Manchurian apricot

Photo: Sminthopsis84 — CC BY-SA 3.0 · source

Survives zone 2 through 7

Harvest calendar

Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.

Wild-type fruit is small, dry, and sour to slightly bitter, but seedling trees vary widely and some produce sweet, juicy, apricot-flavored fruit good for fresh eating, jams, and preserves. ⚠ As with other apricots, the kernels are cyanogenic and should not be eaten raw.

Hardiness

Zone 2–7

Habit

Tree

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

Summer–autumn

Mature size

Tree 5–15 m

Light

Full sun

Soil pH

6.0–7.0 (near-neutral)

Environment

Temperate

Native range

Manchuria (Heilongjiang, Jilin, and Liaoning provinces), the Russian Far East (Primorsky Krai), and the Korean peninsula

Status

Both wild and cultivated

Years to fruit

2–4 yrs

Growth speed

Moderate

Spacing

500 cm (197 in) apart — about 25 m² (269 sq ft) per plant

Leaf shape

Alternate, lance-shaped to obovate, finely and sharply toothed, with a pair of small glands (extrafloral nectaries) on the leaf stalk near the blade — a Prunus signature worth learning, since it separates the genus from most look-alikes.

Root system

Worth knowing that in cultivation this is usually the rootstock's root system, not the species' — most Prunus are sold grafted, and vigour, suckering and soil tolerance follow the stock rather than the top. On its own roots the species is shallow-rooted, with the bulk in the top 40–60 cm spreading well beyond the canopy, so it dislikes cultivation underneath and competes badly with grass.

Fruit description

Small apricot, roughly 2–3 cm across, with yellow to orange, semi-adherent flesh around a single flattened stone; wild forms are noticeably drier and smaller than cultivated orchard apricots.

Propagation

Grown from stratified seed (fall-sown or cold-moist stratified in the fridge) — seedlings are vigorous and can bear fruit in as little as 3–5 years; named selections are typically grafted or budded onto compatible apricot or plum understock, and the species itself is used as an extremely cold-hardy rootstock for tender apricot cultivars.

Pollination

Self-fertile — apricots (subgenus Prunus sect. Armeniaca) are typically self-fertile, unlike most cherries and plums

The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.