Thinning Time

Good morning!  And a beautiful morning.  The weather has been cooler the past few days, giving almost an early May feel and allowing some of the brassicas and peas in the garden to catch their breath after the stunning heat of the past few weeks.  The long summer evenings have pulled me away from my computer and out into the garden (see photos) or onto the porch for a late supper. 

Thinning has likely already begun or will begin soon at most local orchards.  This morning I am headed up to West Haven Farm to meet the orchard manager and hopefully learn more about the art of thinning.  Thinning is needed in almost all orchards in order to allow the apples to reach a substantial size.  To over simplify, if too many apples remain on the tree, it does not have enough energy, nor the apples enough room to allow for mature fruit.  Instead, an unthinned tree will usually bare a large quantity of gulf ball size apples.  In some cases late freezes can do a bit of their own thinning, something many growers in New England experienced this past spring.  Unfortunately mother nature is not so meticulous, and even if a grower looses much of their crop to a late freeze, thinning is often needed for the remaining apples.  This sentiment was expressed recently in a posting I read by Michael Phillips on the growers forum of the Holistic Orchard Network. 

In larger orchards, thinning is often done by spraying hormones or other agents that "force" the trees to drop a somewhat predicable percentage of their crop.  However, in many organic or smaller orchards thinning is still done the old fashioned way; by hand.  

I am excited to learn more about this aspect of apple cultivation; immersing myself in parts of the apple growing cycle other than harvesting.  I wonder if it could almost feel like picking miniature apples a few months too early.