I would just prune out any dead branches and leave the trees as they are. With the trees being old i would not want to hack them to death and invite disease into the wounds.

I see improper pruning (heading or topping cuts) by the prior owner.

What do you want to ultimately do?

Preserve fruiting wood and make new fruiting wood? (priority one?)

Shorten the trees? Fruiting wood is on newer growth, likely at the top of the tree. Eventually you will need to lower the height and encourage fruiting wood to grow in an area reachable around the trees.

Restorative cuts are a long term project. It is a four year project.

Remove no more than 25% of the mass of the above ground tree in any year. More is harmful to the tree's recovery.

Remove dead, broken and diseased wood. Remove suckers. Remove waterspouts. Let it all fall down around the tree so you can gauge the amount being removed. Remove downward growing branches.

Visualize what is left and what you want it to transition to in a few years.

Crossed branches (one should be removed).

Trees should be kept open with considerable thinning-out in order to induce annual formation of fruit-bearing wood (red bark). Apricot fruit is borne on short spurs that are short lived. Remove these side shoots after 3-4 years.

Proper pruning. In many areas dormant pruning on Apricots is discouraged due to fungal disease. If Reno has a similar issue then summer pruning (done during a dry spell) should be done, but it will have to be done carefully to prevent sunburn on the trunk and major branches. Summer pruning has an added benefit: The cuts are less likely to stimulate new growth at the wound site especially if cut back to a branch at least a third the diameter of the branch being removed.

The last two cuts to contemplate are crown reduction (lowering the height of the trees) and crown thinning (opens up the interior to more sunlight and aeration. But you may have hit the 25% mark before this, so it will have to wait until next year.

I am somewhat concerned over the possibility of some borer damage and rot or freeze damage on the trunks.

http://homeorchard.ucanr.edu/The_Big_Picture/Pruning_&_Training/

http://homeorchard.ucdavis.edu/8058.pdf

I would remove those old trees and plant an entire orchard in that same space using Backyard Orchard Culture and The Art of Successive Ripening techniques. That's what I did many years ago and I never looked back.

Thanks for all the advice, everyone. Fascist_Nation(9b), my priority is too restore the trees to the best health I can, while still maintaining some fruit production. The trees are large enough that they will provide plenty of fruit for our small family and friends, even if our focus isn't solely on fruit production. And yes, lowering them a bit would be helpful, although we also appreciate them as the large shade providing beauties they are as is. I guess you could say I would like to preserve them as long as we can, even if it means sacrificing some fruit production (but not all of it).

This week forecast shows a lot of hard frosts (temps in the 20s), so I'm guessing this year will be a bust for fruit production anyhow. Should I take advantage of this and change my restoration strategy somehow? Will the apricot trees rebloom at a later point this spring?

MrClint, we have plenty of room on the property to plant other fruit trees and would like to keep trees as long as we can. Summer shade is a beautiful luxury in the high desert.

tlbean2004, I agree that I should place my cuts wisely and not make any unnecessary cuts. What is the largest diameter branch you think I can safely take?

Now to tackle some of this dead growth and cross branching! I'll post pictures of the progress. Thanks everyone!

How are your apricots doing?

Amazingly, these hardy apricots have weathered a least a couple frosts in February and March and are full of little apricot fruits! We are not in the clear yet, and there are lows this week between 31-35, but I'm feeling hopeful. Some of the fruit is even big enough I think it won't sustain much damage even if it does dip down to 30. Fingers crossed.

We took a fair amount of limbs off of the larger, asymmetrical tree. There was a lot of dead growth and cross branching. And a few days after I took as much as I thought we could, a rather large limb came down it's own. It had a lot of healthy growth and fruit on it, but down it went right off one of the main branches. Now each of the remaining limbs will get plenty of light. I am going to sit tight and wait now, and try to gobble up as many little apricots as we can this season. Then, at the end of the summer I'll do some more pruning to try and start lowering new growth on this tree.

The other tree was not pruned as heavily (a little experiment, I guess) and we'll wait until late summer to prune as well. All and all, we are feeling pretty good about these trees. Old and gnarled they may be, but they are beautiful and we are going to do everything we can to keep them happy and healthy.

It was getting dark when I took these, I'll post more pictures tomorrow. Fingers crossed for warmer nights!

Thanks again everyone!

I hope you kept those young fruits, they're delicious eaten whole with a little salt! It's a popular Persian snack... Great with beer.

I think that tree turned out beautiful! It may not be symmetrical but who cares, it looks amazing.

liamkelly, could you post a recipe of the Persian snack? How big should the apricots be? Are you talking about the fruits you take when thinning them?

@monibucky: Those trees look great! Thanks for this thread. We have the same situation.

Here you go! This recipe is about almonds in particular, but there is another after that is about eating green plums. I've had apricot as well, all are pretty good snacks as long as they're not too far along. The apricots should be picked when their pericarp/pit isn't hardened yet. Just don't eat too many, there's a lot of fiber in them!

http://figandquince.com/2013/04/22/chaghaleh-badoom-spring-almond/

http://figandquince.com/2012/05/16/gojeh-sabz-cherry-plums/

Here are a few more pics from this morning, they are a bit easier to see. Both trees are leafing out nicely and full of fruitlets! But now the forecast is for even lower temps! Two nights down to 28, I hope they are wrong, but we'll see. Hoping these guys will pull through. Any suggestions?

Thanks for the tip on the little apricots! I did try a couple when the limb came down, but they were very small and sooo bitter, I don't think any amount of salt would make them taste good. I will definitely try it once they are little bit bigger and I do some thinning.

Thanks!

Looks good!

I can't believe someone suggested cutting them down, wow, that floors me.

I think he doesn't have room to grow trees so in his mind he saying with that space only he could grow more productive crops that are easier to take care of and harvest with smaller trees.

i live in Western Colorado, and there are some similar old, beautiful, somewhat neglected, but still bearing (when frost allows) trees on my parent's property. We figured that the trees were at least 40 years old when they bought the property about 40 years ago, so they are at least 80 years old. You have done a nice job so far, and I agree that their value as trees is at least as great as their value as fruit bearers. Congratulations on your good fortune in having these treasures as part of your place!

If your branch has to much weight on it from the over crop of fruit you can thin it out using the pole I just talked about. You can trim out some branches that are not in the direct sunlight too. read up on how to prune a fruit tree and go by that. google utube on how to do it and watch.