Some of the apples set fruit very well. The clusters needs to be thinned so that there is one apple per cluster, and separate by about 4 to 6 inches. Thinning makes for larger, sweeter, earlier, more flavorful apples, less limb breakage and more likely to bear next year. It's a good reason to have small size trees or espaliers, since a big tree would be too much and possibly dangerous to work due to the need for ladders.
This is a North Pole cluster, before and after thinning. I use a kitchen shears. Today I thinned North Pole, Liberty, Gravenstein, and some of the pear trees. The earlier the better, so I'll be thinning for a week or two. I use kitchen shears.
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