Friday, June 3, 2022

June Fruit Drop & Thinning Fruit


 



June Drop

June is the time when fruit trees naturally drop some of their fruit.  It's called the June drop and is a natural way the tree ensures a healthy crop. It can be distressing and concerning to see fruit drop to the ground but its necessary and normal. Trees set more flowers than they need or can sustain to produce fruit and ultimately seeds.  Too large of a crop will stress the tree and requires competition for limited resources for the fruit to mature.  So the tree drops some fruit to ensure a healthier crop.

Additional thinning is recommended for apples, peaches, pears, plums, and nectarines.


Reasons for Thinning

  • Thinning will result in fruit sizing up nicely
  • Thinning increases the plant’s ability to form flower buds for the next year, provided the thinning is done early enough. Failure to thin can lead to biennial bearing problems i.e., over-production one year followed by a year of extremely low yields;
  • Thinning reduces the weight of the fruit load on the branches, thus prevent branches from breaking
  • Insects and diseases are more difficult to control when fruits hang in clusters and are touching


How to Thin

Hand thinning is the easiest and safest method for removing excess fruit. Begin hand thinning when the fruits are about ½ inch to an 1 inch in diameter. Start at one end of a branch and systematically remove fruit
Apricots and plums can be 3-4 inches apart.
Nectarines and peaches should be thinned to 3-5 inches apart
Apples grow in clusters.  Keep 1 to 2 per cluster. Keep the largest or healthiest looking fruit of the cluster.  


The white powder you see is the kaolin clay.  I will be respraying this week






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