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Fruit & Orchards

thinning apples

9 years ago

Is there anything special to thinning apples? I don't want to damage the spurs. Do I just twist them off and take the stem with or do I need to cut them off? Does it even matter?

I have a dwarf Fuji apple tree that was potted when I bought it at the end of winter. It seemed like it was in the pot for a long time. The dirt came out of the pot as a solid root ball. It is covered in apples. Is it OK to leave some of them? Like 1 apple per cluster?

Comments (4)

fruitnut Z7 4500ft SW TX
9 years ago
For a full dwarf you better remove all the apples if it was just planted. If you over crop it this young it might runt out and be difficult to get the size you want.

I thin with the same shears I use for hand pruning. Others prefer scissors. But you'd need short stout blades.
Jimmy Forester
Original Author
9 years ago
Do you cut the stem at the fruit or at the branch end?
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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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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.
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Yes, thin them out, mercilessly. Especially since this is a young tree. If not, you'll have substandard fruit this year and probably none next year. Try to keep the best looking, largest fruit in each cluster with the thickest stems. You may have to remove all fruits from some clusters if the clusters are too close together. Guidelines vary for how many fruits to keep. I try to keep 12" between any two apples, but I made that one up myself. Another one I've read is that there should be at least 30 leaves per apple. That's probably better since it accounts for uneven distribution throughout the tree.
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They are calling for frost here again in upstate NY tonight a low of 25f degrees. Good thing I have not thinned my trees, I have a feeling the frost will do it for me tonight. Hope it kills the bugs too...knowing my luck it won't. md
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fruitnut Z7 4500ft SW TX
9 years ago
Doesn't matter. Even if you cut off half the small apple and left the rest the stem would soon fall off. Once the newly developing seeds are dead or remove it will fall off on it's own in a few days. The tree doesn't need the stem if it can't make seeds.
ltilton
9 years ago
Nail clippers.

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