I have two 2 years old dwarf apple trees, a Gala and a Granny Smith . Although I live in the subtropics, both trees are setting lots of fruit in clusters of up to six fruitlets It’s our last month of spring and I wonder how much fruit would it be reasonable to expect a 2 year old apple tree can hold and still get decent sized fruit. Should clusters be thinned to one or two pieces and at what stage of their development should this happen?
Mick
About 30 leaves per fruit , or 6"apart on average
I pulled all my new fruitlets off because I wanted all the energy going towards growing the tree. I wouldn’t blame you if you leave a couple of fruitlets so you can taste them.
Two year old trees on dwarf rootstocks. I would not leave any fruit on. I would be concerned about the trees going to runt out.
I would also agree about, taking all the fruit off depending on your goal.
Here I try to push my young trees hard, to get them over a deers head as soon as possible .,other wise I may not have a tree.
Then it’s a problem of slowing them down so as to get fruit.
I don’t do much thinning
I think you would want to thin early, thumb size ?
Keeping the king fruit, the big one in the middle.of a cluster
Here we have a June drop.(which would not be June there.)
When the tree sheds excess fruit on its own.
This is somewhat unpredictable . So some of the fruit left after early thinning may fall at that time
Studies have shown it takes about 30 leaves to ripen an apple
6" apart min. On average I think is about right.
Some areas on tree more or less fruit,
Maybe some one else could advise on thinning???
Thanks everyone forI your comments.
Because I live in a low chill climate (about 100-150 hours) growing medium chill varieties is a bit of an experiment based on the book by Kevin Hauser, "Growing Apples in the Tropics " and I am excited to see that the trees are not only flowering but also setting fruit. I can’t wait to taste the fruit so I guess that I will thin the fruit and leave some on the trees for tasting rather than take all of it off.
I have not grown apples before so I appreciate your comments.
Mick