Young fruit trees removing blossom

[Randommoose]

Hi,

I have some young fruit trees. The two apple trees have lots of flowers and buds on. When is the best time to remove these? I can't get to the buds without damaging leaves. Do I remove the flowers as soon as they open or can I wait for them to fall so the bees etc can benefit?

I want the trees to grow strongly this year so do not want them to fruit.

Apple Rajka


Apple Red Falstaff


Thank you very much!

Moose


Thank you

[rustylady]

You've answered your own question I think. I would wait until you can get to what you want to remove without doing any damage, i.e. wait till the petals have fallen.

[boundtothesoil]

Hi,

I have some young fruit trees. The two apple trees have lots of flowers and buds on. When is the best time to remove these?

Here's the relevant quote from the Ministry of Agriculture's Technical Bulletin No. 207 'Apples' (1972 ed.) dealing with 'Fruit Buds on young trees':-

'...as soon as the flowers can be seen they should be pinched out by finger and thumb, leaving the basal leaves intact....With young incompletely formed trees, all fruit buds should be removed before flowers open. With older trees, which are still in the training stage, if necessary fruit buds may be removed from the top 9-12 in. of each leading shoot.'

This was advice given to commercial growers.

[orangepippin]

Another angle on this is that removing blossom is more important for young trees on dwarf rootstocks than it is on semi-vigorous or vigorous rootstocks. I'm probably over-simplifying, but dwarf trees tend to stop growing as soon as they start fruiting, so for the first 2 years after planting (at 1 year) you really don't want to let them fruit hence removing the blossom. Trees on more vigorous rootstocks can fruit whilst continuing to grow.

[veggiechicken]

What about a 2 year -old bare root tree on MM106 planted in March this year? (Irish Peach and George Neal). Both with buds. I'm guessing I should remove them toot sweet

[realfood]

Well, as an amateur I always let a new tree flower and fruit if it wants to, as I want to taste as soon as possible!! I can understand why commercial growers might want to stop the early year fruiting.

[FB.]

What about a 2 year -old bare root tree on MM106 planted in March this year? (Irish Peach and George Neal). Both with buds. I'm guessing I should remove them toot sweet

In your soil, where rainfall is plentiful, I don't see a problem with letting MM106 fruit quite early in life. In my soil MM106 would need a few years of careful management before it is ready to crop without risking "runt-out".

MM106 is fairly vigorous in soils which have adequate moisture (often equal to MM111), while in low-rainfall soils in the East of England MM106 is fairly dwarf (equal to M26).

[veggiechicken]

Thanks FB - that's the answer I was hoping for!! I'd like to taste just one apple from each - that would make me a very happy chicken

[FB.]

Thanks FB - that's the answer I was hoping for!! I'd like to taste just one apple from each - that would make me a very happy chicken

It's possible that the fruit won't be particularly tasty on a young tree, so give it several years before you give up on it.
Watch out for the weight of fruit bending the main trunk which will permanently disfigure the tree and may result in a leaning and eventually a fallen tree.

[veggiechicken]

I never give up on a tree, even those with lumps out of the trunk!!
Once the rain stops, I'll have a good look at these two. Thanks again.

[StephenH]

My 'Brownlees' Russet', on m26, planted Nov. 2011, has quite a lot of blossom on it. I'm not going to let it set fruit fully, for the reasons already given, but may let it produce a single apple to see what it's like, provided it actually sets any fruit. My other trees, planted in 2008, steadfastly refused to fruit, even though they blossomed, for at least three years.