I get a huge crop of wonderful apricots (in Central Oregon) and I don't do anything for the trees except for wait, not very patiently.

My apricots trees have grown like demented weeds. They went from tiny little bare roots to large monsters in just a couple of years. Since my apricots become deliciously ripe and I am not doing any non-dormant pruning of my trees, I would guess that the only thing you need to do is to be patient.

It does seem to take them a long time from large green fruit to ripe. Or maybe I am scaring them by hanging around every day, checking their progress, and drooling.

I'm no fruit expert, but I do know that the energy that the tree lives on is extracted from the sunshine falling on the leaves. Therefore, I draw the conclusion that the tree needs those leaves.

On my apricot trees, the fruit on the outside, with more sunshine, ripens first. But the fruit on the interior gets just as ripe and just as tasty. I prefer to have my harvest spread over a couple of weeks, rather than everything ripe at once. Professional growers want to harvest the fruit all at one time, so it benefits them to prune the trees so the sunlight gets to the interior.