What you need to know about thinning fruit

Trees heavily laden down with fruitlets are a common sight in early summer and for growers eagerly awaiting harvest time it can be satisfying to know that all their hard work will soon be rewarded. But, strange as it may seem, it’s around June and July that we need to step in and thin out some of these fruits.
The aim of this task is to remove any distorted, damaged or pest-ridden crops which will be inedible, as well as any excess fruitlets which will put additional pressure on the tree’s resources and have an adverse effect on yields. This process will leave the very best quality fruitlets on the tree so they can thrive unhindered. It involves spacing your fruits out evenly so that air can move around them, sun can reach them and so that they can swell to their maximum size.
What’s known as the ‘June drop’ (which is when orchard fruit trees naturally shed their poor quality fruitlets, usually around June) will do some of this work for you, but you will probably have to step in and do some more, too.
Remember that not all fruit crops should be thinned in the same way. As a rough guide, follow the below advice:
- Thin plums and gages to 6cm apart. Thinning is essential for these crops as they are prone to overcropping.
- Peaches should be thinned to 20cm while nectaries and apricots should be thinned to 15 and 10cm respectively.
- Cherries don’t need thinning at all.
- Cooking apples should be thinned so that they are further apart than dessert apples – aim for 20cm between these types and 10cm for dessert varieties.
Fruit thinning should be finished by the middle of July, so if you’ve not inspected your trees yet, make sure you do it soon!

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