skip to main content

Fruit & Orchards

When to thin apples??

Granite City Services

10 years ago

My apples are almost done blooming. Do I need to wait until the apples begin to form or can I thin the remainder of the flowers?

It's been a long wait (5 years) but I'm gong to have a LOT of apples this year barring any calamity.

Comments (6)

jean001a
10 years ago
When they're the size of small olives.
Keep the largest, most perfect one of each cluster.
marknmt
10 years ago
Sooner is better. As I understand it, you can limit/control biennialism in apples by getting the aplets off immediately, even if that means removing blossoms. Your ultimate goal is to space apples to about one every 9", or thumbtip to pinkytip on a wide opened hand. But many people leave some cushion, as there will be June drop of the unpollinated apples. If you spray with carbaryl (Sevin) it will do a lot of thinning for you, maybe too much. And a certain number of apples will be damaged by bugs and birds and such.
Related Discussions
New to apple trees: fruit thinning, bugs
Q
Comments (2)
Most often the fruit will thin itself down to what the tree can handle. It probably won't do it for the best sized or tasting fruit but most varieties will readily thin. It's known as June Drop. Some varieties would rather overbear which leads to biennial fruiting. I can't tell on the beetle. It looks like one of the curculio I get except I can't see a snout. I can't tell if it doesn't have one or I just can see it in the picture. If it has an elephant snout it's curculio.
...See More
Honeycrisp apple thinning
Q
Comments (7)
Not that pissy, and I am a big Geraldo fan, but I give no one carte blanche when challenging my big apple ego. I am not a commercial apple grower and have a great deal of respect for anyone who has gone that route. My business is making sure home growers get great fruit and if they don't, I'm out of business. Commercial growers can be out of business even if they're succesful fruit growers. I have read articles about using Crockers fish oil to blossum thin apples organicly in the west. The information I get is that blossum thinning isn't so useful out east because of more unpredictable fruit set. As I understand it, when we get cool wet weather during and immediately following petal fall it can have a strong negative affect on fruit set. Of course cool weather also affects the efficacy of chemical thinning- but the other way, by reducing thinning. As far as my suggestion of removing all blossums from branches when all else fails to create annual fruiting, it is based on personal experience with a Goldrush apple tree on my own property. Even after removing all flowers on every other spur and coming back shortly after petal fall to hand thin thoroughly I couldn't break biennial bearing on this tree. It was as if the tree just sent out a signal that could only be stopped by going radical. I did and of course it worked. Goldrush is considered an annual bearer and further south it behaves much differently than here in NY. Even here, the reason my tree gives me so much trouble is that it looses the sun from mid-afternoon on but even in full exposure Goldrush can be difficult here. When reading Beach's Apples of NY it is interesting how many of the heirloom varieties were noted not only for being biennial, but even triennial, so obviously thinning on such a variety as this wouldn't work consistantly. Most newer varieties are fairly reliable annual bearers or they wouldn't be released. One clear exception for me, even when grown in optimum conditions, is the Fortune apple which has actually been triennial on a couple of sites- one with full sun exposure. I'm hoping the trees will settle down when they mature. In the humid part of the country the growing season doesn't give fruit trees as much total energy to work with. It's like a solar battery loosing power on cloudy days.
...See More
Apple Thinning:
Q
Comments (13)
I am one of those who thinned aggressive and am happy with the result. One year when I did not thin enough, I got many small pears and the next year, that tree produced only few flowers. This spring, I could not spray at petall (wind and rain). I was 3 weeks late spraying. I normally spray once at petal fall and bag apples after that and don't have to spray apple again. I saw some damages from bugs (more than other years). The majority was from coddling moth (a hole tunneling in, seed was gone, etc.). Some PC from the bite marks and a few from OFM. I have damages from worms, too (from the way fruit were chewed/eaten). Damages were on apples, pears and peaches. I picked them off. It hurt when king fruit were damaged. I sprayed a few days ago and bagged apples. I only bag apples. Usually A. pears can recover from damages rather well and damages are mostly skin-deep. I can't imagine bagging A. pears. Mine set so many more fruit than apples. I will spray peaches and A. pears one more time. After that, I put footsies on peaches. Pears are left alone. A groundhogs and squirrels are my bigger problems.
...See More
Is it possible to over-thin the apples on a tree?
Q
Comments (10)
I see what you mean now. I'll try to get a pic tomorrow and upload it. The tree is beautifully shaped--for a shade tree. Back in early, early spring, I cut out the branches crossing each other, hanging down, growing straight up, etc. The tree then put on new growth like mad. I did the same to the other, much smaller apple tree, which also responded vigorously but also has hardly borne any fruit. This second tree must tend toward biennial bearing. The original tree, however, has fruited out at least as abundantly as last year, when we first moved in. I started spraying this spring, but too late for the plu curculio, which hit both trees hard. This tree, though, has so many fruit, that many, many apples were unscathed. Per Stark Bros, a tree like this could produce 10-20 bushels of apples. If an average bushel has 125 apples, then this tree is within the range. After all this discussion, I believe I'll thin some more, including, perhaps, some of the apples already bagged. Pics to come within a day or so.
...See More
ltilton
10 years ago
I start to thin when the difference between the pollinated and the unpollinated fruit becomes evident, as the stems of the unpollinated apples turn yellow and the fruits drop.
alan haigh
10 years ago
I have thinned entire clusters of flowers on varieties that are stubbornly biennial. Generally, if you thin within 3 weeks of petal fall you get most of the benefits. By about 9 days after you should have a good idea about what has set.

