Well, this year looks like a good fruit year for me. I have decent set of pears, plums, peaches despite of the late frost. Even my normally not-productive Santa Rosa sets a lot fruitlets.
Some set just about right amount of fruits that I don’t need to thin much, but others set way too many fruits like this plum/pluot. How should I thin these plum fruitlets? They seem grow in clusters. Should I thin xnumber per cluster or 1 per 4~6" which means only 5~6 plums on this 3 feet long branch ?
I don’t thin cherries at all, and plums only a little.
My Carmine jewel is loaded. For years I saw Clark’ Carmine jewel set so many cherries on his tree and wondering when my Carmine jewel will do the same. I guess this is the year !
Now I start to worry how should I take care the tree so all the cherries can grow large to its potential size. Frankly I didn’t see discussions on this forum on taking care the tree( fertilizer, water, etc.) at each fruits developing stages to maximize the fruits size.
Mine all had rot or worms the first three years. Hoping the sprays can give me a crop this year.
I mix pesticides with Immunox which takes care of fruit rot and some leaf issues. We don’t have a lot of rain this spring so fungi problem is low.
I thin the clusters usually to two I have found the fruit bigger and sweeter if I thin hard. It’s really worth it. I find it kinda ironic but my pluots do out produce any plum. Some pluots suck but overall I find pluots better adapted
to here than most plums. Superior sets really well but the pluots are definitely better. Amazing fruit all season long I’m so happy to be growing them. Some do suck and some are simply amazing I’m in the northern Midwest zone 6a. Pluots rock here
I think early nitrogen at fruitset helps with quality and size but I could be wrong on that. I need to find the paper I’m thinking of. Lemme start hunting!
all 5 of my romance cherries are loaded for the 1st time also and my monty has a good amount as well. i contacted Bernis at Honeyberry USA a few years ago about fertilization of their cherries. she says they dont fertilize them. i was giving mine chick manure for 3 years. now im just mulching around them. in their videos they dont even use mulch.
I give all my fruit trees ( peach, pear, plum, cherry, and berries) some 10-10-10 (random amount) sometime in March before leaf out every year . I also throw more fertilizer around the tree somewhere between the tree trunk to the dripping line till mid July. But I read somewhere said that the fruits (I am talking specifically the fruits, not the fruit trees) have their own developmental stages and at each stages difference nutrients/minerals are required to maximize the size, flavor ,or color. I know my pears are in first rapid growth stage now (or very soon), they need extra calcium at this stage besides the normal nutrients/minerals to maintain a healthy tree . I would like to know what else specific nutrients/minerals each kind of fruit trees needs at each fruit developmental stages so I can supply the fruits/tree the right nutrients/minerals at the right time. I think commercial fruit growers do that. I didn’t see backyard fruit growers care much about delivering the precise nutrients/minerals to the fruits to increase the fruits quality. I searched the history of this forum, most people were talking about general fertilizing schedule to the fruit trees which I do every year. Seldom mentioned targeted fruit trees fertilization schedule which makes the fertilizer more effective. This means to use less fertilizer and achieve greater result.
Last year, I kinda practiced targeted nutrients (including minerals of Boron, NPK, Mg, Ca etc.) delivery to my grape vine throughout its fruit growing stages. The resulted was my best grapes harvest ever. There was a lot of guess working involved without official researching guidance, but the result I think was significant and worthwhile for further tuning . Does anyone know where I can find information that contains targeted fertilizer/ minerals schedule during fruit growing season?
I start by thinning so nothing is touching then try to get about 3-4 inches between fruit. And come back more for later. Also anything that is misshapen or damaged comes out.
I’d leave something like this, which is getting rid of 80% or so, on the first pass, knowing that more thinning will come later:
My heart broke:scream:. I don’t want to hear 80%,
, but you are right:frowning:. Thanks for taking the time to provide such detailed direction, really appreciate:+1:
@IL847 If you want to leave 50% more, or twice that many, its probably fine. I’d focus on not letting any touch each other. I also remove the ones that will be awkward when they get bigger, like at the crook of a branch. And favor fruit closer to the base of the branch where it is stiffer. I don’t want the branches to droop below horizontal.
Your method results better quality fruits. In the situation like this, I can easily thin more than 80% off if this was someone else’s plums:face_with_hand_over_mouth:. I just don’t have the heart to thin mine own. Anyone want swap the thinning job so we both don’t have to struggle so hard? 
Here is my homework, only one branch and many to go. I took off fruits at the far end of the branch, those have bite mark or any discoloration , those on shirt branches with no or few leafs, those bunched together, those have big size differences in the same cluster(of course I took off the smaller ones)… I think it needs thinned second time. Still too close together.
Before:
After:
Many to go through😕
Annie
That’s a great job, Annie. Keep telling yourself
“quantity is not quality”!!
I have a friend who did not want to thin her pear tree herself and asked me to do it. I admitted thinning someone else’s tree was a lot easier. No emotional attachment and I did it by the text book.
I’ve been thinning my apple but have a ways to go! Today it’s 40 F and raining, but I covered up and thinned until my hands got too cold. Tomorrow is supposed to be a little warmer and drier. I want to get done before our grandson gets here Tuesday evening! Barely even touched the pear. Plums are still setting fruit so I can let them go.
I wish you were here to thin my trees too. Indeed, It is emotional hard to take off perfect fruitlets. But I am glad I did the correct way finally
I have opposite temperature, it is in low 80, and humid. I went out early this morning to beat the sun… I simewhat thinned pears already, not enough for sure, but need to take little steps a time to adjust myself emotionally. Althoug, peaches can over set fruitlets but they usually aren’t in clusters. Plums are the worst. It not only have close together clusters but also have many fruitlets on each clusters which make such large quantities to thin. I am not happy to thin the fruitlets but am happy to have good quality fruits result of the thinning. Keep up the good work👊
Annie,
Keep in mind, you will need to remove whole clusters several times esp. in pears and apples to reduce a chance of it going biennial next year. Clusters that are so many in a branch need to be taken out whole. Seckel is notorious for that. So is Harrow Sweet.
My plums set like crazy esp. Beauty (Asian) and Mirabelle (Euro). I have not thin plums that much. They do not go biennial on me but the production will be noticeably fewer the following year.
Pears are in 1~2 per cluster now, may need to thin to1 per cluster later. I did lost some Asian pears this year due to the last spring frost, but I have enough overall to make up the loss
