Fruit tree care ~
Summer has arrived and your fruit trees are in full force filled with
hundreds of small fruits. The very time you have been waiting and anticipating for
months.
But now... you must go in and remove, destroy, some of your
precious young fruits. One of the hardest tasks for any backyard gardener!
Thinning the small fruits ~
Thinning the small fruit clusters is a must!. Its hard and it’s
sad, but it must be done. And it should be done early, when fruits are small.
Too many fruits will weigh down and break branches, and cause small puny fruits
with more imperfections than a well-thinned tree.
Basic three:
- Lightens fruit load and protects branches from breaking
- Removes competing fruit which results in larger fruit at maturity
- Removes flawed fruit which results in a more uniform and beautiful fruit at maturity.
Removing the extra small fruit in late spring allows the
tree to focus its energy to the remaining fruit throughout the summer. It’s that
simple, yet one of the hardest tasks for the backyard fruit grower.
With each fruit cluster leave the largest single young
fruit to develop. When thinning, grasp the small fruit between your fingers and
pull the fruit backwards or twist, so stem snaps cleanly off at its base. As a
general rule, there should be about 5” between fruit on a branch.
Now if you will excuse me, I need to go follow my own advise and go thin my fruit trees.
Kim in the Garden............ ;o)
