-----Original Message----- From: Michael Palmer >>I don't believe the orchards in this area attempt to pollinate only the king bloom. They get every flower fertilized, and then spray thinner. Mike If the king bloom is well set (8-10 seeds), it has a natural suppressing effect on the remaining bloom in the cluster, and this makes spray thinning much easier. Everything tends to drop, except the king fruit. Apples normally are in clusters of 5 (a few varieties differ). The next three to bloom, are more or less simultaneous. They also tend to set together and no one has any suppressive effect. So, if the king bloom is not set, then it's likely to have three fairly equal apples in each cluster. Spray thinning can be pretty tricky. Not enough and none drop off; too much and they all drop off. Apples growers hate to walk this razor edge. The fifth bloom is weak, and generally won't make an apple that wins any prizes. But if no others in the cluster are set, it's better to have this last bloom set to prevent the trees from going into woody growth. for the season. If bloom is normal, growers figure they've got the best possible crop if they can get every other king bloom well set. More info: http://www.pollinator.com/effecpol.htm Dave Green Retired *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at: http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm