Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Apricot tree......Xing

Picked today some Apricots
Climate change and global warming may have a big impact on the growing of food plants, not only in broad scale agriculture and horticulture but in the home garden as well. After the warmest Winter on record and lots of hot days during early Spring it was to be expected that the crop from my apricot tree was to be small even without the possums beating me to half the crop. Apricots, like most stone fruit, require a period of winter chill to result in good fruit set and are perhaps better suited to a more temperate or Mediterranean climate than is provided locally. That said, even without a bountiful supply of fruit, they are quite an ornamental tree with their rounded glossy leaves and pleasing overall shape.The tree these fruit are from is barely 2 metres tall and would be expected to easily double that over time.
Apricot trees are thought to be originally from India but are also native to China where they are found growing wild in the mountains of the north and into southern Mongolia. Records indicate they have been cultivated for their fruit and kernels as early as 500 BC.They are called Xing or 'successful candidate flower', the appearance of their blossom coinciding with imperial examinations.


4 comments:

  1. Ian, the nations of the world need to address global warming before we all feel like the earth has turned upside down. And the United States is a major contributor, so I will contact my congressmen and ask them to vote for strong laws & treaties.

    Those are some good looking apricots... What do you plan to make with them?

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  2. They look so very tasty! Seems early for apricots, but what do I know of your growing season? We used to pick apricots on Fourth of July here in the States. My mother's cousin Julian knew where apricots hung out over an abandoned dirt road which he knew about only because he worked for the county roads department.

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  3. Luscious! I love apricots, I can eat fresh ones only when I go to the Himalayas for trekking. They are called Alu bukhara in Hindi, meaning Potatoes of Bukhara!

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  4. Debate on climate change policy is very heated at the moment in our government in the lead up to the Copenhagen conference. Debate has stalled in your Congress though your President will be going to Denmark.
    Apricots... Well I gotta make a Danish pastry with them of course

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