lockout
Lime an acid soil, sulphur and acidic mulch on chalk
Leaf-edge scorch and small fruit
Potassium short
Sulphate of potash
Soft 1 m shoots, dieback and no fruit
Nitrogen excess
Stop nitrogen entirely
Pests, diseases and problems
A whole branch wilts and dies in summer, often with amber gum oozing from the bark
Bacterial canker or a fungal dieback that got in through a wound or a pruning cut made in the dormant season
Prune only between April and August. Cut dead branches back into healthy wood, which is clean and pale all the way across, during dry weather in summer, and clean the blades between cuts.
Blossom and the young leaves beside it turn brown and hang on the spur as if scorched
Blossom wilt, a fungus that infects the open flowers in damp spring weather
Cut out the affected spurs back to healthy wood as soon as you see them, and remove every mummified fruit in autumn, since the same fungus overwinters on them as brown rot.
Flowers open, then blacken in the centre and drop without setting
Frost during flowering in February or March
Hang a double layer of fleece over the tree on any night that frost is forecast and take it off in the morning so that pollinators can reach the flowers. A wall with an overhanging eave gives a degree or two of protection.
Leaves with a silvery sheen on one branch, which later dies; cut wood is stained brown inside
Silver leaf fungus, entering through winter wounds
Cut the branch back to at least 15 cm beyond the last of the staining, in summer. Never prune in autumn or winter.
Young leaves curled and sticky at the shoot tips
Aphids
Rub them off by hand and pinch out the worst tips. Ladybirds and blue tits clear most colonies by June.
Ripe fruit pecked, hollowed, or rotting brown on the tree
Birds and wasps, with brown rot following into the wounds
Net as the fruit colours, pick promptly, and remove any rotting fruit the day you see it.
Pruning and harvest
Pruning and care
Prune only Apr to Aug; it fruits on spurs on 2-year-old and older wood plus last year's shoots. In June pinch new side-shoots to 6 leaves, then to 3 leaves after picking, to build spurs, remove dead wood (dieback is common, cut back to healthy wood in summer). Thin to 5 to 8 cm apart in late May or June, fleece blossom Feb to Mar, hand-pollinate with a brush.
Harvest and storage
Ripe Jul to Aug when the fruit gives slightly and twists off easily, it does not ripen further once picked, so leave it on until then. First crop 3 years; a mature fan gives 10 to 20 kg. Fridge for a week; dry halves, freeze stoned, or make jam.
Good to knowFlowers very early, so protect from frost and hand-pollinate; a warm wall is ideal.
Growing apricots in pots
Dwarf varieties such as Aprigold, or any apricot on a dwarfing rootstock, will crop in a 45 to 50 cm pot of loam-based compost with a fifth of grit added. The advantage of a pot is that you can move the tree into a cold greenhouse, porch or against the house wall in February and March, when the blossom is at risk, and bring it back out once the fruit has set. Water whenever the top few centimetres are dry and daily in hot weather; a pot that dries out while the fruit is swelling drops its crop. Replace the top 5 cm of compost each February and repot every two or three years in early spring.
Apricots: common questions
Why does my apricot tree flower but not fruit?
Frost or a lack of pollinators at flowering time is almost always the reason. Apricots bloom in February and March, earlier than any other fruit tree, so cover the blossom with fleece on frosty nights and transfer pollen between the flowers with a soft brush on dry days. The varieties sold in the UK are self-fertile, so a second tree is not needed.
When should I prune an apricot tree?
Prune between April and August, when the tree is in leaf and wounds heal quickly. Winter pruning lets in silver leaf and bacterial canker. An established tree needs little: pinch new side-shoots to six leaves in June and shorten them to three leaves after picking to form spurs, and take out dead, crossing or badly placed wood after picking.
Why are the branches on my apricot tree dying back?
Dieback in apricots is usually bacterial canker or a wound fungus, and it is made worse by winter pruning, waterlogged soil and heavy feeding. Cut the dead branch back to clean, unstained wood in summer and let the tree regrow. A tree in free-draining soil that is fed lightly and pruned only in summer suffers far less.
Sources
Growing information on this page was checked against these references in November 2026. Feeding rates are Dr Forest label rates.