Apricot Honey: description and characteristics of the variety, selection history, pollinators

To this day, Honey Apricot has not been included in the State Register of Fruit Trees of the Russian Federation, despite the fact that it was bred at the State Scientific Institution on the basis of frost-resistant varieties obtained there. The fact that the plant is not officially recognized has not affected its popularity among amateur gardeners. It is one of the few apricot varieties that can easily endure harsh winters.

History of variety breeding

In 1996, the breeder Kabir Kadirovich Mullayanov, an employee of the South Ural Research Institute of Horticulture and Potato Growing, gave the gardeners of the Urals and central Russia the opportunity to grow apricots on their plots.Experiments to improve the previously bred variety Kichiginsky have been going on since 1990, they were carried out on the basis of the Chelyabinsk GNU. With free cross-pollination, the original varietal seedling received new characteristics. And so the new variety was born.

Description of the variety of frost-resistant apricot

A mature tree reaches a height of 5 meters. The crown (4 m in diameter) is spreading with medium-sized dark green teardrop-shaped leaves, decorated at the edges with a fringe of small notches. Gray-brown hard bark with signs of cracks running along the trunk are varietal signs of a cultivated plant with dry rough bark.

During flowering, the tree is strewn with white and slightly pinkish single flowers.

Honey does not differ in large yields, about 20 kg can be removed from one tree per season. The variety has:

• high winter hardiness;
• early fruiting;
• stable yield;
• unpretentiousness to the climatic features of the growing region;
• minimum care;
• immunity to fungal and infectious diseases.

Description of an apricot variety would not be complete without mentioning its fruits, which are larger than medium-sized plums. Ripe fruits contain vitamins, minerals, tannins, malic, citric and tartaric acids.

Characteristics of fruits of the table variety of apricots Honey:

• weight - 15g;
• elastic, medium thickness skin with a slight edging;
• color - from bright yellow to light orange;
• bright yellow flesh has a granular-fibrous texture.

Fruit tasting score - 4.3 on a 5-point scale. Honey Apricot fruits are suitable for canning.

Pros and cons

Medovy has only two drawbacks - the height of the tree, which complicates the care of the crown and the collection of fruits from the branches in the upper part of the crown, in order to form an ovary, the tree needs natural cross-pollination with another (self-sufficient) apricot variety.

There are much more positive aspects when growing a winter-hardy variety of apricots in a temperate climate:

• The fruit tree gives its first harvest 3-4 years after planting;
• 15-20 kg of apricots every year;
• easily tolerates frosts down to -40 °C;
• good regeneration after frostbite;
• fruits are stored for a long time, without losing either taste or presentation;
• resistant to shipping damage.

For your information: the Kichiginsky variety is often used as a pollinator tree.

Pollinator tree characteristic

The frost-resistant variety Kichiginsky, became the progenitor of Medovoe and is a necessary addition to the garden for its fruiting. Not all the best features of this variety were passed on to its descendant Medovoy.

General characteristics:

• even symmetrical fruits;
• tree height from 3.5 to 5 meters in height;
• peel and pit are easily separated from the pulp;
• yield stable (about 15 kg);
• self-fertile variety.

The differences are in the absence of excessive branching of the crown and a later fruit ripening.

Attention! Kichiginsky serves as a pollinator for many varieties of apricots of the Ural selection.

Features of planting and care

The younger the seedling, the faster it adapts to new conditions - soil features, air temperature. Experienced gardeners recommend taking a one-year-old. A seedling grown from a seed will even better tolerate adaptation. Before planting a young plant with an open root system, its growth can be stimulated by Kornevin, Epin, Heteroauxin. The root system is soaked in one of these solutions for 12-24 hours.

When planting several trees, the distance between adjacent seedlings should be 3 m, and between rows 5 meters. Planting is best done in early spring, and pits for seedlings should be prepared in the fall. Each of them is 80 cm^{3 A 20 cm layer of drainage is laid out at the bottom of the pit - crushed stone, broken brick, coarse-grained pebbles or gravel.}

The soil selected from the hole is enriched with ash, peat, humus, ash and superphosphate fertilizer, after which it is returned to the hole with a beacon pre-installed in it - a stake rising above the surface.The roots should not be in direct contact with the mineral-rich layer, but should be separated by a cushion of ordinary garden soil.

The planting depth depends on the length of the root system. The root neck is not buried, it should be on the surface. A ditch is made around the seedling like a drainage one. It is needed to distribute water directly in the radius of the root system. After abundant watering, the tree needs to be tied to a vertical guide.

Apricot pruning

Old tree branches are pruned once every 5 years. But pruning is also necessary to form a crown. The first time pruning is done immediately after planting the seedling, it is shortened to 70-80 cm. This contributes to the formation of the skeletal branches of the plant. By mid-summer, they will grow about 70 cm, they need to be pinched, which will be the signal for the formation of branches of the next level.

Incorrectly growing branches must be cut.These include those whose angle relative to the trunk is less than 50 °. Shoots will appear from the stambik at the cut site. Of these, you need to leave only one, the strongest. Fruitful spurs are formed on branches that are 2-3 years old. Branches that have ceased to bear fruit are removed at the planned 5-year pruning stage.

Diseases and pests

Cytosporosis. Despite the high immunity to fungal infections, Honey Apricot can infect this type of fungus. Cytosporosis is manifested by tubercles on the cortex. You can prevent its spread by deleting old branches in time. The probability is low, but still bacterial necrosis, like any cancerous tumor, can destroy a winter-hardy apricot variety. At an early stage, it manifests itself as patches of burns on the bark. A little later, ulcers form, from which gum oozes.

The disease affects all the tissues of the tree, it gradually dies. If the first signs of the disease appeared on the branches, and not on the trunk, then the tree can be saved.

Monilial burn - a consequence of exposure to cold and moisture on the shoot during flowering. Part of the branches dies, the blossoming leaves turn brown and dry. If the ovaries appear on the plant, then the consequences of the lesion may appear during fruiting in the form of rot on the fruits.

Pests in plums and apricots are the same - aphids, codling moth, leafworm. This is the main reason for planting these fruit trees as far apart as possible. When planting a honey apricot, you no longer need to be afraid of infectious diseases or fungi, but insects.

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