THE MONTHLY BULLETIN 



CALIFORNIA STATE COMMISSION OF HORTICULTURE. 

 Vol IV. April, 1915. No. 4. 



NOTES ON APRICOTS. 



By Robert E. Harrington, Simi, Ventura County, Cal. 



The planting of apricots is increasing rapidly in the southern 

 counties. This is clue largely to the regularity with which they hear 

 and the fact that they can be raised with very little water. This 

 latter fact has been proved in our section, where apricots, when on good 

 deep retentive soils, do very well without irrigation, whereas prunes 

 do not. The apricot bearing its fruit early, before the moisture is 

 exhausted from the soil, and the prune requiring moisture later when 

 the soil is becoming dry, is the reason for this. 



Especially when apricots are raised without irrigation it is very 

 important to keep a good mulch of dry soil at least tive or six inches 

 deep in the orchard to prevent the soil from becoming too dry during 

 our long dry summers. The exclusive use of the cyclone M'eeder for 

 summer cultivation, which is common in this section, is bad, because 

 it is usually run to a depth of only about three inches and packs the soil 

 below that depth. This is a very good tool to kill summer weeds, but 

 should be followed with a chisel cultivator to regain a deep mulch 

 on the soil. Growers who use these "cyclones" exclusively will note 

 that moisture during April and ^lay is only a few inches below the 

 surface and some of them point with pride to this fact, thinking that 

 this is proof that their orchards are moist and in good condition. ' They 

 do not seem to realize that when moisture is so close to the surface 

 as this it is being lost by surface evaporation. These same orchards 

 show by early dropping of their leaves in the fall thai they have 

 become too dry. 



Irrigation is practiced in our orchards. They are usually given about 

 4 to 6 acre inches in ]May and another good irrigation in August after 

 the fruit is off, and sometimes a third to start a cover crop. It is 

 necessary that trees have ample moisture in the fall to properly 

 develop their fruit buds for the following year. We have found 

 irrigation very profitable. 



The apricot is a rapid and vigorous grower and heavy pruning is 

 necessary each year to keep the tree in shape and provide a sufficient 

 quantity of new wood to promote regular bearing. 



YIELD. 



We have in our orchard 250 Koyal apricot trees, 18 years old, and 

 their average yield per tree is 250 pounds of green fruit. This average 

 was taken from records made during the past six years. Five tons 

 of green fruit per acre are considered a good average yield in this 

 section. Phenomenal crops of ten tons per acre are not uncommon. 



1—16579 



