Ample Apricots

Everything you need to know about growing and eating organic apricots

Imagine that summer taste explosion of sweet, ripe apricots, straight from the tree. There’s nothing quite as special as a beautiful and productive apricot tree in the garden, and even one tree can supply enough fruit for your family to eat fresh and preserve.

Apricots are one of the most delicious and exotic of the deciduous fruits, with a rich, sweet and tart summery flavour that you just won’t find anywhere else. They are wonderful to eat fresh, but also cook well in cakes and puddings, and it’s a snap to capture that rich summer flavour for eating in winter by drying, bottling (canning), jam, chutney or freezing the fruit.

But apricots can also be one of the most problematic and tricky fruits to grow—they’re vulnerable to frost, they prone to a number of diseases (some of which can completely wipe out your crop) and pests just love ’em. Of all the fruit trees, apricots are the most likely to flower but not produce fruit. Plus, the trees are often big and hard to prune, especially if they’ve been a bit neglected.

In this course you’ll learn how to prune your apricot tree (regardless of its size or age), how to recognise and prevent common fungal diseases, how to stop pests like earwigs from helping themselves to your fruit, correct picking and storage techniques, and scrumptious recipes and preserving techniques. Warning: after completing this module you may become the neighbourhood apricot fruitologist and will be expected to answer endless apricot questions at family events!

What’s included in this course:

• Unit 1a: Switch on to summer pruning (article)
• Unit 1b: Switch on to summer pruning (audio)
• Unit 1c: Summer prune your apricots and cherries (article)
• Unit 1d: Prune a mature apricot tree (video)
• Unit 2: Thinning apricots peaches and plums (video)
• Unit 3: Spotlight on earwigs & garden weevils (article)
• Unit 4: Spotlight on carpophilus beetle (article)
• Unit 5a: Spotlight on blossom blight (article)
• Unit 5b: Manage blossom blight and brown rot in spring (video)
• Unit 5c: Develop a blossom blight management plan (activity)
• Unit 5d: Help your trees recover from blossom blight (video)
• Unit 5e: Why doesn’t my apricot tree have any fruit (video)
• Unit 6: Spotlight on freckle (article)
• Unit 7: Spotlight on shothole (article)
• Unit 8a: Picking care & storage of apricots (article)
• Unit 8b: Picking care & storage of apricots (video)
• Unit 9a: Perfect dried apricots (article)
• Unit 9b: Apricot dumplings (recipe)
• Unit 9c: Three apricot jam recipes (recipe)