Taking Cuttings

• Propagation by cuttings may be met with limited or no success, so it may prove most effective to take a series of cuttings throughout the year when the tree is in different stages. Take a few cuttings about 6 to 9 inches long when the tree is in different stages, so that some cuttings are taken when leaves are present, in late fall and in early spring.
  
  

Rooting the Cuttings

• Root the cuttings in a mixture of sand and peat. If the cutting has leaves, remove leaves from the bottom few inches of the cutting so no leaves are in contact with the rooting medium. With some of the cuttings, use a sharp knife to make a few very shallow, vertical cuts around the bottom inch of the cutting. Use a stick to poke holes into the medium, dip the cuttings in a rooting hormone, then place the cuttings in the pre-made holes. Gently firm the sand/peat mixture around the cutting and water well to settle it further. Keep the cuttings moist and out of direct sunlight. After a few months, gently tug on one of the cuttings. If it slides out easily, the cuttings either require more time to root or may be rotting. If the cutting resists, inspect the cutting. If roots are longer than 1/2 inch, the apricot cuttings can be transplanted to a container with a suitable potting mix.
  
  

Using Rootstocks

• The most common method of apricot propagation is budding, or attaching a cutting from the desired tree to a prepared rootstock seedling. Peach or apricot seedlings are common rootstock choices for areas with warm, sandy soils; wild plum or hardy apricot rootstock is ideal where hardiness is a concern. T-budding is the preferred method used to graft an apricot cutting to rootstock. With this method, remove a fully-formed, mature and dormant bud from the desired apricot tree. Cut off a bud and an attached sliver of wood. Cut a vertical slit on the rootstock stem, deep enough to make sure that the green cambium layer next to the bark is exposed, then cut a horizontal slit to form a "T." This creates a pocket for the bud wood to slide into. Place the scion wood into this pocket snugly and wrap it tightly with grafting tape or similar material that can be removed after a few weeks -- once the graft has been performed successfully, prune away the upper portions of the rootstock.
  
  

Propagation by Seed

• Apricot trees can be propagated by seed, though this process is fairly lengthy. A common method is to grow rootstock from seed and graft a cutting from the parent tree to the seed-propagated rootstock. As a stone fruit, the apricot seed must be stratified in a manner that imitates a natural cold winter. Remove the stone from a ripe apricot, soak it in water for a day, place the stone in a bag of sterilized, damp sand and store the stone at about 40 degrees Fahrenheit for a month. After remove the stone from refrigeration, place the stone in a moist potting mix kept around 70 F; germination may require several weeks.