I wondered in May if the sudden cold temperatures we experienced would affect the crop this year and now suddenly there they are.
It's hard to tell for certain at this point if it's a smaller crop or not as the apples on some trees are still forming so they're easy to overlook. But other apples are already big enough that it's time for that annual chore of thinning. The small apple tree in my flower bed loves all the added compost I put in for flowers and the apples are quite sizable already. I'm busy thinning it as much as possible since last year part of this tree broke off in a storm when it was loaded with heavy apples. The base is still unstable and likely always will be, so I need to remove as much weight as I can. I do want to leave a few apples though as these are large beautiful apples with great taste and don't have any disease. There I go! With so many apple trees we really don't need any extra at all but I can never resist just one more.
11 comments:
Your apple posts always make me hungry. :o)
What do you do with all of your excess apples? You might have told us before but I'm fuzzy!
I'm definitely ready for apple harvest time--it means cooler temperatures! I need to check how our apples are doing; my husband pruned our lone tree pretty severely last winter, so I'm hoping we get enough for some apple crisps this fall.
I think having apples is exciting. Happy thinning.
There is nothing in the stores, any store like a fresh picked apple from a real tree. LOL.
What a harvest you will have.
Jen @ Muddy Boot Dreams
How exciting to look forward to an apple harvest. Do you thin all the trees or just the one that broke off?
I love seeing those little nibs developing into big apples! Apple trees do take work, but you will be rewarded.
They are bulking up nicely now. You should have a good crop!
Jess, I'm going to have to do a post on this as it seems to be the question on everyone's minds! Unfortunately a lot of our apples aren't in good condition so they end up in compost but those that are good are shared with neighbours, co-workers - really anybody who will take them off our hands!
I remember you talking about that pruning job. Did you have flowers this spring? That's always the first indicator for us.
Melanie, we try to thin as many trees as possible. It helps the remaining apples to grow big and we remove a lot that have scab and other issues. This year there's several trees we are trying to remove all the apples from as they don't produce great fruit.
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