How to Thin Apple Blossoms to Grow Bigger Apples

It is springtime and your apple trees are in full bloom with hundreds of apple blossoms. Those beautiful apple blossoms, if pollinated, will each result in an apple. Did you know that it takes 30 to 40 leaves on the tree to produce the food to feed an apple and make it grow? Therefore, if you want your apples to grow large and well rounded then you cannot allow five or six apples to grow from each twig on a branch. You can manually remove the smaller blossoms leaving the larger healthier blossom to make the apple. Keep in mind while you are thinning the blossoms that each one left will need 30 to 40 leaves to provide food for the growing apple. Remembering that should help you decide how much thinning is enough. You will be able to reach many of the blossoms from the ground but you will need a ladder to reach the higher branches. That is unless you enjoy climbing trees. How do you thin apple blossoms to grow bigger apples?

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• An apple tree in bloom
• A ladder
• A small pair of scissors

1. Apple blossoms Choose one or two branches on your apple tree to begin thinning blossoms on and don't worry about the rest of the apple blossoms for today. Do not assume that you will finish thinning the blossoms in one day, unless you have a lot of help. That might be overwhelming.
2. Find the biggest and healthiest looking blossom in each cluster. Leave that one and remove the other blossoms around it in each cluster of blossoms.
3. Pluck the apple blossoms out by hand or use a small pair of scissors to snip off the ones you have decided to remove.
4. Thinned blossoms Take care not to damage the apple blossoms that you intend to leave. The apple blossoms are in small groups. Finish thinning one group at a time.

Tips & Warnings

• Even if you do not get around to removing all of the excess blossoms, removing a few should help your fruit grow bigger and better.
• Place the freshly removed blossoms in a bowl in your bathroom to add a light fragrance and their beauty for the day.
• Use some of the blossoms to decorate the braids in your hair, the way you would use Baby's Breath.
• Never stand on the top rung of a ladder.
• When working on the ladder it would be safer to have a person hold it for you.