I believe weather has a big affect on how well this will happen- if the tree can't store a lot of energy due to cool wet weather during bloom through early post petal fall it may reject much of the crop even if flowers were pollinated.
fruitnut Z7 4500ft SW TX
10 years ago
The people using chemical apple thinners have taught me a lot about weather and fruit drop. During those first weeks after bloom there is a large effect of carbohydrate levels in the tree vs fruit number and growth rate. Things increasing photosynthesis and carbohydrates hold more fruit on the tree. If energy levels in the tree fall, fruit falls off more and sooner.

Their thinners are much more effective during warm cloudy weather than during cool weather with sunny conditions. Warm weather increases fruit growth and carbohydrate needs. Clouds reduce carbohydrates and the fruit falls off.

A few days under total shade will knock all the fruit off the tree.
ltilton
10 years ago
Fruitnut, that's good information. I bagged a couple dozen apples on my first-fruiting Fuji, and I can see that some of them dropped off overnite. We've had nothing but constant rain and overcast since the beginning of May.

And, of course, it's June. Since the Fuji was the first apple I thinned and bagged, I'm seeing that the dropped fruits are all as small as they were when I did it, failed to develop.

Sign Up to Comment

Related Stories

EDIBLE GARDENS How to Add an Apple Tree to Your Edible Garden

By Marianne Lipanovich

Readily available, beautiful and fragrant, apple trees offer four-season interest along with crisp, juicy fruit

MORE ROOMS Where to Put the TV When the Wall Won't Work

By Pangaea Interior Design, Portland, OR

See the 3 Things You'll Need to Float Your TV Away From the Wall

KITCHEN DESIGN Cooking With Color: When to Use Red in the Kitchen

By Jennifer Ott Design

Candy Apple Red, Red Licorice and more for your kitchen walls, cabinets or island? The color choices are as delicious as they sound

VINTAGE STYLE Flea Market Find: Apple Crates

By Michelle Gage | Interior Designer

If life gives you apples, reuse the vintage crates they came in to decorate your home

DECORATING GUIDES Crisp, Fresh: Go for Green Apples

By Lily Gahagan

On the Walls or Au Natural, Green Apples Pack a Decorative Bite

GARDENING AND LANDSCAPING Crab Apple Trees Set Off a Stylish English Courtyard

A structure of pleached crab apple trees, bordered by a wildflower meadow, links a minimalist addition to an old house in Buckinghamshire

HOME TECH Thanks, Steve: Apple-Inspired Design at Home

By Bud Dietrich, AIA

See how the Mac and iPod aesthetic synchs up with today's house

COLOR Yummy Colors! Apple and Lime

By Becky Harris

COLOR Apple Accents: Color from the Orchard Comes Home

By Shawn Gauthier

Cheerful reds and crisp greens inspire everything from centerpieces to bedscapes

LIVING ROOMS Room of the Day: A Family Living Space for Weekends in the Big Apple

By Jeannie Matteucci

A Long Island couple create a family-friendly and stylish New York City retreat where they can unwind and entertain

Sponsored

Nova Design Build

Custom Premiere Design-Build Contractor | Hilliard, OH

More Discussions

severe Pruning of a young fig tree

7

Identify an olive tree that is nit flowering after more than 15 years.

8

Peach variety recommendations, please

2

Peach trees need help!

1

beginning fruit or new leaves

6