The Skinny on Thinning Crews

June10, 2024

Thank you Gleaner Volunteers  for making the Blue Heron Orchard more productive by picking off thousands of nickle-sized apples, pears, and Asian pears and leaving only the best to grow into full sized fruit.

Last Sunday about a dozen Gleaners met the annual challenge of taking the weight and "bad apples" off about 60 trees to ensure that the fall crop will be more productive and tasty. It's mindless work allowing for two hours of get-to-know-your-neighbor conversation.

See "the map" of the orchard below. For a full profile of each tree head to the Blue Heron Orchard website or walk the orchard. It's open to the public.

Each June, orchard crew volunteers assemble to lighten the load on the branches by picking off clusters of fruit leaving only the best to grow into student-picking produce. It's part of yearly orchard maintenance that begins in late winter when the trees are pruned back to a picking-without-ladders height, the next month weed smothering mats are added, and then in June Gleaners thin the fruit, check for tree health, and let them grow. By fall about 2500 pounds of fruit can nourish hungry students. Orchard advocate, Doug Van Allen scouts the orchard weekly for which trees have ready-for-eat fruit and notifies the teachers.

Why do this?

If we don't thin, trees will grow lots of tiny fruit or no fruit at all as they recover from being over productive one year. Thinning ensures a productive, fall crop every year. For an extensive information on thinning practices, read Kathy Darrow's article recently featured in the PT Leader.

The short version...

• Too many in a cluster-- clusters are thinned to one fruit and the remaining one is about 4-6 inches apart from the next.
• Too small of branch-- If one fruit is going to snap off a tiny branch, it gets thinned out.
• Too much weight for the established branches - even big branches have their breaking point. Lots of apples at the very end of a older branches also get thinned out.

Want to know more, learn-by-doing, and join the next crew?  Write us at PTGleaning@gmail.com to volunteer.