Peach trees have the capability to produce an extremely high number of peaches each year. Leaving too much of this fruit on the tree will result in small fruit and poor quality. Thinning is the process of removing fruit from the tree to help improve the quality of the remaining fruit for harvest.

When to Thin

Natural thinning can often take place due to spring freeze/frost events, inadequate pollination, or insufficient chilling. When mechanically thinning peach crops, it should be done as early as possible. However, it is important to not thin the fruit too early in the season. Sometimes trees damaged by the cold will abort fruit later, so it may be best to wait until after a natural fruit thinning before mechanically thinning too much. Growers also should give careful consideration before thinning to ensure that the fruit they select to remain for harvest is in fact good fruit and that there is no threat of a late-season frost event. Most growers do not thin everything at one time, but rather they thin in stages.

What is Good Fruit?

Good fruit includes peaches that have received a sufficient number of chill hours and adequate pollination. They have also not been damaged by environmental factors or pests. Often, fruit that has been affected by one of these factors is referred to as a button. These fruits will reach a certain size, typically the size of a marble, then stop growing. Thinning fruit before there is a visible differentiation between good fruit and buttons can result in poor fruit selection, and, in turn, reduced harvest yields.

Thinning Methods

Hand thinning is the most effective method to properly space fruit. To do this, simply select which fruit should remain on the shoot, then remove all other fruit by twisting them off by hand. During years with a heavy fruit set, this can be a time-consuming process.

To allow them to reach the desirable size, early ripening peaches may need to be thinned more than later-ripening peaches do. For early ripening peaches, growers can thin to have one fruit every 8 to 12 inches. Later-ripening peaches can be thinned where there is one fruit every 6 to 8 inches.

More Information

Contact your local Extension office for more information on thinning peaches or other information on peach management.