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If your apples, plums etc have a large crop coming, its getting late to thin out the fruit, but not too late.
On young trees only keep a handful of fruit on to boast about - they are best using their energies to grow on for future years.
With older trees if you don't thin you will get lots of little fruit and if the tree is over stressed, it will quite likely not fruit at all next year.
Aim to thin apples down to two fruit per spur and a sensible amount to any one branch - if the tree is healthy with plenty of leaves they can still develop lots of fruit but don't forget to feed them and keep the grass mown.
Plums are similar but can carry more fruit to a spur as they are smaller than apples. If its dry, they will benefit from a hose left on under the tree for an hour to soak the soil. Plum branches break more easily than apples, so if there's a heavy crop either tie a rope round the top of the tree and support a branch from above with it (maypole style) or make a prop with a Y shape at the top and support the branch from below.
On young trees only keep a handful of fruit on to boast about - they are best using their energies to grow on for future years.
With older trees if you don't thin you will get lots of little fruit and if the tree is over stressed, it will quite likely not fruit at all next year.
Aim to thin apples down to two fruit per spur and a sensible amount to any one branch - if the tree is healthy with plenty of leaves they can still develop lots of fruit but don't forget to feed them and keep the grass mown.
Plums are similar but can carry more fruit to a spur as they are smaller than apples. If its dry, they will benefit from a hose left on under the tree for an hour to soak the soil. Plum branches break more easily than apples, so if there's a heavy crop either tie a rope round the top of the tree and support a branch from above with it (maypole style) or make a prop with a Y shape at the top and support the branch from below.
