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As usual, first a caveat - not all fruit trees bloom and fruit at the same time and so when you can/should start thinning varies, for example my Court Pendu Plat tree is in full flower at the moment. A rough guide is that the earlier the fruit ripens, the earlier you can start thinning it. So my George Cave apple is ready to eat in early August and certainly needs thinning now.
Apples go through a period when the unpollinated fruits fall off naturally, often called the "June Drop", this also applies to a most top fruit and its usually obvious before the fruitlets actually fall off which will not develop, but if you are unsure :- JUST LEAVE IT A BIT LONGER :-)
There are various good reasons for thinning, even though it is a tedious and repetitive task including :-
a) discouraging biennial bearing - if a tree bares a breakdown crop one year, it will often decide to have a rest the next
b) preventing damage through breaking branches - this applies particularly to plums which have brittle wood - of course supporting a heavy branch is an alternative
c) getting larger individual fruit - so in the case of cooking apples large fruit is easier and quicker to peel and thinning therefor of immature fruit is the best option.
Because I don't enjoy thinning I try to do a bit every time I walk by a tree when I have the time.
BTW My 5 large cox trees have about 1 apple each on them - usually I'd expect about 30lbs per tree - no idea why as next door trees of different sorts are fruiting normally - I'm going to look more closely at them and maybe water in some artificial fertiliser - another good reason why I should spend a bit more time grafting and budding different varieties to give more diversity.
Happy gardening :-)
Apples go through a period when the unpollinated fruits fall off naturally, often called the "June Drop", this also applies to a most top fruit and its usually obvious before the fruitlets actually fall off which will not develop, but if you are unsure :- JUST LEAVE IT A BIT LONGER :-)
There are various good reasons for thinning, even though it is a tedious and repetitive task including :-
a) discouraging biennial bearing - if a tree bares a breakdown crop one year, it will often decide to have a rest the next
b) preventing damage through breaking branches - this applies particularly to plums which have brittle wood - of course supporting a heavy branch is an alternative
c) getting larger individual fruit - so in the case of cooking apples large fruit is easier and quicker to peel and thinning therefor of immature fruit is the best option.
Because I don't enjoy thinning I try to do a bit every time I walk by a tree when I have the time.
BTW My 5 large cox trees have about 1 apple each on them - usually I'd expect about 30lbs per tree - no idea why as next door trees of different sorts are fruiting normally - I'm going to look more closely at them and maybe water in some artificial fertiliser - another good reason why I should spend a bit more time grafting and budding different varieties to give more diversity.
Happy gardening :-)
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