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Thinning Your Fruit Trees

Fruit trees should be thinned every year. The majority of the thinning will occur when you prune your tree, as the cuts you make will remove a lot of fruiting wood. However, apples, pears, and peaches will also need to have fruit manually removed. 

There are several reasons why fruit should be thinned. First, if all the fruits a tree produces are allowed to remain, these will be overcrowded and in competition for the tree’s energy. This will result in small, low-quality fruits rather than large, sweet, fully matured fruits.

Second, allowing fruit to overset can cause the tree to have no crop at all in the following year. The tree believes that its goal in life is to reproduce by creating seeds. If the tree has created a gazillion seeds in one year, a complicated chemical process ensues that causes the tree, thinking it has done a great job of reproducing itself, to take a yearlong holiday from fruit production. This is especially true of apples and pears, which makes sense if you consider the fact that every apple or pear contains multiple seeds.

Finally, you should thin to prevent limb loss. If a tree is carrying more fruits than it can support, then wood will snap. A broken branch often means losing all the crop on that branch, and the injury makes your tree vulnerable to disease. 

Apples and Pears (Including Asian Pears)

  • Pome fruits need to be thinned before the fruit has formed seeds. The fruit should be no larger than a dime at time of thinning.
  • Apples and pears grow in clusters of 2-5 fruits. Generally, you should remove all the fruit except for the largest in each cluster. This is called the “king fruit.” In the case of pears, if the overall crop is sparse, two fruits can be left.
  • When you have thinned the clusters, step back and evaluate the load that each branch is carrying. Further thinning may be necessary. 

Peaches and Nectarines

  • Peaches and nectarines need to be thinned before the pits harden. The fruit should be no larger than a golf ball at time of thinning. 
  • Thin peaches and nectarines back to one fruit every eight inches.
  • Step back and evaluate the load that each branch is carrying. Further thinning may be necessary. 

Cherries and Plums

  • Cherris and Plums are thinned through pruning. 






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