The UC cooperative extension recommends that apricots be pruned at the end of August or the first week of September, not in winter or spring, says UC master gardener Bill Pierce. The 90-minute demonstration will begin at 8 a.m. The Sunset book includes shrub and shade-tree pruning instructions. Some flies are stinging the young fruit of my bitter melons, causing them to turn yellow before they're mature and preventing them from maturing. All members of this family produce male and female flowers on each plant.
Fruit is produced when the female flower is pollinated, generally by insects.
Male flowers have straight stems, females have a swelling in their stem immediately behind the flower. This develops into fruit after pollination. The swelling of unpollinated flowers often begins to develop into fruits, which turn yellow and drop off. Most likely this is the problem with your bitter melons. Bees do most of the pollinating but, because of mite problems in the hives of both domesticated and wild bees, there have not been enough of them around the past few years.