Thinning Apples to Increase Crop Size and Production!

Come along as we talk with my Keystone Cooperative Agronomist Jason about the best apple thinning techniques. He explains the how’s and why farmers thin apples in Michigan in order to improve the crop size and production! Also, we visit Alec Altonen from Altonen Orchards! He’s gives us an intro to his family farm!

[@KeystoneCooperative]

Great video! We are proud to have agronomic experts like Jason on the Keystone team.

[@PomesandStones]

Couldn't agree more! I hope to continue to work with the keystone team ( marketing 👀👀) as you start your new journey!

[@carolimejohnson]

Love the guest takeover!

[@PomesandStones]

He did a great job didn’t he!!

[@Tobykc8vsu]

Great job

[@PomesandStones]

Thanks!

[@paulfabien582]

Would also at some point love to see some discussion of the differences between organic and non-organic in terms of yield, fertilizer, repellents, insect pressure, etc. do you have to grow organic cherries a distance away from non-organic to reduce insect pressure on non-organic, etc.

[@PomesandStones]

These are great questions! We will be harvesting our organic cherries next week! I’d love to answer these questions when we get to shaking there!

[@jameswhopkins1]

Great video. I have a question. How do you stop the weeds and grass from growing under the trees? And why do you do that?

[@PomesandStones]

Different combination of chemistries to keep weeds down. When there are no weeds all nutrients and water available in the soil will go to the trees!

[@MasonFelker-ne5ro]

I’m guessing 19.5 million pounds this year!

[@jameswhopkins1]

Inside scoop?

[@PomesandStones]

I did not share my projection! What’s yours?

[@paulfabien582]

When he said that they are chemically thinned - could you please explain how that is accomplished?

[@PomesandStones]

Chemical thinner work by mimicking hormones in the trees. The trees become slightly stressed and in response to that stress begin to drop the smaller fruit. The larger fruit in most cases stays on the trees giving us the desired crop load. The apple trees do this thinning process on their own by adding the thinner we are only aiming to help over cropping for the health of the tree and future production.

[@paulfabien582]

@@PomesandStones Thanks for the response! Love the videos. One thing that might be interesting for people to see is the evolution of cherry picking - from hand-picking to earlier harvesters that required hand pulling tarps to the current.