You're doing fine Rye. You will encourage growth and do no harm. You'll also reduce the potential for fireblight infections. We simply pinch the buds at or as they break "tight cluster". Prefer not removing entire spur as we may want fruit there next year. It's time consuming, but for fireblight reduction and increased growth response, worth it.
Mo Tougas Grower, Tougas Family Farm On Fri, Feb 1, 2013 at 6:38 PM, Rye Hefley <[email protected]> wrote: > > I am removing flowers by hand this year to promote scaffolding growth. > When I see a flower that is protruding from the bud (before it is open), I > grab the whole bud and pull it off. I started to wonder if this is in any > way harmful to my goal of scaffold growth. Is there a "right time" and > "right way" to manually remove flowers? I'm not looking to grow any fruit > this year just scaffolding. > > Thanks, > Rye Hefley > So Cal > _______________________________________________ > apple-crop mailing list > [email protected] > http://virtualorchard.net/mailman/listinfo/apple-crop > -- Maurice Tougas Tougas Family Farm Northborough,MA 01532 508-450-0844
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