Why does apricot drop green fruits: the most common causes and treatment

In regions with hot summers and warm winters, apricots grow in plantations, along railways and roads, in the yards of cities and villages. In the summer, almost every year, the trees are dotted with fruits that ripen without watering, fertilizing, or treating with fungicides. And only with severe frosts, which sometimes occur in April or May, the resulting ovary dies and crumbles. Why does apricot planted in the garden shed its green fruits, summer residents are perplexed, what does it lack? The stone fruit culture loves heat, but it also tolerates cold well, it takes root well not only in the south, many varieties feel fine in the middle latitudes.

Possible causes

Apricot fruits fall during sudden temperature fluctuations, the ovary crumbles during strong gusts of wind, when there is too much of it on the branches.

A tree that grows well in the south in a hot and sultry climate, oddly enough, may experience a lack of moisture in regions that are located further north. Its excess, stagnant water no less negatively affects the condition of the apricot.

Green fruits can fall off from a tree that is too young or very old. The most common causes of unripe fruit dropping are:

root damage by pests;
depleted soil;
nutrient deficiencies;
disease;
bad weather.

Scab, the development of which is provoked by pathogenic fungi, is localized on the leaves, spreads to the shoots, and damages the bark. Harmful microorganisms are activated by sudden changes in temperature and excess moisture.

The disease caused by them can destroy entire plantings of fruit trees, is one of the main reasons why unripe fruits fall off.

Apricots suffer from monilial burn, which spreads rapidly, destroying flowers, leaves, ovaries. The disease occurs when infected with pathogenic fungi.

As a result of their activation, very few fruits remain on the trees, most rot or dry out in an unripe form.

Apricots can lose their crops in other diseases as well. The stone fruit crops to which it belongs are affected:

cytosporosis;
leaf curl;
powdery mildew;
apoplexy.

Weakened tree sheds the ovary and already large fruits. The reason for this phenomenon can be not only disease, excess moisture or lack of watering, but also plants planted in the neighborhood, houses that obscure the light.

Treatment methods

Spraying trees with herbal infusions, Bordeaux liquid and other copper-based products helps prevent the occurrence of moniliosis, powdery mildew, coccomycosis.

To protect apricots from pests, it is necessary to dig up tree trunks, put on belts for catching them, and collect the falling ovary. Birds help to cope with parasites; feeders can be installed to attract birds to the garden. Destroy pests beetles, ladybugs. They love parsley, celery, dill.It is not difficult to sow these plants in or near the garden.

Apricot fruits crumble when there is a lack of nutrition so that this does not happen:

Nitrogen is applied before and after flowering.
When the ovary is formed, the tree is fed with fertilizers containing phosphorus and potassium.
To reduce acidity, earth is mixed with ash.

During the fruiting period, the plant requires more water. It is necessary to water the trees abundantly during the formation of buds and 2 weeks after flowering.

Diseased plants are sprayed with a new generation of fungicides. You can deal with scab by treating apricots with a solution prepared from a bucket of water and 2 tablespoons of mustard powder.

Fight against moniliosis using copper-based compounds, to prevent perforated spotting in spring and autumn, trees are sprayed with Nitrafen or Bordeaux liquid.

When an apricot is affected by cytosporosis, the affected area of the bark is cut off, the wound is treated with a disinfectant solution.