How to Thin Mature Apple Trees

Thin your apple tree to produce larger fruit.

Apple trees will produce more fruit with each successive year, but as a tree matures, it can produce so much fruit that it becomes detrimental to both fruit production and the apple tree itself. If a tree has too many apples, the fruit will be small, and the weight of the abundance may cause limbs to break. Help your mature apple trees by thinning the developing fruit early in the season.

Things You'll Need

• Thinning shears
• Stepladder

Instructions

1. Watch for the apple tree to blossom and set fruit. This usually happens around June, but it may happen earlier or later.

2. Examine the clusters of tiny apples. Begin thinning the apples from the tree when most of the apples have reached a half inch in diameter.

3. Locate the largest apple of each cluster. Leave that apple on the tree, if it is healthy, and use thinning shears to remove the remaining apples in the cluster by snipping them off at the stem. Remove any damaged or misshapen apples.

4. Continue removing the small apples in each cluster until all the remaining apples on the tree are spaced six inches apart.

5. Use a stepladder to reach the apple clusters at the top of the tree, as a mature apple tree may be quite tall.

6. Remove any small apples that have fallen on the ground and dispose of them. Leaving them on the ground will encourage pest problems in and around the apple trees.

References

• North Carolina State University: Growing Apple Trees in the Home Garden
• The Independent: Bearing Fruit - Taking Care of Apple Trees