Doing This One Thing to Your Fruit Trees Now Will Result in Larger and Better Harvests – Even if They Do a ‘June Drop’ Each Year
Thinning out congested fruit trees is a crucial seasonal task
Thinning fruit trees is an important summer task that helps you get the best harvests. It may sound counterintuitive, but removing small fruitlets means higher-quality fruits come picking time.
If you are growing apples, pears, plums, peaches, or apricots, thinning fruit trees between mid-June and mid-July rewards you with larger harvests and reduces the risk of branches snapping due to the stress of excess fruit. Up to 50%-75% of small fruitlets can be removed by hand or with small pruning tools.
Thinning fruit trees may sound daunting, but it needn’t be. To remove any potential confusion, I spoke with fruit tree experts about why, when, and how to thin. This guide also reveals the ideal spacing for the most popular types of fruit trees.
An Expert Guide to Thinning Fruit Trees
Many fruit trees, including apples, pears, plums, and peaches, do a ‘June drop’, whereby they naturally shed small fruits in early summer. They do this to focus on a select number of fruits, and gardeners shouldn’t panic if it happens to their trees.
However, even after a ‘June drop,’ you may still need to go out thinning fruit trees to guarantee you get the best yield.
A good pair of pruning shears, like these Felco F2 pruners at Amazon, can make a sound investment and be used for thinning and pruning fruit trees for many years.
Benefits of Thinning Fruit Trees
Even though it may sound counterintuitive, intentionally thinning the number of young fruits developing offers several benefits for any fruit tree. Whether you have an orchard or a few fruit trees in pots on a patio, thinning fruit trees helps them produce the best crop possible year after year.
Primarily, the main reason for thinning fruit trees is to maximise the harvest. It is required because, as Susan Poizner, fruit tree expert and founder of Orchard People, notes, the trees have a habit of producing ‘more fruitlets than they can realistically support’.
‘If you leave them all on the tree, you’ll usually end up with lots of fruit, but the quality won’t be great. The fruit tends to be smaller, and the branches can become overloaded,’ explains Susan.
‘Thinning helps the tree focus its energy on fewer fruits, which means larger, better-quality, and sweeter harvests.’
Thinning fruit trees not only boosts this year’s crop, but can help next year’s, too. It is especially the case with apple or pear trees, which can start to crop biennially – this is when a heavy crop one year is followed by a small or no crop the next. Thinning fruit trees helps prevent the trees from falling into this cropping habit.
Also, thinning fruit trees reduces the risk of branches snapping under the weight of lots of developing fruits. If lots of fruit are left, the branches (which naturally bend but can only take so much strain) can break under the stress. Not only does this mean you lose a productive arm, but the resulting wound is susceptible to pests and diseases.
You can help protect fruit-laden branches with supports, such as these tree crutches at Amazon.
Susan is an urban orchard-ist, ISA Certified Arborist, and the author of two fruit tree care books, Growing Urban Orchards, available at Amazon and Grow Fruit Trees Fast, also available at Amazon. She is the creator of the award-winning fruit tree care training website Orchard People and trains global fruit tree growers through her online courses
What Fruit Trees Need Thinning
Most fruit trees benefit from thinning, but not all. The likes of apples, peaches, pears, plums, nectarines, apricots, and persimmons all respond well to thinning. If you have any of these, add thinning fruit trees to your early summer gardening checklist.
Some fruit trees don’t need thinning, though. For example, Susan advises: ‘Cherries generally don’t need it because they don’t tend to overproduce in the same way.’
When to Thin Fruit Trees
Young trees can suffer from being cropped too heavily in their tender years. Susan recommends gardeners to remove all baby fruit from apple, peach, apricot, pear, and plum trees for the first two years after planting the fruit tree in your yard.
‘It can feel heart-breaking, but it allows the tree to put its energy into establishing strong roots and healthy branches rather than producing fruit too soon,’ she adds.
Going forward, timing is key when thinning fruit trees. The ideal moment for thinning fruit trees comes after they have done their natural ‘June drop’. Allowing the trees to first naturally shed fruits and then thinning as required prevents you from ending up with little to no fruit.
It is best to go soon after you spot evidence of the ‘June drop’ around your trees. Susan advises: ‘A good rule of thumb is to thin when the fruit is about the size of a nickel.’
If you wait too long, and the fruit gets larger, the benefits of thinning aren’t felt as much. As Loren Taylor, a seasoned landscaper and gardener, says: ‘Doing it early means the tree has not wasted energy on fruit you are going to remove anyway.’
The take-home advice is to wait until after the ‘June drop’ and aim to finish thinning fruit trees in early July.
Loren Taylor is the owner of Outdoor Fountain Pros and a seasoned expert in landscaping and gardening, with a keen eye for exterior design. With nearly two decades of experience in transforming outdoor spaces, Loren combines a knowledge of plant species, soil conditions, and sustainable gardening practices with a passion for creating harmonious landscape designs.
How to Thin Fruit Trees
The goal with thinning fruit trees is to leave as much fruit as the tree can ripen and the branch can support. It will depend on each particular tree, but don’t be afraid of thinning fruit trees – you have got to be cruel to be kind.
‘It sounds a lot, but aim to remove between 50% and 75% of the fruit so those that are left are better quality,’ Chris Bonnett, plant expert and founder of Gardening Express.
While this may seem a lot, if the fruits are crowded when young, it’ll only get worse as they develop, and they will never reach full size.
Look to keep the largest fruit and first remove any that are small, damaged, or misshapen. This can be done with your hands, by pinching or twisting the fruit off the stem. But do so carefully, as pulling too hard on small fruits can damage the branches.
Or, you can use small pruning tools, such as shears or pruning snips – this is advisable with apples and pears, which both have woodier stems than other young fruits. A perfect tool for the task would be these Fiskars pruning snips, available at Amazon.
The Ideal Spacings When Thinning Fruit Trees by Type:
- Apples: When growing apple trees, the fruits should be thinned to one fruit per cluster. Good apple fruit thinning should leave one fruit every six to eight inches along the branch. It is advisable to remove the ‘king’ fruit at the center of the cluster, as this habitually ends up deformed.
- Pears: Pear trees are best thinned to leave one or two fruits per cluster, with around six inches between developing fruits.
- Peaches: For peaches and nectarines, thin the fruits to one every four to six inches apart. This level of peach tree thinning gives the remaining fruits adequate space to reach a good size.
- Apricots: Thin apricot trees so there are two to four inches between each developing fruit
- Plums: Thinning plum trees should be done so there is one fruit every three or four inches along the branch
What to Shop
These steel pruning snips have 190 mm chromium blades that offer a long reach, perfect for intricate trimming, such as thinning fruit trees.
A balanced 10-10-10 fertilizer like this is ideal for fertilizing fruit trees in late winter or early spring (when the new season's growth starts) to encourage flowering and fruiting.
A garden hod is a classic basket for gathering your harvested fruits, vegetables, herbs, and flowers while out in the garden.
To keep them healthy, understanding when to prune fruit trees ensures you trim them at the right time of year. There are differences between trees, and it is not always a winter task. While the likes of apples, pears, and figs want pruning in late winter or early spring, stone fruits, such as cherries, peaches, nectarines, and plums, are best pruned in late spring or summer to prevent silver leaf disease.
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