A closer look...

maiwyck,
Your pictures can be put on something like Photobucket and then translated here.

The pictures are over on the Trees Forum.

Here is a link that might be useful: Apricot pictures

Hi miawyck,

I thought your pictures an excellent example of what happens when a fruit tree is left unpruned. Notice there are no lower branches. Those have been shaded out and killed through the years by the upper canopy. A shoot will die if it doesn't receive enough sunlight. The fruit zone has moved higher and higher so that now it's quite out of reach.

In terms of pruning the tree, it depends on what your goals are. Some don't mind tall trees and are comfortable using a ladder to thin and pick.

I prefer to keep trees at pedestrian height so that all chores relating to the tree can be done without ladders or picking poles. To that end, if that were my tree I would try to bring it down to pedestrian height (maximum of 8') in two to three years.

I'd start by cutting the top 1/2 of the tree out, from where the bushy part starts with a chain saw. It will look butchered. Try to use bench cuts as much as possible, in other words, avoid leaving stubs.

This summer you'll see explosive growth and vigor from the tree. Prune some of that upward vertical growth throughout the summer. If you allow enough sunlight through the canopy, you should get some new shoots lower down where the sunlight will now have a chance to reach the trunk. Next year take off the top half of the tree again.

It might take a third year of heavy pruning to get it down to a comfortable pedestrian height.

Your new growth will probably want to grow vertical. In that case you can pull that new growth down and tie it in a more horizontal position when choosing your new scaffolds.

Don't be afraid to prune the vigorous growth in the summer, else it will shade the lower part of the tree and you won't get new growth where you want it (lower down).

Here is a peach tree in my backyard. Like all my trees, this one has been pruned rigorously from the first season, otherwise it would be as tall as your apricot by now. The picture's not very good quality, but at least you can notice the scaffolds start low and have more spreading growth vs. growing straight up. I've found a tree pruned this way will produce several bushels of fruit that can harvested from the ground. Although it's hard to see from the picture, the tree is actually on a mound.

Of course you won't be able to get your tree quite this low because you have a wall and sidewalks to deal with. But the point of the exaple is to demonstrate you can keep a tree any height you want.

Olpea! Thank you so much for the insight! So very helpful. I had a feeling that it might take a couple of years to work itself out. Now I don't feel so bad about having the tree look chopped for a while. Now I can explain why it will look that way! Hopefully, the in the long term I'll be really happy with the results:)

I would cut back in summer slowly force growth down the tree.
less problem with disease with summer cuts, probably good to paint cuts with Bordeaux and plastic paint mix