Apricot trees present unique challenges in the mild, low-chill climate of Southern California, where the traditional pruning calendar often fails. The region’s mild winters cause trees to break dormancy early, meaning the timing of pruning directly impacts the tree’s health and its ability to produce a reliable crop. Understanding the difference between structural dormant pruning and maintenance pruning is important for maximizing fruit production and ensuring the longevity of the tree. Pruning correctly mitigates disease risk in this specific environment.
Defining the Optimal Winter Pruning Window
The concept of a deep winter structural prune, common in colder regions, must be adapted for Southern California. Traditional late-winter pruning (January or February) risks infection by the fungal pathogen Eutypa lata, which enters fresh wounds during wet periods. This disease is a concern for apricots and can cause major limb dieback.
For the main structural prune, aim for a period when the tree is fully dormant, before buds swell. This window typically falls from late fall through early January, specifically when a prolonged dry spell is forecast. The goal is to establish the tree’s permanent framework by removing dead, diseased, or crossing wood and selecting scaffold branches. Delaying this prune until just before bud break stimulates excessive vegetative growth in the subsequent spring.
Maintenance Pruning During the Growing Season
A second, less aggressive prune is necessary during the growing season to manage the tree’s size and direct its energy. This maintenance pruning is best performed in late spring or early summer, immediately following the fruit harvest. This timing is beneficial because the tree is actively growing, allowing pruning wounds to heal quickly and reducing the risk of fungal infection.
This secondary prune controls the tree’s overall height, which is important for easier harvesting in backyard settings. Reducing the canopy size helps thin out excessive new growth, allowing better sunlight penetration and improving air circulation. Removing vegetative growth after harvest also helps the tree conserve water during the hot, dry Southern California summers.
Apricot-Specific Pruning Techniques
Apricot trees are best trained to an open vase shape, which promotes maximum sunlight exposure and encourages fruit production. This shape is achieved by selecting three to five strong, well-spaced scaffold branches and removing the central leader. This structure requires a combination of two distinct types of cuts to manage fruiting wood.
Thinning cuts remove an entire branch back to its origin or to a lateral branch, opening the canopy without stimulating new growth. Heading cuts shorten a branch by cutting into its length, which encourages branching and stimulates the formation of new fruit spurs. Apricots produce fruit on these short, specialized growths, which are productive for up to three years.
It is important to identify and protect these fruit spurs, which appear as short, knobby growths along the branches. When using a heading cut on one-year-old wood, the cut should be made just above an outward-facing bud to direct subsequent growth away from the center. Maintaining the open vase structure with a balance of these cuts ensures the brittle apricot wood is less likely to break under a heavy crop.