the root system needs the energy from those leaves to get ready for winter. Wait until Feb- March to prune. That is plenty of time to learn more about the whys and hows. I would be looking for another variety or two to graft on for pollen. Do a few grafts to increase your odds of success. You don't have much trunk protection there. Tree is still young enough to horribly injured if you have any deer at all coming there. You need a plan for pruning. If you were to read various random posts around the web you will see the term "be brutal" but be smart instead. It may appear brutal, but that has nothing to do with the strategy. Establish what will be your scaffold branches.. these are the ones you will want to have as your permanent sructural branches. you want them low on the tree and ideally 45 degrees (between horizontal and straight up). If needed you can adjust their angle with a weight on the ground and string, in the spring. Those scaffolds should not be blocking each others sun. prune away stuff like that. Also prune away any growing straight up other then your main center, which you can cut it shorter, it will restart itself. You need to pull down the height quite a bit. Keep reading this forum. Magazines, blogs and youtube are loaded with people who don't know what they are doing, but pretending they do.

I will prune it in early spring, but I have a few questions. Is it fine if I prune 5-10% of the tree? I would like to keep a few small branches in a V shape. Can this harm the tree? I want to remove all the top branches. No point in keeping them, can't even reach that high. I've read that pruning a lot during summer can potentially kill an apricot tree (bleeding it to death), but I'm assuming it would be safe to do it while it's dormant? I've marked the branches that I plan to keep. I will apply a copper spray fungicide on them next week. A week later, I will apply a chlorothalonil fungicide just for some extra protection. In early spring, I will remove the rest of the branches, apply copper spray fungicide. When the leaves open up, chlorothalonil will be applied. Assuming that there would be a lot of new growth in summer, the following spring, I will prune out all the old branches and only keep the new ones. All this just to make sure that the disease is hopefully completely gone. Does this sound like a good plan? This post was edited by Ghadames on Wed, Oct 22, 14 at 22:35

Igteacher is correct, you should prune in August. As to pruning: Take off anything that is dead; Then remove the smaller branches in the middle, especially any that crossover another or rub; What you want is a v shape with the middle almost bare; It looks like you have some really long lower branches, you could take them back to just above an outward set of leaves. What you need to do is step back after the basic pruning and look at the tree. You should be able to tell what looks out-of-place. And, if you take any limbs back to the trunk remember to make your cut just out from the little collar where the limb meets the trunk. Good luck!

Yes, I have another ('Goldenglow' dwarf) new one planted similar to the old one- the old variety ( 'Goldenglow' dwarf) is no longer available in the U.S now I guess. I just was curious as to whether I could prune this 'ancient' one back to get more new growth or if I would kill it by doing so?! We are not real fans of apricots as were not fond of most having rather dry, bland flavors but this one has had such great tasting apricots ... juicy & flavorful! Hopefully the new one close to the same variety will also be great. All our fruit trees began flowering very early this year as we have had such mild weather (zone 7/ 5280 ft.) but we have had frosts in early May some years so not getting our hopes (or appetites!) up yet!! We planted a 4-in-1 dwarf apple tree years ago but after 8 years of NO blossoms or fruits we gave up & cut the tree down ... ONLY to find on the tree now cut & laying on the ground: ONE apple that had formed among the dense leaves that year :( Now we jokingly planted one of those 'Fruit Cocktail' 6-in-1 grafted trees. SURPRIZE!! this the third year, it has 4 different branches in bloom (some white blossoms, some shades of pink). Anxious to see what fruit now develops! :) Thanks for your ideas & suggestions .... will maybe try to prune back just a couple of the branches of the old tree this summer after the fruit is gone to see what develops on that branch later in the season ..... or next year.