"cliff_the_gardener" wrote in message
ups.com...
Graeme
As Keith suggests thin the fruit. Whilst the RHS suggest 2 apples per
4-6inches the rule I normally follow is 1 every 1 inches.
When trees are trained on supports - so the tree looks like a ladder,
knows as an espalier, it is purely a way of growing, rather than a
means of support, for you are still looking a 1 apple every 4 inches.
If the June drop has started, evidence by the littering of apples on
the floor you know that nature is naturally thinning the fruit. The
tree will also shed any fruit that has a defect - so you may well find
fruits on the floor that have maggot holes in them.
You may feel that all this thinning is going to be a disaster. It
isn't. Commercially they use sprays or a thinning machine which looks
like a car wash except rather than soft bristles the line is more like
strimmer line. The machine is normally used at blossom time (thin the
flowers so the tree doesn't waste energy making immature fruitlets)
and passes over the tree knocking seven bells out of the flowers. You
only need 10% of all flowers to form a full crop.
It may seem harsh but thinning the fruit improves the quality and
improves ripening as there is less crowding so light can get to the
fruit. Thinning also helps stop trees becoming biennial, where they
produce a good crop one year then have an off year. Thinning balances
the yields.
Good luck
Clifford
Bawtry, Doncaster, Sout Yorkshire

Thanks Clifford (and Keith in a previous post) for taking the time to reply
in such exacting detail.

FWIW the tree was in the garden when I moved into this house 10 years ago.
It produced a nice quantity of fruit each year with the minimum of fuss or
effort. The Mrs. then complained (she's good at that) that it was growing
too tall, and in my infinite wisdom I decided to prune it back a bit (That
was maybe 4 summers ago. The clippings also went to good use in my food
smoker). The following year the crop was disappointing, and I thought that
I'd permanently damaged the tree. Far from it, the last 2 years it's simply
went berserk.

Interesting that you mention about a tree becoming biennial. I also have a
greengage tree that only produces fruit every 2nd or 3rd year. 2007 is a
fruiting year and the fruits are almost ready. Wooohooo!

Graeme