Pinching Fruit

It’s about this time of year that fruit tree growers have a habit of truly mystifying the casual observer. After obsessing over the temperatures, and the timing of frost compared to bloom, and the merits of cover versus no cover, and what risks post-pollination frost poses to the harvest, it would seem that finally, a few weeks after the blooms have faded and fallen, that surely we’re satisfied. It’s around now that growers with young trees – trees that have been in the ground for fewer than 2 years, and sometimes fewer than 5 years, depending on the kind of tree and preference of the grower – head out, admire the beautiful fruit that’s setting quite nicely, remark on how it looks just perfect……and then proceed to strip off every piece of fruit from that tree and throw it in the compost heap. To the uninitiated, it seems inconceivable. The fruit, after all, is the primary purpose for planting the tree, and then when it finally grows, we just throw it away! What we’re really doing though, is looking after the long-term health of the tree and protecting future harvests. A fruit tree is stronger and healthier if it can focus its energy on root and branch growth rather than fruit production in the early years; if it bears too heavy a crop too soon, it may not bear again for several years, if ever. It’s a matter of short-term pain for long-term gain, the merits of delayed gratification played out in plain sight.

I went through that process of “pinching fruit”, as it’s often called, this evening. Each of my six trees – four apples and two peaches – had set a good number of fruit, but only one of them is old enough to actually bear a crop to harvest. As counter-intuitive as it may seem to remove all the fruit from the other five trees, it’s the best way to work towards bountiful harvests in the future. It’s a great example of how important it really is to start with the end in mind. It really does make a difference when we know where we’re headed; it puts the less enjoyable moments in perspective. 

As I pulled literally dozens of tiny apples off the branches, I was reminded of how often we need a longer-term perspective in life. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 came to mind as well: “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”