Bf: You are seldom if ever going to find all the fruit on one side of a tree. I never have. Rather let's talk about a real world situation. On peaches there are frequently some fruits at thinning time that are twice as big as most others. The university research I've read says to keep the biggest fruit even if they aren't evenly spaced. This same research talks about a target number of fruit per tree as being the economic optimum. Know your target and that is the number of fruit to ask your thinning crew to leave. For instance, ask your crew to leave the 400 largest fruit on the tree. Such a goal seems to be the best for ecomomic return. It is also a clear goal that can be easily checked by the crew chief. But I'm with Don and think that even heavier thinning than what most commercial growers would use is best for home use. Especially if you are bagging the fruit. You want every fruit to be as large as possible. Severe thinning will usually optimize fruit quality. It will assure return bloom where that might be a problem, as on apples. I am experimenting with leaving more fruit on some of my plums this year...knowing I could get burnt. Last yr I thought I saw an advantage to leaving extra fruit on Flavor Queen. But that is a very special case where the fruit gets too sweet and has severe split pits. More fruit seemed to cure both problems. We'll see this yr. The Fruitnut

I plant them 1/2 of their height apart in my cutting garden and 1/3 their height in my show beds. It is easier to snip them with more room, but 'look' better more full. Their height = their mature height. Like plantlady mentioned, I keep 3' rows between rows in my cutting gardens and 2' in my show gardens just to keep good air flow. Keriann~

The spacing of the pendants sounds pretty good. I'm skeptical that the little 4" models will look proportionate to the island, or cast enough light to work by, but that's probably not critical at this stage; it sounds like your builder just wants to install the rough wiring and ceiling boxes. As for can placement, many builders prefer to put cans out over the aisle spaces. While this does make exact fixture placement more forgiving, it also makes it inevitable that your own body will cast a shadow over the area of counter where you're working. I'm of the 'directly over the counter edge' school of thought. This prevents such shadows, but also places noticable splashes of light across the upper cabinets, which makes it necessary to place these cans especially carefully. With 9' ceilings I'd probably use 5" or 6" cans, shoot for about 4' spacing over the counter edges, and plan to use 75 watt, 40-degree floods.

Thanks Patricia, flyingflower and fnm ! I guess I wasn't too clear about what I was after but the answer was there anyway. Need to not have too much shade as there is already plenty and need to be able to get up there which isn't a problem as I can climb a ladder. We will have 4 pergolas of different sizes. 3 are already started and the 4th will be attached to the front of the carport. I Googled Images and found the perfect idea. It will come off of the carport and not need more posts in the ground. I will divide the length of the different structures and come up with a number. THANK YOU...pics to follow. We will be in NYC for 8 days so works has stopped . Will get done in early July. Lots in the works. I hate starting a vacation already tired...but ...can't stay away from the City. Thanks again...c