Thinning before June drop recommended?

14 years ago

If I thin apples now will I get the ones I want to stick around or will the tree come along in June and throw off ones it has already determined won't be staying?

I'm not a big fan of thinning so I don't have much experience. The only problem I've had not thinning has been when 2 short stemmed apples stay on the same cluster, if codling moth doesn't lay for both fruits and a larve doesn't travel between fruits something like earwig will move into the cavity between stems and feast.

I'm not even sure if what I think is June drop is June drop and I'm not blaming curculio drops on June drop. Most of my "June drop" has been curculio bitten in the past before I started spraying but a lot of the ones that didn't drop have been bitten.

It looks like Once and Done is doing a good job against the curculio so they shouldn't be doing the thinning for me this year.

Assuming what I'm calling June drop is June drop the tree hasn't been too good at selecting. It leaves a lot of multiple apples per cluster some places and empties clusters other places.

I want to leave the tree I'm asking about heavy with fruit but one fruit per cluster.

Right now the tree is dropping what I assume are unpollinated fruits. The ones that are setting are gaining size quickly (about the size of a lima bean if lima beans were round).

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Comments (4)

fruitnut Z7 4500ft SW TX
14 years ago
In my climate I've never had any significant drop of apples after thinning. I thin when the apples are about 1/2 to 3/4 inch. After thinning they all stick. Maybe someone else has had different results.

I do thin heavily. If one leaves more fruit then the chances of some drop would likely go up. But maybe the tree would be trying to tell you something.

The Fruitnut
austransplant
14 years ago
mykl,

I had the same concern last year with my first apple crop. I sprayed with insecticide and then bagged the good looking ones with ziplock bags as soon as the apples were big enough to do so, and thinned out the remainder. My concern was that I would lose a lot of the bagged apples in June if I thinned to the ones in bags before then. Fortunately this did not happen. A few bagged apples came off, but they all had insect (curculio) damage I had not noticed. I thinned aggressively, following Jellyman's advice to leave one apple about every 6 inches. I did not get a lot of apples -- it was their first year -- but I ended up with some nice, defect free apples.
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Fruitnut, 5 min per tree!!! You're super fast!!! I just came in from thinning on dwarf William's Pride. It set so much fruit. I took me about half an hour. OK, I'm super slow!! I left one or two largest apples per cluster. Depending on the size of a branch, some clusters I took the whole things off. My apples are about the size of a small pea but I can see which ones are bigger than the others. I will need another round of thinning before I bag (apples). Even if I lose some fruit between now and then, I still have a lot left. I have not experienced June drop (knoch on wood). I think by thinning early, a tree does not need to spend so much energy trying to feed all the fruitlets. That may be why it does not drop the fruit for self preservation. At least, its the theory that makes sense to me. I don't have June drop on any of my apple, peach or pear. I thin them early at about a pea size. I just completd thinning all my 3 peach trees. Don't ask me how long it took!! After this, as soon as no rain in the forecast, I will spray Immunox mix with Triazicide. I should have sprayed sooner but it's either rained or been windy. So far, I have not seen insect damage. I keep my finger crossed. I've heard that spraying with Sevin (instead of Triazicide) would cause some fruit to drop. That'd be an easier way to thin your fruit.
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myk1
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks.
Going by you're experiences it sounds like if I thin to one apple per cluster it shouldn't shed many apples for the drop unless it's overloaded.

I think I definitely want more than one every 6" where I have the chance.
This is an espalier that doesn't like being pruned so small and I'm trying to stunt its desire to grow.
So as long as I can avoid the bug haven of multiple apples per cluster I want as many as possible.

It looks like I have it thinking about making spurs so as long as I time the pruning right I can start thinning branches without it sending all the spurs to branches again.
Hopefully between the two methods next year I won't have to try to get a lot of apples to stick and use a distance method of thinning.

I doubt if I would even get 1 bushel off the tree at 1 per cluster so I wouldn't be pushing its ability too much. When it had the desire to fruit instead of grow branches it would put out a bushel.
mudflapper
14 years ago
I like to think of thinning this way; a tree put's a lot of energy into producing fruit, if the tree provides energy to make a huge amount of them and is over loaded; it will drop what it can not support,and a huge amount of energy will be wasted as a result. When you thin! all the energy goes into what ever is left on the tree and energy is not wasted, so bigger better fruit. JMT, Just my thoughts.

Thinning before June drop recommended?

Comments (4)

fruitnut Z7 4500ft SW TX

austransplant

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Thinning before June drop recommended?

Comments (4)

fruitnut Z7 4500ft SW TX

austransplant

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mudflapper

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myk1
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