We have come to the conclusion that hard winter pruning is the best way to thin our crop. Lime sulphur certainly works, but it doesn't feel right.
We "single line" downward hanging branches coming from the trunk (Upright branches are pulled down and tied with string, or totally removed if they are too strong). Our trees are on dwarfing/semi-dwarfing rootstocks spaced 1 to 2 metres apart down the row.
If we have a block we know is due to have a heavy flowering in spring, we winter prune it really hard and thin out the fruiting sites. It seems to us that trees waste a lot of energy producing all those flowers in the "on year". We like to get rid of the flowers before they appear, so the few remaining will be stronger, and hand thinning of fruit later in spring will be more efficient. The idea is to thin fruit buds in winter, not flowers in spring.
Has anybody out there tried this approach, and does it work on large wide-spaced trees on vigorous rootstocks?
We "single line" downward hanging branches coming from the trunk (Upright branches are pulled down and tied with string, or totally removed if they are too strong). Our trees are on dwarfing/semi-dwarfing rootstocks spaced 1 to 2 metres apart down the row.
If we have a block we know is due to have a heavy flowering in spring, we winter prune it really hard and thin out the fruiting sites. It seems to us that trees waste a lot of energy producing all those flowers in the "on year". We like to get rid of the flowers before they appear, so the few remaining will be stronger, and hand thinning of fruit later in spring will be more efficient. The idea is to thin fruit buds in winter, not flowers in spring.
Has anybody out there tried this approach, and does it work on large wide-spaced trees on vigorous rootstocks?