Last night I finally completed thinning on peach trees. It only took b/t 15-20 man hrs, but standing there with your arms extended, reaching all over is back breaking work. It just reinforces in my mind, why I will never use a ladder. I tried to thin off a ladder once, fortunately it was a pear didn't need much thinning. I can't imagine thinning peaches off a ladder. If your trees are too tall, cut those buggers back to a height you can reach. I have one peach tree that is really out of reach and doesn't have any low wood. I plan to replace it. I recently had this same question about thinning out smaller fruit. In other words does fruitlet size take precedent over fruit placement, when thinning? The answer is fruitlet size is more important. Early fruitlet growth results from cell division. However, late fruit swell results only from cell expansion. So by keeping the larger fruitlets at thinning, they have more fruit cells and therefore more potential to increase in size during the final fruit swell. Here's a few summary points to keep in mind about thinning: -Early thinning promotes larger fruit. -Thin fruit to approx. one per 8-10" of branch space (Thin early varieties a little heavier, and later varieties a little less.) -The fruit need not be evenly spaced. Instead keep the larger fruitlets, as long as they are not so close they'll crowd each other at harvest. In other words, if you have a 16" shoot, leave two large fruitlets somewhere where they won't crowd each other. -Get rid of any fruit in crotch angles (As it grows it will get squeezed and be hard to pick. Picture it as a 3" fruit.) -Get rid of all Siamese twins. -Get rid of at least one of all regular twins. -Thin fruit more heavily at the interior of the tree. -Get rid of all exteme low hanging fruit in the interior (It's low quality anyway.) For a little more in-depth approach at thinning, see the link below. Here is a link that might be useful: How to grow big peaches

Hi Kim, aw it's OK, it was a fun experiment and I appreciate all your patient coaching. I was just going to post a question asking for a replacement. The spot is in a row of a dozen or so roses at the top of a short retaining wall with other plants in a narrow bed below it (in front of the wall). Facing the wall, it looks like this: Roses at top of wall (L-R): Joyfulness (peachy/apricot blend), Angel Face (will be moved to another spot and replaced with Neptune or similar color), _blank_spot_where_Granada_was_, Double Delight, White Masterpiece.... etc. In front of wall below these roses (again, L-R): Penstemon (violet color), Rose 'Lilian Austin', a mix of lavender-colored perennials(Scabiosa 'Butterfly Blue' and a Verbena).... etc. So, the replacement would stand between a lavender-colored rose (like Angel Face) and Double Delight, about 4-1/2 feet wide and 4' tall. I'd like colors similar to Granada, but I am open to other suggestions. A good yellow would also be nice; we have Sunsprite near the other end of the row but it's a bit shorter than I'd like in this spot. I'll take a photo and include it in a new post.

saccharum: No offense--I am a natural exaggerater, but do my best to restrain myself. As for the copper fungicide's toxicity. I have noted in these forums before my suspicion that it has some toxicity to sapwood if it soaks down inside a tree and gets at it from the inside. I have not reported all the things I have tried with this, but I did try applying this stuff to real extremes, and at what I would call almost ridiculous over applications I suspect some marginal toxicity. One pine tree that I poured this stuff on in amounts I cannot accurately document had a portion of the side of the trunk under the application zone die. But this was a tree that a storm broke half of off, the broken part being about 14 inches in diameter, and where it broke there was a sunken area where I could actually pool this stuff. But in my experience, the part of the trunk under this really huge broken area may have died anyway. In another instance where I applied it very, very liberally I noticed some bleeding beneath the cut, which was a cut to remove half of a forked tree and the cut was about 5 inches across. I did this experimental overapplication on this tree, a Norway spruce, because it was a weak tree growing in the shade of other spruces and a white pine. A stronger tree growing in full sun may not have shown the same symptom. The tree, however, is still alive and has not shown any loss of vigor. It is in substantial shade but is "plugging along" nicely considering that. Both of these instances were cases where the cut or the break was across the grain and the cut or break faced upwards and absorbed all the rain that fell also. I noticed no other instance of anything I would suspect was a toxic effect, and for a while--until I learned better, I applied more than needed. So I think it is in all probability safe. As for research--I have been talking to people for at least 20 years in several universities trying to get someone interested, but no luck so far. This liquid copper fungicide is the third thing I tried--it seemed obvious very soon that it was working, so I have tried nothing else since. But of course there are other things one could try. Part of my reason for trying this liquid copper fungicide is that it was my understanding that the copper itself was the active agent, and I thought that the copper would have some stability in the outdoor environment and would not break down so fast as other fungicidal compounds. Also, it is my understanding that the "liquid" copper fungicide is, in fact, a true liquid solution, and as such it would soak into the wood in a way that a wettable powder would not. A great many trees get fungal infections through injuries to the trunk or from pruning cuts made to remove very large limbs. It pains me to see this and I am convinced (I understand research needs to be done, if only to convince others) that it can be easily prevented. Many of the trees are trees loved by their owners, and in many cases these trees have a monetary value that would exceed several thousands of dollars. What a waste! Oh, I must note--even though I admit to a frequent tendency to exaggerate, I am not exaggerating about the ability of this liquid copper fungicide to stop fungal infections. Just to be clear--over the last 20 years, I have probably used this stuff on 200 trees. About 60 or 70 of these were spruce and pine trees (Norway spruce, white pine, red pine) that were forked. I cut half the fork off, leaving big ugly cuts, mostly sloping, but not always. Some of these cuts were at least 6" across. Many took 10 to 15 years to occlude, and some, after 20 years have not yet occluded. I have seen no evidence that I could recognize of any fungal infection whatsoever. And the wood at the surface of these cuts is as fresh and hard as a board in a lumber yard. I am not exaggerating this one tiny, tiny bit. I have also used this stuff on logging bumps and scrapes, some really huge, on various species of hardwood trees and hemlock, and as I reported above--no trace of fungal infection that I could detect. I have tried to renew this stuff every year--in some cases I missed a year or two, especially on the logging wounds which require a lot of walking to get to every year. One thing I would like research to show is how often it is necessary to reapply this stuff. I have wanted to be on the safe side, hence my reapplication every year, as far as I have had time and energy. Getting to all the treated trees over the 300 acres I have is a four day job, and an exhausting one at that. --Spruce

Hi Oxankle,. thanks for your reply. I think I'm probably going to prune it now, as pitangaddiego suggests. I just have a kind of umbrella-like canopy on top of a long stalk at the moment. I was just so hoping to get at least one fig from them :-( Did your 'top' root quickly? Think I'd better try to do something like that -- otherwise what a waste. Pitangadiego -- think you're right! Guess that's what I'll do! I feel like a murderer cutting off all those beautiful leaves, though! Thanks for the link -- it looks like a very interesting site, and something to look forward to at the weekend! There's something about figs that call to you! Maybe it's the ancientness of them? I have olives too, and find myself considering pomegranates, and even dates!!!!! Ashita