Not Bas's method exactly, although he's been a very important mentor to me in terms of training technique for over 15 years. He's the one who guided me towards pruning by ratios and taught me about putting branches where I want them by partially girdling the trunk just above latent buds in early spring (not in person, but through his articles, two in Pomona that were totally wonderful). I read the same article and it really doesn't seem much improvement over what I've done for years, which is to seriously thin spur wood- removing about half of it, every dormant pruning. His suggestion that spurs on the upper side of branches grow bigger pears has influenced me this season, however. Asian pears here in the northeast have a tendency to spur up and runt out a bit, so thinning spur wood encourages adequate vegetative pencils to feed the fruit. It also allows me to get decent size on the trees. I wish Bas van den Ende would write an entire book about managing pears and apples because he seems the most knowledgeable man I've ever had the privilidge of learning from about the management of pomes.

Just my own personal opinion: I think if the little plants of the newly planted trees can support the weight of one or two fruits, then a compromise with your wife and kids is a good idea for the next year or two. My philosophical bias is this: they are your trees now....not the nurseries, not the government, and not any of us giving advice....whatever you want to do with your own trees is fine (as long as you understand the consequences)....and getting along with the wife is part of the equation. just know the more fruit you allow on newly planted trees, the slower the vegetative process. As to the trees that are already 10 feet high (impressive for 3 year olds).....the apples and peaches may need to be thinned.....if the apples have a heavy crop, then depending on what you think the tree can bear you could thin them to one apple per 6 to 10 inches or so, and definitely only have one per cluster if you have a good crop....the center apple in the cluster might be your best one to keep.....feel free to jettison the flawed looking ones.....the sooner you can thin the better but remember some apples drop off naturally in a month or so.....so don't be in an all-fired rush to do it. The peaches can be thinned a little later after you have a chance to see what is there. The more you thin, the bigger is what is left....you decide on your own values and desires and balance after listening to opinions such as reflected here to get what you want.

estreya, In my experience those smaller yellower plumlets in your first picture will fall off by themselves whether you want them or not. You can see that event their stems are thinner and yellower than the larger green plumlets. Congratulations. My plums seem to be off to their best start in the last 3 or 4 years. My apples are very sparse. It may be something with our weather, or you and I may be on the same biennial cycle. I have the same quince as Larry and that thing is the most precocious fruit tree I've ever seen. Geez, its less that 4 feet tall and must have had at least 100 flowers that all wanted to set. I pulled off all but maybe 10 near the trunk and may get the rest too. Apparently if you want to improve the biennial bearing of pommes by thinning you need to get them VERY early, well before the fruit are big enough to tell which are the good ones.

Don't think this is a micronutrient deficiency, but just a little nitrogen deficient. Feed with a good citrus fertilizer that has micronutrients and you should see your leaves green up. Patty S.