Last year we doubled our apricot production by 50% from one fruit to two fruits. This year it has been a relatively bumper result. There were about twenty fruits growing but the birds and those that dropped before they were ripe left us with eight worthy fruits.
This year has not been an easy one as many fruit and vegetable growers will attest. It been due to a combination of wet and relatively cool weather, coupled with long periods of overcast conditions. Sunshine has been missing for the most part.
Berry fruit (blackcurrants, gooseberries and raspberries) have been quite modest this year. Redcurrants have been very poor. Stone fruit such as plums, greengages and walnuts look to be very fruitful this year. Hence the apricots.
After a slow start greenhouse plants are doing very well. The best results outside are the potaoes which were a beneficiary of the wetter conditions although a close eye is needed to check for blight which can also flourish in wet weather. At the moment we are enjoying Charlotte potatoes, digging them as we need them.
Those apricots look wonderful, and I hope that future years will bring even larger crops, since you have to supply the birds as well as to allow for drop off. We are getting wild blueberries from the patch in our yard, and a few raspberries, from the raspberry patch.
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