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Fruit & Orchards

Thinning Apples

12 years ago

Today I thinned what made apples from the surviving blooms after the February freeze. Not much to do but I started wondering about using stem size as way of selecting the perfect apple out of a cluster. If the apple was bigger than the rest the stem was usually the biggest. When the sizes of the apples were close in size, it seemed like the bigger stem was the better choice.

Would that be right to go by stem size?

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Comments (4)

tcstoehr
12 years ago
All things being otherwise equal then select the fruit with the thicker stem. This is the "king" fruit of the cluster and its thicker stem will draw more sap and grow a bigger apple. I generally choose the best lookig individual but when there isnt a clear winner i go for stem thickness.
Randy31513
Original Author
12 years ago
tcstoehr I am not sure I would have noticed it if the number of apples to be thinned was so small this year. Thanks for confirming this for me.
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alan haigh
12 years ago
I there's not much crop you should leave at least 2 apples for every surviving cluster. You probably needn't thin at all.
Randy31513
Original Author
12 years ago
Harvestman, the fruit rot pressure is so high down here, if they touch, they rot most of the time. I should have thought about bagging one if they do touch.

Thanks for the advice and I will put it to use. I know I missed some during the hand thinning. I will leave them and bag one of the two for an experiment.

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