07/01/2026
-Crop Management-
Out in the orchard this morning thinning fruit. The haralson apples set a super heavy crop this season. While its a good thing, we still manage that crop by cutting off a percentage of those apples every year. There are reasons we do this. If we do not "thin" the fruit, the branches will snap and break causing damage to the trees. If we do not thin the fruit now, the trees wont put on fruiting buds for next year leaving us with no apples to pick.
With the last storm that rolled through, we had pea sized hail that lasted myabe 30 seconds. Although not a lot of hail dropped, you can see in the last photo that it doesnt take much to bruise the fruit.
Sometimes we as consumers are so disconnected from our food sources that we forget where our food actually comes from and I am no different. It takes a ton of effort by individual growers out there. Hope I can shed light on a few things that happen here in the orchard that helps people understand its not just planting a tree and walking away until its time to pick the fruit.
-Happy growing-
