Last year I had so many apples that it was easy to thin to 1 every 6" and no more than 1 in a cluster.
This year I have many less, however not really important to the question.
Is it OK to leave two apples in the cluster where it is obvious that they will be pressing upon each other when large?
I thinned in sessions this year and took the worst off first then left only two per cluster the second round , and now I have clusters that have two PERFECT apples.
Assuming that having two per cluster does not make too many per tree, would you still need to take them off?
On my apple trees I left 2 per cluster and went back about two weeks later and thinned to one unless the limb under set fruit in which case I left two.
I do a lot of this, often to thin more later like Bill is doing. If there is late damage I can pick the better one, and leaving around more targets for the curc spreads the damage.
On apples with widely spaced clusters I keep two, probably more often than I should. I even will keep three per cluster once in a blue moon - if all are huge and there are few apples on the tree. Apples vary widely in the space between clusters, and the one per cluster is really just an initial calculation. For example Pomme Gris and Abbondanza I need to thin to less than one per cluster (remove some clusters completely), they produce a ridiculous number of clusters.
I often leave two or more to a cluster, but I’m rationalizing if I claim I’ll be back to clear out the other one. I probably wont.
My Liberty often oversets like crazy, and I should remove more entire clusters than I do. But I (ir)rationalize and that saves me the emotional pain of removing some … so it goes.
I don’t thin them much at all sometimes. It depends what you want them for eg. Size and appearance or cider? I like cider and I figure the PC thin them enough. Honeycrisp or one specifically for eating and not cider I will go to the trouble to thin.
My Macoun apple tree is very biennial and last year I actually got a good crop on its usually off year because I thinned. This year it is my most loaded tree and it’s tough to thin it when it looks so full., but I know what will happen if I dont.
The trees I made into a hedge at my mom’s house have been a devil of a job getting my mom to prune. They are just about to bear , and the pear planted at the same time is just ahead and set heavily for such a small tree this year. I finally convinced her with the biblical concept of tithing. I told her to sacrifice her first ten percent to her faith that God will provide better fruit later, and that got her to thin at least some.
Thanks, I will understand that it is OK to leave 2.
Because my original concern was not addressed I will assume that it was a silly concern and will
learn by experience.
I just could not see how the VERY short stems that I have now would physically allow them to get big
without flat sides, or “popping” one of them off LOL.
I believe I’ve read that at least one variety produces bigger fruit when you leave two per cluster- Honeycrisp. I just hate the way it inspires insect damage by providing a nice moist hiding place between the two fruits. Still, if the tree is not gifted with a good distribution of fruit it makes a lot of sense to leave couples. At least to me- I do it.
I’ve read that some apple varieties tend to have shorter stems and can push off the tree before fully ripening. I guess it depends on the circumstances.
HC? Oh my God that branch better be strong if it’s those monster HC that i’ve seen. I’d like to see a tree full of some of those fruits (I only have a couple grafts with no fruit yet). Pazazz (HC relative) also is monster in size.
These aren’t the biggest HC, but they were big ones. I try to convince my wife that the biggest fruit usually taste the best, but she likes a lunchbox size apple so we left these on the tree at the U-Pick. We were disappointed with the flavor of HC here last year. That orchard had many $K on the ground from drops. Heartbreaking.
You can tell the branches are permanently weeping from the crop load…
One other thing that I do a lot of in thinning is to keep the bigger and thin the smaller fruitlets. On peaches now I am finding this very important as the smaller ones are much more likely to be curc infected, and I can pull them off before they fall. The same holds on apples to some degree - small fruits are more likely to be damaged. Some interior fruits are all small and I remove all of those.
One thing I’ve often pondered is, if you thin all your apples to kings, don’t you reduce the spread of the harvest?- which isn’t necessarily a good thing. First to bloom, first to ripen.
Last year king fruit on a few of my HC fell off like they were not properly pollinated. Maybe, first to blooms are too early for pollinators to work on them!
I leave my apple trees 1 to 2 fruits in each cluster, I try to leave they are better placed.
a friend very fond of apples told me once if possible must leave the central block of the bunch because it is the best, try to leave a maximum of 1 apple every 20 sheets we more or less and remove blocks before these are thicker than a walnut
