Thinning Fruit Trees

My fruit trees are loaded with fruit this year. Is it a good idea to thin some of it out?

A: Those of us with fruit trees are experiencing a bumper crop this year.  Once your apples, peaches, pears and plums are the size of small marbles it’s time to thin them out to one or two fruits per cluster.  I know it seems ruthless, but you’ll thank me later.  Crowded clusters of fruit can get too heavy for the tree and cause branches to break.  Plus, the end result will be small fruit size of poor quality.  Allow the trees to put their energies into fewer, high quality fruit you can really sink your teeth into.

Keith Funk is handling our Q & A this year. You may have visited one of Keith’s Denver area gardens on a tour or know him from his years at Echter’s and now at Nick’s Garden Center. For 30 years he’s been heard every Saturday morning from 7-9 with fellow Wise Guy, Jim Borland, on the Garden Wise Radio Show on Legends 810AM.