Thinning: what is it?

When a tree fruit tree bears too many fruits or when a seedling has too many young shoots, the weakest ones are removed to promote the development of the most vigorous ones; we then speak of thinning or thinning out.

Principle of thinning

This is a gesture to be made to eliminate part of the fruit on fruit trees such as peach, pear or apple trees or vegetable garden, it is a question of pulling out too many young plants, developed after too dense sowing. In this case, we also speak of “unmarriage”. Removing fruits or young shoots gives you a better chance of having beautiful, abundant harvests, with larger, quality fruits or vegetables.

Thinning of vegetable, aromatic or flower plants

One month after sowing, the thinning stage takes place, taking care to soak the soil well beforehand. From radish or some carrots sown too densely will not be able to flourish and grow for lack of space. Leave 2 to 5 cm between each shoot for optimal development. Allow 15 cm between 2 plants of turnip and D’spinach.

Some young uprooted seedlings such as beetsthe tomatoes or lettuces can be transplanted in pots or in the vegetable patch. They will support this semi-transplanting.

For others, called “primeurs”, such as carrotsturnips or radishspring picking naturally allows thinning to be carried out by tasting the very tender young vegetables, while letting those in place develop to maturity.

Seedlings of flowers such as marigolds, sweet peas, nasturtiums, pansies or cornflowers require thinning when the young shoots have 3 or 4 leaves. Thinned plants can be transplanted, just like those of basil, parsley Where chive. Save money by transplanting them and don’t throw them away!

For young seedlings made in a tray, bucket or terrine, remove the excess young shoots with tweezers or by lifting them with a fork to avoid damaging them.

Fruit thinning

To promote the fruiting of fruit trees, it is necessary to remove excess fruit, even before they begin to grow. This operation guarantees beautiful, healthy fruits, prevents branches from breaking under the weight of the fruits and helps keep trees in good shape.

Just after the physiological fall of the fruits, in May-June, it is time to remove the damaged, aborted or diseased fruits, using pruning shears or manually. Then, the thinning to limit the number of fruits to be kept is carried out and it is variable depending on whether the fruit tree is:

• an Apple tree. We remove the fruits placed outside the tree to keep only the bouquets of the center;
• a pear tree. Only the bunches of fruit on the periphery, which must not touch each other, are kept and those in the center are removed;
• an apricot tree, peach and quince. We keep between 10 to 15 fruits per linear meter and we remove the rest.

Fruit trees like cherry trees or plum trees do not require this thinning operation.