Pruning Apricot Tree

Central West (Rural), Australia

I am pruning my Apricot Tree.
Do I cut behind or in front of the bud.
Can I prune to decrease the amount of fruit.
Is it possible to prune so all the fruit is in one spot.

Dublin, CA(Zone 9a)

I was going to say that now is not the right time of year to be pruning apricots, but then I saw you're from Australia so your seasons are backwards from ours!

If you're pruning by a bud, you should prune to just above the bud, then new branches will grow from that point. If you want to thin out the branches some because they're too close together, etc, then you should cut some branches all the way back to the main branch they originated from (I would recommend reading up on pruning either online or borrow a book, because you need to prune at the correct angle to the bud or if you're cutting off a whole branch you need to leave a little bit on, and the proper angles/distances/etc are easier to explain with pictures than with words).

The way to reduce the amt of fruit is to thin it out by pulling off some of the baby fruits when they start to form, that way the ones that are left will be bigger and the branches won't get weighed down so much. If you want your fruit all in one spot, then I would pull off all the baby fruits from the branches you don't want fruits on, but I don't think pruning can accomplish this (unless you completely remove all the branches where you don't want fruit, and that'll probably leave your tree looking a bit silly!)

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