Apricot trees
More about Apricot trees
Apricots trees belong to the species Prunus armeniaca, and originate from central Asia, where they have been cultivated for thousands of years. Apricot trees naturally prefer a continental climate and most commercial production takes place in Turkey, southern Europe, and California.
Apricots have excellent nutritional and medicinal properties, and they contain more concentrations of beneficial compounds than most other fruit. They are one of the best natural sources of Vitamin A.
Apricot trees are easy to grow in warm climates but can be challenging in temperate climates such as much of the UK and northern Europe. The main problem is not winter cold - Apricots are very hardy - but inconsistent and variable weather, especially in winter and spring. Apricot trees prefer a simple regime of cold winters (with 500-700 hours below 5 degrees centigrade) and hot sunny summers, and do not like either the cold of winter or the heat of summer to be interrupted. Nevertheless, even in a temperate climate, if you can provide a south-facing wall for a fan-trained specimen then you have a reasonable chance of success.
As climate change has brought water shortages to the dry south-east of the UK there has been increasing interest in growing Apricot trees, because they generally have good drought tolerance.
