Article: Time to Start Thinning Fruit

Why we need to thin fruit    While it is warming up, it is a thrill to see your trees starting to display the fruits of your labor. So why why would voluntarily remove this wonderful fruit we so desire? Thinning achieves a desired fruit size, enhances flavor and complexity of the fruit, great bloom for the following season, pest control, and it will help insure annual bearing which is often not in a fruit trees nature.  

Wild fruit trees naturally produce a crop every other year (biennial bearing). This is generally caused by “on” year overwhelming the “off” year. The on-year is overly bountiful which negatively effects the following year. This leads to limited return bloom for the next growing season. Thinning the crop within four to six weeks of bloom allows bud development for the next year. Later thinning is useful for fruit sizing.

Thinning will also assist the tree to focus its energy. Since seed production can exhaust nutrients and hormonal reserves, removing some of the fruit will help focus the trees energy on the remaining fruit creating quality flowering buds for the following season.  For younger trees, thinning may help the tree focus its energy to grow strong roots. By removing fruits in these young trees, its will lead to a more robust structural growth.