Hi folks,

I was always taught to thin out fruit during the late spring/early summer, in order to get fewer but better fruits.

But why do we have to take out the King fruit, the central one? I'm talking particularly about apples here.

Logically (yes, I'm old enough now to rebel against what I've been taught!) shouldn't that be the one that stays?

Any theories, anyone?

On 11/17/06 10:03 AM, in article ,
"Rachel Aitch" wrote:


Hi folks,

I was always taught to thin out fruit during the late spring/early
summer, in order to get fewer but better fruits.

But why do we have to take out the King fruit, the central one? I'm
talking particularly about apples here.

Logically (yes, I'm old enough now to rebel against what I've been
taught!) shouldn't that be the one that stays?

Any theories, anyone?



I never heard of this king fruit concept.

Bill

-- Fermez le Bush

King Fruit? Enlighten us....
"Rachel Aitch" wrote in message
...

Hi folks,

I was always taught to thin out fruit during the late spring/early
summer, in order to get fewer but better fruits.

But why do we have to take out the King fruit, the central one? I'm
talking particularly about apples here.

Logically (yes, I'm old enough now to rebel against what I've been
taught!) shouldn't that be the one that stays?

Any theories, anyone?




--
Rachel Aitch

Actually I thought the "King Fruit" was Michael Jackson, but not sure if
taking him out would produce fewer but "better" fruits.

I couldn't resist.


"Rachel Aitch" wrote in message
...

Hi folks,

I was always taught to thin out fruit during the late spring/early
summer, in order to get fewer but better fruits.

But why do we have to take out the King fruit, the central one? I'm
talking particularly about apples here.

Logically (yes, I'm old enough now to rebel against what I've been
taught!) shouldn't that be the one that stays?

Any theories, anyone?




--
Rachel Aitch

----- Original Message ----- From: "Rachel Aitch"

Sent: Friday, November 17, 2006 11:03 AM, Subject: "King Fruit" - why do we
remove it?
I was always taught to thin out fruit during the late spring/early
summer, in order to get fewer but better fruits.
But why do we have to take out the King fruit, the central one? I'm
talking particularly about apples here.
Logically (yes, I'm old enough now to rebel against what I've been
taught!) shouldn't that be the one that stays?
Any theories, anyone?
Rachel Aitch

Apple blossoms occur in groups of five. The first and largest is the king
blossom. We do not remove the king but remove all of the others instead.
The reason is to concentrate the sugars in a single and the largest blossom
so it will produce the largest fruit. If the king is removed and the others
allowed to fruit there will be more, but smaller, apples and it will also be
necesssary to do more thinning.

Olin

Thank you for that lovely image!!

Olin, thank you for this: it's beginning to sound - dare I say it - that the tutor at college had it the wrong way round, unless they were trying to teach us to produce more fruit?

Also, the emphasis was on removing fruit, rather than removing blossom: and yes, the instruction was to remove the king fruit first, then to go round again a week or two later and thin any mis-shappen or manky fruits, then again as necessary - the aim being to end up with just one or two fruits per spur.

Your way sounds much more sensible.

That's it, next year I'm rebelling, and will keep all the king fruits instead - it'll be interesting to see if there is any difference in crop, but it will certainly be less work for me!

Olin wrote:
----- Original Message ----- From: "Rachel Aitch"

Sent: Friday, November 17, 2006 11:03 AM, Subject: "King Fruit" - why do we
remove it?

I was always taught to thin out fruit during the late spring/early
summer, in order to get fewer but better fruits.
But why do we have to take out the King fruit, the central one? I'm
talking particularly about apples here.
Logically (yes, I'm old enough now to rebel against what I've been
taught!) shouldn't that be the one that stays?
Any theories, anyone?
Rachel Aitch


Apple blossoms occur in groups of five. The first and largest is the king
blossom. We do not remove the king but remove all of the others instead.
The reason is to concentrate the sugars in a single and the largest blossom
so it will produce the largest fruit. If the king is removed and the others
allowed to fruit there will be more, but smaller, apples and it will also be
necesssary to do more thinning.

Olin


That's right. I don't usually remove flowers but when I thin apples, I
leave the king fruit. That's how it's done, as far as I know. The king
fruit is at the center of the cluster and the smaller ones form a circle
around it.

Steve

"Steve" wrote in message
...
Olin wrote:
----- Original Message ----- From: "Rachel Aitch"

Sent: Friday, November 17, 2006 11:03 AM, Subject: "King Fruit" - why do
we
remove it?

I was always taught to thin out fruit during the late spring/early
summer, in order to get fewer but better fruits.
But why do we have to take out the King fruit, the central one? I'm
talking particularly about apples here.
Logically (yes, I'm old enough now to rebel against what I've been
taught!) shouldn't that be the one that stays?
Any theories, anyone?
Rachel Aitch


Apple blossoms occur in groups of five. The first and largest is the
king
blossom. We do not remove the king but remove all of the others instead.
The reason is to concentrate the sugars in a single and the largest
blossom
so it will produce the largest fruit. If the king is removed and the
others
allowed to fruit there will be more, but smaller, apples and it will also
be
necesssary to do more thinning.

Olin


That's right. I don't usually remove flowers but when I thin apples, I
leave the king fruit. That's how it's done, as far as I know. The king
fruit is at the center of the cluster and the smaller ones form a circle
around it.

Steve

Back to the original question about why would you take out the king fruit
and leave the others? The only reason I can think of is it might increase
total yield if the fruit is to be used for processing (apple sauce, apple
butter, cider, vinegar, etc.) instead of eating it raw,

Olin

There might be one exception to always leaving the 'king fruit'. I always first
examine the king to see if there are any signs of attack. If so, I will
initially thin down
to the cleanest and best two of the remaining cluster, while the apples are
still quite
small. When they reach about the size of a quarter, I do a final reduction to
just one
fruit. I sometimes leave two fruits on a cluster by examining the total 'load'
on any
given branch and judging if this will overload the energy delivery system. I
can't say
that for all varieties of apple that the king fruit is always much bigger than
one it's
smaller neighbors. I have no scientific backing on this, but base this on
observations.

Sherwin D.

Olin wrote:

----- Original Message ----- From: "Rachel Aitch"

Sent: Friday, November 17, 2006 11:03 AM, Subject: "King Fruit" - why do we
remove it?
I was always taught to thin out fruit during the late spring/early
summer, in order to get fewer but better fruits.
But why do we have to take out the King fruit, the central one? I'm
talking particularly about apples here.
Logically (yes, I'm old enough now to rebel against what I've been
taught!) shouldn't that be the one that stays?
Any theories, anyone?
Rachel Aitch

Apple blossoms occur in groups of five. The first and largest is the king
blossom. We do not remove the king but remove all of the others instead.
The reason is to concentrate the sugars in a single and the largest blossom
so it will produce the largest fruit. If the king is removed and the others
allowed to fruit there will be more, but smaller, apples and it will also be
necesssary to do more thinning.

Olin