Apricot tree to net or not to net

Stranding at the laundry trough at 6.50 am on a Saturday morning I was into my second hour of scrubbing the mold and rotting fruit stuck to the fruit fly exclusion net that had covered the communal garden apricot tree when I heard Bach's Cantata No 140 on the radio. I stopped and listened to the music- and sobbed. I have no words to convey my emotions but, dear reader, if you know the piece of music and you have ever cleaned a fruit fly exclusion net you will understand. 

The net had been soaking in bleach over night. If we had picked the apricots before they started falling into the net, perhaps the cleaning task would not have been so arduous. Anyway, the upside is that none of the fruit had fruit fly although some of the apricots were beginning to develop brown rot. The bottom of the net was full of moldy fruit! 

The harvest: After some of the apricots  been shared by the gardeners and some left on the tree- mainly because it was raining so hard we didn't have time to do a proper harvest,  I ended up with eight damaged apricots which I stewed- salvaging enough to fill half a standard jam jar- and I can't begin to tell you how good they tasted.   

Folding the net:  Once, cleaned and hung out to dry, the net had to be folded for storage in our community garden shed. My husband and I together could not manage to fold the net neatly despite laying it out on the road outside our house. Finally we managed by a mixture of folding, rolling and compression, to squeeze it into a plastic bag. If you have been considering buying one; don't. Rather than net the tree, I would prefer to pick the fruit at first blush and stew and make jam before fruit fly larvae have ruined the fruit.

Harvesting Apricots

 Apricots are nearly ready to be harvested in the Farnham Street food forest at the start of January. The fruit needs to be slightly giving to the touch and a true apricot-colour before it is perfect to pick. Unfortunately that is how birds and flying foxes (Pteropus poliocephalus) like their apricots too. Already birds are beginning to peck at the unripe fruit. Our tree is part of a complex mosaic of fruit trees and under-story plants so it would not be possible to net. The only solution is to pick apricots semi-ripe or remain constantly vigilant to beat the early bird to the choicest fruit. The fruit on the north side of the tree ripens ahead of the fruit on the shady south side.

Early January: fruit almost ripe.

October: green developing fruit

Unripe apricots harvested with just a blush of colour are best sliced and stewed or microwaved for just a minute and added to muesli or ice cream. Apricots are difficult to store out of the fridge; even a slight blemish or bird peck on the skin will quickly turn into a rotten brown spot. In a fruit fly prone area all fruit needs to be picked and stewed before they are fully ripened unless preventative measures such as fruit fly exclusion net has been erected over the tree. Areas experiencing spring frosts can only grow mid and late season apricot varieties like Trevatt and Morepark but if spring frosts do not occur in your area choose apricot varieties that fruit early such as Glengarry, Caselin and Divinity in order to harvest apricots in spring and early summer before fruit fly become active. In Melbourne you can be pretty certain there will be no spring frosts.

Cold winters are required for maximum fruit set but lack of fruit may be because the tree is young or pruning was too severe. If too much of the previous season's growth is pruned, there will be little fruit the following year. Leave some one-year old and and some two-year old shoots. Pruning is best done in summer after fruiting to avoid Gumosis disease. It is important to keep the water up after harvest to encourage formation of next year's flower buds. Feed the tree with compost or worm castings but not high nitrogenous fertilisers. Be very careful not to dig around an apricot tree or you will have suckers coming up from damaged surface roots.