Emerson White.

May 22, Here are a couple of alternatives to remove blossom and fruitlets from young apple trees. 1) Lime Sulfur (LS) at bloom will reduce fruit set on young or newly planted orchards. LS can be applied at % (v/v) when used alone, or at to 2% (v/v) when combined with oil.

What is the best time of year to prune these trees?

If you remove the flower buds from year-old apple trees, apples cannot grow on the trees. The energy that would be used to produce fruit is instead redirected into developing strong branches. Apple. If there are several clusters on a small branch, push down on the branch, approximating the weight of several ripe apples.

Related Articles.

If the branch bends easily, remove blossoms until it feels like the branch can carry the weight of the mature apples you'll eventually have. You do the tree no favor to let it set more fruit than it can ultimately carry. When thinning blossoms, unless you do not want any fruit, make sure frost danger has passed so you do not lose too much of your yield. 1 Hand-pinch or cut blooms along each branch with pruning.

The tiny crop that you might get the first year is not worth saving. I think that on dwarf fruit trees the first flowers should always be removed when transplanting as well- otherwise, you will stunt the trees.

Mini-dwarf Apple trees on EMLA 27 rootstocks should especially have the flower buds removed when planting, according to the Raintree catalog.