If you’ve thinned and thinned and there are still too many apples on the trees, there is one more growth regulator treatment you can use before resorting to hand thinning. That is a rescue thinning treatment using Ethrel (ethephon)—a treatment that is considered risky but has three benefits: It reduces the cost of hand thinning; it can be done earlier than hand thinning, in time to enhance return bloom the following year; and it increases fruit size. The treatment was discussed during an International Tree Fruit Association workshop in Boston in February. Thinning was a special topic this year because […]