Apple, peach, and pear trees often set more fruit than they can mature to a desirable size. Therefore, it is necessary to thin the fruit load by hand pulling the excess fruit off the tree in early to mid-June. Thin until the remaining fruit is 6 to 8 inches apart on a limb. With this ideal spacing, all the tree's nutrients are utilized to produce fewer but larger, higher quality fruit. The total usable fruit of a properly thinned tree will be almost as great as an unthinned one. You also reduce the risk of broken limbs due to heavy fruit loads and biennial bearing. When hand thinning, remove the smallest fruit as well as any that is defective.

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