Well, that’s how it feels anyway. And this is just one apricot tree. Thinning is my least favorite chore…
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Wish I had that problem…
A few freezes did all of my thinning for me. And then some!
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Sorry to here that Bob. The late spring freezes have been tough for the past two years. Hopefully next year will be better!
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I’m not at the point if thinning. I’m close to shuck split. I can see the set is heavy. As heavy as I ever saw it.
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You have your work cut out for you Andrew!
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That one is Geo Pride pluot. Which I guess does set heavy but all the trees set heavy. Bob is about 400 miles south of me yet I have a crop setting and he does not. No Great Lakes to buffer the temps I guess?
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My Geo Pride had a few blooms on it this year, but being the first tree to bloom means, well, you know… Instead of buying 3 pluot trees, I should’ve got 3 peaches or nectarines. I was going to try some apricots, but those woud’ve been even more of a fail.
Yeah, we have no buffer to cold air, it helps being on a hillside compared to our neighbors in the creek bottoms, but when it drops to 20 for two nights in a row, and then 25 for two more nights 3 weeks later, not much you can do.
But, I did count about 30 peach fruitlets on our trees, so we might get lucky and get our first peach “harvest” this year. Funny how we might get more peaches than apples.
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Don’t you just shake the trees?
We had the same drops, but our highs were never as warm as where you are. The temp difference was too great I guess? Also my trees being a few weeks behind yours makes a difference too. I have the best fruit set I ever saw. The cherries, oh my I never seen so many. Juliet is loaded to the gills. All are. About time! Last year I had the worst set I ever had.
Well that would not be a bad idea to get rid of dying and defective ones, but hard to space that way which is key to the best fruit.
I may make peach and plum olives this year with so many to take off. ( brine the thinned fruits)
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My trees bloomed about 2 weeks later than last year, so that might be why we’ll get some peaches. Apples, will be lucky to get a dozen. All of my blackberries are blooming or close, except Triple Crown, which is always later. Gooseberries have set fruit already.
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Interesting how different things can be south and north off I-75 
My trees bloomed over 2 weeks earlier than last year. This year mine started blooming 4-08 last year 4-28. April 1st is the earliest I have seen and May 1st the latest.
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One thing rewarding about thinning is, if you thin early and vigorously, the remaining fruit on the tree start to increase in size like crazy right after that.
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Yes they do. There is a pretty dramatic size difference in the thinned fruits on the ground from my first pic to my second pic.
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A little bit every weekend… I think I am finally pretty much done with the apricot.
Peaches are next…
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Your pictures just gave me an idea … put a tarp down and then do all the thinning and let everything drop onto the tarp then gather up the tarp. I just thinned my little espaliered apple … nothing close to what you’re having to deal with, but still time-consuming since I was holding each little fruit I cut off and placing them in a pile. It was still somewhat enjoyable being that it was the first time I’ve ever thinned fruit … I was trying to find “the king fruit” that someone mentioned in another post but honestly I couldn’t tell.
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On apples, king fruit are the ones in the middle with shorter, stouter stems. When apples are smaller, it is easy to spot king fruit because they are noticeably larger than the rest.
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Thanks @mamuang. I may have committed some regicide. The fruit-drop fruit was of course easy to identify, as were the small and medium sized fruitlets. But there were still numerous larger fruit, about 1/4 - 3/8" in diameter that I couldn’t distinguish. I have a few more clusters to thin, so I’ll look closely at the stem and see if I can see a difference.
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I have already thinned my apples but I went out and took some pics to show you. You will be able to recognize king fruit easily.
I thinned off the other two (a cluster of 5/6).
I keep 2-3 for now in case bugs may damage some. In the end, I may keep 1 or 2. Some clusters with few leaves or on tiny twigs, I removed the whole clusters.
Sometimes, only the king fruit got pollinated so he is the last man standing.
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Oh wow the difference is really noticeable. Thanks for taking the time to make pictures and share them. I don’t think on my tree the difference is that obvious, but I’ll have to take a closer look, again. There were definitely small and medium sized fruitlets, but it seemed like there were several large fruitlets all the same size. It’s probably an experience thing.
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