£5 Off When You Spend £40. Learn About Fruit Thinning.

June Drop…in July!:
June drop is when the tree naturally sheds apples it cannot take all the way to harvest. It can also do this if it is under stress (e.g. very hot weather). Some varieties are more hardy than others and some need help along the way by reducing the clusters of 5 fruitlets down to two. You have to imagine the apple at full size and whether there will be too many for the branch / tree to carry. Varieties like Cox, Russet and Bramley are prone to not shedding enough and cropping in bunches. We have to intervene by “thinning” down the bunches to pairs so that the apples grow to a sufficient size and the tree is not put under so much stress that it becomes biannual (no crop the following year and then every other year from then).

If you have apple trees in your garden have a look at how many apples it has and how they are spaced to get the best apples in harvest and a good crop the following year. If you have too many in the cluster you can “thin” out the smaller or lower quality fruitlets now, leaving the remaining apples to grow bigger and the tree to stay healthy. The bud for next year is laid down by how the tree feels now.

Don’t forget to use our ‘Junedrop‘ offer code to keep you well irrigated.