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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] apple blooming too much?

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  • From: <dmnorton@royaloakfarmorchard.com>
  • To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] apple blooming too much?
  • Date: Sat, 2 May 2009 20:04:15 -0500

Ginda,

If you want your apples to size up well, then you will probably want to thin them some. I would let the fruit set to see exactly how many of the blossom actually produce fruit. Once they are about 5MM or so size, you can thin them by choosing the king, which is the largest fruit, then the next largest and then the next largest for a total of 3 fruit per cluster. Pinch the rest off. On the size tree you have, if you don't thin, the fruit will probably not size up very well. Just a thought!

Dennis Norton
Royal Oak Farm Orchard
Office (815) 648-4467
Mobile (815) 228-2174
Fax (609) 228-2174
http://www.royaloakfarmorchard.com
http://www.theorchardkeeper.blogspot.com
http://www.revivalhymn.com
----- Original Message ----- From: "Ginda Fisher" <list@ginda.us>
To: "NAFEX Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Saturday, May 02, 2009 6:19 AM
Subject: [NAFEX] apple blooming too much?


I have a small Ashmeads Kernal on M7, with two Karmijn grafts on it. The tree has been in the ground a couple of years. It is about 4 feet tall and has lots of root competition, as it's planted on the edge of a wooded area. It also has moderate winter-moth damage. I've had winter moth troubles for the past few years, have treated aggressively with spinosad the last two, and treated a little less aggressively this year.

This year it is covered in flower buds. Maybe the amount of flowering is normal in some conditions, but it's way in excess of what I've ever seen on my eating-apples. It looks more like the ornamental crabs. (We have wild seedling crabs all over the place, but even for being random seedlings, they are very ornamental this week.) None of my other domestic apples has anything like the density of flower buds -- the two trees I planted at the same time (golden russet on one of the new geneva rootstocks, G30, and Tydemans late Orange on M111, all planted spring '05) don't plan to bloom this year.

Should I be worried? Should I remove the blossoms? Most of the blossoms? There's even a flower cluster on one of the Karmijn grafts, which I'm oh so tempted to allow to fruit.

Thanks,
Ginda Fisher
eastern Mass., zone 6
where the crab apples are at peak bloom, and the eating apples are just beginning to bloom. Mmmm, perfumed air.







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