When Do Apricot Trees Bloom?

During a cold rainstorm, apricots usually bloom in February and early March. This means that North Coast counties aren’t likely to have a consistent crop of apricots. Dry spring weather is best for apricots to grow in. They are prone to late spring frosts. California has a lot of young trees that get bacterial canker.

Why My Apricots Not Blooming?

To bear fruit, apricot trees, like all other fruit trees, require a number of conditions to be met in order to produce buds and blooms. These growing buds and blooms must also be maintained until they are fully ripe. As challenging as it may seem to get apricot trees to bloom again may sound, it is quite simple.

Your Apricot Might Be Too Young

Make sure it’s not too young before you freak out because your apricot tree hasn’t bloomed. The older it gets, the more mature it is, but you’ll have to wait if it’s younger than five years.

Your Area Might Be Too Cold

Apricots can’t handle long periods of cold, so if your area is cooler than Zone 5, you may need to protect your blooms from freezing to death in winter. If you live in a zone lower than Zone 8, you may not be able to grow many varieties of fruit trees because they require 700 chilling hours before they can produce fruit. Late frosts may also be damaging an early-blooming apricot, making the situation even more complicated.

Pruning Gone Wrong

Pruning your apricot tree in January after the blooms fade may mean it won’t bloom again. Unfortunately, this is guaranteed to happen every year because pruning rejuvenates or kills all those buds from winter dormancy. There are ways you can keep an apricot alive and healthy during prime bloom time. Cool them back down when summer comes around if you’re still itching for fruit. To get the best apricots possible, you need to be extremely careful when pruning them, as they bloom on two-year-old wood. In the future, prune apricot trees to stimulate fruit production but leave enough old growth to counterbalance the new.

Not Feeding Well

A fruit tree that is healthy and happy will produce a lot of fruit, but it needs a good mix of stored food and nutrients that can be found right away to do this. If you add too many nutrients, your tree might grow a lot of vegetative growth instead of flowers, which is bad for the tree’s health. Another thing that can make your plants grow weak or not grow at all is not enough fertilizer and a lot of food that has been stored away. A soil test can help you figure out who’s to blame.

Gardening Season

Blooming Season of Spring

• Spray to get rid of brown rot and shot hole fungus as the blooms open up. There may be a need for sprays every 10–14 days if wet weather.
• Drip water every day, or sprinkler water every two to three weeks.
• Before the first irrigation, add 1–2 lb. of urea to the soil. Water comes in.
• A half-inch-wide fruit should be spaced about 4–6 inches apart.
• Paint the trunks with a 50/50 mix of white interior latex paint and water to keep them from getting sunburned and being infested by bugs.

Growing Season in the Summer

• Irrigation should be done the same way as in the spring.
• Young trees should be fertilized every month at 14 of what they should be fed in the spring. This will help them grow quickly.

Harvest Time in the Fall

• Avoid Eutypa fungus infection by pruning trees before the onset of winter rain.
• Removing about 20% of the previous year’s growth will help the tree receive more light.
• Remove diseased, decayed, and broken branches.
• Prevent shot hole fungus by spraying trees after leaf fall but before winter rains begin.
• Use fixed copper instead of sulfur on apricots.

Season of Dormancy in the Winter

• Spray trees with dormant oil to prevent aphid eggs, San Jose scale, peach twig borer, and mite eggs.
• Sulfur should never be used on apricots.