How to Plant Apricot Pits: Detailed Planting Methods and Precautions

An apricot pit refers to the stone of the apricot fruit. The apricot is an important economic fruit tree species in China and one of the common fruits, extremely rich in nutrients. When people finish eating an apricot, they keep the pit, thinking they can grow a fruit tree from it. So how do you plant an apricot pit?

1. How to plant an apricot pit

1. Soaking seeds and sowing

For spring sowing, the stored seeds can be soaked, placed in a plastic bag, and put directly in the sun to dry, sprinkling water and stirring once every 2--3 days; after 15 days, once the pits have cracked, sow them. If the quantity of seeds is small, you can manually crack the shells before spring sowing, then soak them in warm water to encourage sprouting before sowing. Take out the seeds treated by the above methods and sow them from late March to early April. Before sowing, irrigate the nursery plot once; after the water has soaked in, apply sufficient base fertilizer, prepare the land, and open furrows for drilling.

2. Seedling grafting

Variety selection. You can choose varieties such as New Century, Hongfeng, Zaohong, Hongguang, Golden Sun, Zhongmi No. 1, and Hongguanzhong. For whip grafting or veneer grafting with wood, the scions must be cut the previous year and stored in sand, then taken and used as needed when grafting in spring; for bud grafting, they can be cut directly from the mother tree. 3. Summer bud grafting

In mid-to-late July, when the rootstock reaches the thickness of a chopstick, graft using the “T”-shaped bud grafting method. Apricot bud pieces are relatively soft, so they should be inserted slowly to prevent wrinkling of the bud piece from affecting survival. Also note that bud grafting should be done on sunny days; on cloudy and rainy days the wound tends to ooze gum, reducing the survival rate.