Thinning of fruit budsshould be done in apple, pear, peach and plum trees. It consists in removing some of the buds so as to reduce the number of fruit buds remaining on the tree. This is not a necessary procedure, but it is worth performing it as it prevents the occurrence of several unfavorable phenomena. See the effects offruit thinningand how to properly perform this treatment.
Fruit thinning
The first reason to dofruit thinningis that very often trees are not able to feed too much fruit on their branches.As a result of this excessive fruit density, the fruit is small and unpalatable. By thinning the buds, we will get less fruit, but they will be larger and tastier, which means we will obtain a better quality crop. Besides, trees exhausted with too abundant fruiting may bear fruit poorly in the following year - the phenomenon of alternating abundant and weak fruiting occurs. The thinning of the fruit buds will also help prevent this phenomenon. But remember not to overdo the thinning, because we will get little fruit. "
Therefore thinning out the buds is most conveniently done at the end of June, after the so-called midsummer. Then, if we find that the fruit trees have shed too few buds in a natural way, we also thin them by hand. First of all, we remove deformed, small buds and those with symptoms of damage caused by diseases or pests. However, we leave the most grown and he althy ones. If we have a lot of trees in the orchard, start thinning buds with the earliest-ripening varieties.
Young fruitlets are collected in bunches of several pieces. By removing them, we leave 2 to 3 buds in a bunch, and in small and medium-sized apple varieties such as Papierówka, Piros, Early Geneva, Lired or James Grieve, only one bud each in a bunch.
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In the case of apple trees, the buds on the edges of the bunch are removed, while in the case of pear trees - the buds located in the center of the bunch. Among the pear trees, thinning of the primordia is necessary in such varieties as Lipcówka Kolorowa, Faworytka, Red Faworytka, Konferencja, Dicolor, and all varieties of Asian pear trees, min. Hosui, Chojuro, Nijisseiki. In peaches, thinning is necessary especially during the years of profuse flowering. This procedure must be performed on varieties such as Reliance, Velvet, Harko, Inka, Iskra, Harrow Beauty.The buds can be removed by hand by holding a single tether between the index finger and thumb - tighten the fingers on the peduncle, and with the third finger knock off the bud .We can also cut out the buds with a pruner. This should be done in such a way that the peduncle remains on the tree.
Good to knowWhen thinning fruit buds on apples and pears, it is worth looking at them and removing those with olive or olive-black spots and corks. These buds are most likely infected by serious fungal diseases such as apple scab and pear scab. Fruits resulting from infected seedlings will not be fit for consumption anyway.
