Don’t Thin Out Apple Blossoms
Question from Robin:
My Golden Dorsett apple is loaded with blooms but I need clarification on thinning blossoms. I usually wait a week or two, examine the blossom cluster and retain two of the strongest, snipping off all the rest to ensure larger results. I’m not completely sure this is the preferred method. What would our ‘garden maiden’ recommend? Much appreciated, Robin
Answer from Pat:
I do not believe in thinning out the blossoms on fruit trees growing in dry Mediterranean climates. I have no idea where this crazy idea began, but it is not in any reputable pruning book that I can find. (If it is, please tell me where. I am here to learn.) You don’t see people in commercial orchards out there with little scissors thinning blossoms. Instead of thinning blossoms we thin out the fruit as it grows.
The more blossoms a tree bears, the more likely it will attract bees to pollinate them. Unfortunately, there are too few bees here especially in winter. Apples that are not pollinated will often grow to maturity but will be long and narrow or small and have no seeds. Many disasters can happen to pollen before the arrival of a bee—it might be too dry, it might be too wet, it might be too old—, and by fiddling around on a tree clipping off extra blossoms you think you won’t need, you risk damaging many of them. The more blossoms the more pollen. The more pollen the more likely you will get good pollination, so don’t thin them out. But, later on don’t forget to thin out the fruit!
Well that makes a whole lot of sense! Thanks for that clarification. The idea of thinning the blossoms “might” have come from one of the well known fruit tree nurseries where they suggest you thin the plums, peaches (apples?) when they’re no bigger than the size of a large pea; any later and it is too late. The remaining fruits will stay small. Maybe somehow this translated into thinning the blossoms. But if you think of nature, she usually has a natural way of thinning to some degree. As always, your knowledge is very appreciated.
Thanks for writing back and explaining. The fruit should be about the size of a walnut when one begins thinning it out leaving only 1 or 2 big ones a joint. I did a Google search and found a blog with the advice to thin blossoms but no reference where the idea came from. I think it’s a very bad idea, at least here in our dry climate.
Yea, finally I know what I’m looking for. The famous fruit tree nursery suggests thinning plums, peaches when they are no bigger than a pea…saying any later will be of no benefit. Thanks abundance
Thanks for telling me this, but of course they mean to remove immature fruit and not blossoms. As I stated before I don’t agree with this advice regarding the size of a pea or it’s too late. Not so. The University of California and all other University Extensions that I know of say to begin thinning fruit when they are about one inch in diameter. Early thinning results in bigger fruit, and be sure to remove the smaller ones and any that are diseased, growing as twins, or deformed. If you thin fruit out too early then you can’t see which are the better, bigger, and healthier ones to leave on the tree.