18 CapitalPress.com
April 14, 2017
Apricots enjoy centuries of popularity
For the Capital Press
The apricot is one of the
“oldest” crops in California,
according to the Apricot Pro-
ducers of California.
“The history of the Cali-
fornia apricot started 4,000
years ago when it was discov-
ered on the mountain slopes
of China,” said producer’s
president Bill Ferreira. “From
there this ancient fruit found
its way across the Persian
Empire to the Mediterranean.
Spanish explorers introduced
the apricot to California in the
18th century.”
In 1792 the first major
apricot crop was produced in
California. By 1920, the Cal-
ifornia apricot was flourish-
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Eventually California apricot
farms found their way to the
San Joaquin Valley.
Today, about 150 growers
raise 10,200 acres of apricots
in the state. About 70 percent
of the crop is processed as
canned or frozen — the ma-
jority of frozen apricots are
used for jams and preserves
— dried or turned into baby
food. The balance sold fresh.
Over 70 percent of the to-
tal tonnage consists of one
variety, the Patterson, with the
balance a mix of other variet-
ies for fresh market. They are
canned in Modesto and Lodi,
frozen in Watsonville and At-
water, dried in Patterson and
Sanger, and a lesser amount
in Hollister. Baby food is pro-
cessed in Medford, Ore.
“Apricots are very fragile;
they require a large amount of
hand labor to prune, thin and
harvest,” Ferreira said. “The
blooms are greatly impacted
by rains at bloom time, the
fruit by rains at harvest.”
Because apricots are har-
vested early, few pests attack
them. The twig borer is the
main pest, and most growers
control them by the use of
pheromone confusion strips.
Thus apricots require little or
no pesticide, just fungicide at
bloom time, he said.
Fresh market harvest be-
gins the end of April, with
apricots for processing har-
vested in June. By the begin-
ning of July, harvest is com-
pleted.
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