Hey JrSlick, so do you concur about thinning the seedlings down to just 1 shoot per spot? They're currently 2 and 3 per spot, spaced every 6". They haven't been growing very fast the last couple weeks, though they look fine and healthy. We've also had a cold snap, so that could be the reason. Either way, we're going to have some nice heat in a couple days so I better decided whether or not I'm brave enough to thin to 1 plant per spot. I have an 8' long trellis, and I have 12 spots for them spaced every 6-ish inches. So really the question is 12 plants, or more like 24 plants. My brother came over the other day and laughed. He said I'm gonna have enough to sell them at the farmer's market and give them away to every single person we know. LOL Anyway, thought I'd also mention I'm not a *brand* new gardener, it's my second year of this but I still consider myself a newbie. I did my pole beans last year in a large terra cotta pot with a tee pee and got a small yield but the pot was hard to keep watered consistently. I started with a few small SFG beds last year, and this year I have expanded to include 2 ginormous 2'-deep raised beds and I've been converting a bunch of my other landscaping to edibles. I figure if we're gonna have a drought and water rationing here in california, I'm gonna use my water for something useful. Hence, fruit trees and veggies! Thanks again for the input. -kmama

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.

It appears you are growing it in the shade; ergo the limbs are longer and thinner, as the tree looks for sun. Nothing really wrong with that; but you should prune back the tree to encourage more growth and stronger limbs. In that shade condition, the limbs are not able to hold so much fruit; and you should thin them dramatically.

looks like a peach tree. Trim those broken branches off. Then the remaining fruit to be one fruit every 6-8" so the remaining branches will not break, too. Also, it will help the fruit size up better and improve fruit quality. You can prune (trim) peach branches in the summer. If you see other cross, damage branches, trim them off. Any branches that are too high (even with a ladder), trim them off. What's the point of growing tall fruit trees, when you cannot reach to pick fruit? Bring it down to manageable size. New branches will grow back plenty next spring. You can fertilize with 10 10 10 fertilizer in early spring next year. You can google peach tree pruning. There are several good ones on YouTube.