What variety? Its possible the flowers were killed off in the past?

I have no info. about variety.I had just received bare root plants.About flowers I am not sure if they were killed in early years.There were very few flowers year before last and few more last year compared to the size of the tree.This year almost 2/3rd of the tree had flowers,plenty of them.But fruits are not as many.

Growing fruit helps you to learn patience. I just planted a Green Gage Plum this spring which I hear can take up to 10yrs to fruit. Hopefully, one day I'll get to taste the fruit of my labour. Your tree looks great. I love pics of fruit trees. Thanks for sharing!

Chaman:

It is not unusual for an apricot on a standard rootstock (which you appear to have) to take four years or more to begin blooming, and another year or two to set and hold fruit. And that is assuming you have no April freeze after the blossoms are open or the little fruits have set. The very early bloom of apricots followed by freeze damage is the most common problem of many apricot growers. It is normal for an apricot tree to have many blooms, but to set fruit on only 20-30 percent of the blooms.

You should keep the center of your tree open by removing inward-growing or crossing branches. This is to allow good light penetration and air circulation, and will help the fruits ripen to full size and discourage diseases such as mildew on the fruits. I see a few interior branches on that tree that I would remove right now, regardless of whether they have fruit on them or not. It is a little difficult to distinguish the apricots from the leaves in your photo, but they should be thinned to at least 2-3 inches apart on a young tree to achieve full size.

Finally, the young, tender-skinned apricots look just as good to insects like the plum curculio and the oriental fruit moth as they do to you. Any insect damage to the developing fruits will ruin them, and if you see any signs of that you should begin spraying with an effective insecticide like permethrin. Usually, once the fruit grow up a little and the skins harden, they are less attractive to insects.

I have quite a few apricots on my trees this year too, and am watching them like a hawk. I have already sprayed with permethrin 3 times, and so far see no damage. I thinned off at least 2/3 of the fruits on my trees, but there are still plenty left.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Thank you jellyman for your advice.I am posting a close up look of some Apricot fruits, just for info.

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Now there are small brown spots appear on the fruits.Any info. about the spots and how to take care of the fruits.

Chaman:

Brown spots on apricots can result from a number of different insects and fruit diseases. If you can post photos of the fruit, now is the time to do so, including a close-up of one or more of the affected fruits, and a stand-back overall view of the tree.

Apricots can develop speckles on the skin, which are normal on some varieties and do not affect the quality of the fruit beneath. But you may also be experiencing problems with mildews, or visits from insects like the plum curculio or oriental fruit moth. Only a photo will help to figure out what is going on.

Do you own a sprayer, and have you sprayed your tree at all this season? If I don't spray my apricots with permethrin, I would lose the majority to insect damage. You and I are in the same general climate zone, with similar insect populations.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Thanks Don for quick response.The spots are visible in the close up pic. above.I will post the recent pic. ASAP.

Verrrry nice. I've had a pair of trees (sunglow, moonglow) for .. ? .. four years now.. First year had fruit (trees from local greenhouse) and until now, nada. I counted 8.. yeah, 8.. fruits this afternoon on ONE of them.

Dang frustratin'. Nice to see yours is paying off though. 5 years.. bummed!

I'm jealous chaman, I can't grow apricots up here. Frosts come too late.

Anyway, Jellyman's probably right IMHO. Brown spots are kind of a "generic" problem that hits fruits. Could be alot of different things.

For me, it's that darned plum curculio!!

It looks to me like a mild case of bacterial spot -- I see some holes in some of the leaves which is the major sign. The disease is very common in Maryland. It looks mild enough that the damage on the fruit should just be cosmetic. Read up on it and spray dormant copper in late fall and early spring. This cool wet spring has been ideal for bacterial spot and some of my trees got it pretty bad.

Scott

Thanks everyone for valuable input.