apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Sorry about that, Shayna. Lucky for you, fruit trees are pretty quick growers. A new supporting branch is likely to take the damaged branch's place soon enough. It is also good that the header was not effected. Talk to your nursery about it. What is key is not letting disease spread at the damaged joint.

I did a search for "tree repair" and there IS lots of advice.

Little trees:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070515121245AA4YSaB

Big Trees:
http://www.sstree.com/services/serv_repair.html

Do and Don't:
http://imageevent.com/mdvaden/treerepair

Ice damage (but has good tips and more links):
http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/icedamage/

Tips on bark repair:
http://www.monsterguide.net/how-to-repair-damaged-tree-bark.shtml

You'll probably get the same weird ad thing I did, the page loads, then it disappears and something else comes up, and you have to find the "skip this ad" button to get the article again.

I hope this helps. Apricots are delicious. The tree at my mum's place was so lopsided and would have to be braced when it had fruit. It didn't LOOK pretty, but as soon as you taste that fruit, it becomes the most beautiful tree from what it can give.

So even if you end up with one long branch that grows horizontal and requires a brace, the fruit will still be delicious.

Looks from the picture like you can just use sour green apple Bubble Tape!

Here's a good article on repairing a broken branch: http://gardenfine.com/38/solving-fruit-tree-problems/

Trees are awesome self-healers, in some places, they actually cut branches from one tree, place them in another and that self-healing process takes over bringing forth delicious mutant fruit. Just make sure it's in there good, and that all the tree's needs are met so everything works. Good luck!

thanks guys! ha, does look like bubble tape...actually that velcro garden tape from the nursery.