One summer during the Depression, when my father was still in
high school, he and some other boys found a job picking peaches.
None of them had any money, and it didn’t pay much. But few other
jobs were available.

Dad had to get up at 4 a.m., get his breakfast and fix his lunch
so his dad could take him to Mr. Hop Adams’ house, where a
flatbed truck waited.

Mr. Adams used this truck to haul the boys to the orchard and
then haul half-bushel baskets of fresh-picked peaches from the
orchard to the packing shed.

He warned them not to eat too many of the soft, juicy, ripe
Elberta and Georgia Belle peaches. But the boys didn’t listen.
They ate all they could.

Why They Were Warned

Soon, they all found out why they were warned not to eat too many
peaches, and they ended up in high gear headed to the woods. Some
made
it, but others just weren’t fast enough.

One lesson was enough.

Too many isn’t good for fruit trees, either. Sometimes, trees set
more fruit than they can properly mature. This leaves the grower
with the task of thinning.

The early-spring cold snap did a little natural thinning. And
since most fruit trees produce many more blooms than they need to
make a good crop, it may have actually helped you.

But you still may need to thin. If you don’t, you could wind up
disappointed when it comes time to pick the fruit, which won’t be
as big and healthy as you’d like.

Here’s How to Thin

Here’s how to thin:

• Apples and pears grow fruit in clusters. Thin these down to
  the largest single fruit. If the tree is heavily loaded, you may
  need to remove some clusters entirely. If you don’t, the bloom
  may be light next year. When you’re finished, the fruit should be
  about 6 inches apart.
• Thin peaches and nectarines so the remaining fruits are
  spaced
  about every 6 inches. Do this about six weeks after they
  bloom.
• Thin plums so they’re 3 or 4 inches apart.
• And on blueberry bushes, remove about half the fruit on those
  branches with excessive berries. Once the bushes reach knee-high
  or larger, you don’t need to thin anymore.

I know it’s going to hurt you to thin all that fruit off your
trees, and you’re going to hate to do it. But it makes bigger and
better fruit.

Just as my dad found out about eating peaches, growing too many
fruit on a tree is just too much of a good thing.