Dad had to get up at 4 a.m., get his breakfast and fix his lunch so his dad could take him to Mr. Hop Adams' house, where a flatbed truck waited.

Mr. Adams used this truck to haul the boys to the orchard and then haul half-bushel baskets of fresh-picked peaches from the orchard to the packing shed.

He warned them not to eat too many of the soft, juicy, ripe Elberta and Georgia Belle peaches. But the boys didn't listen. They ate all they could.

Why They Were Warned

Soon, they all found out why they were warned not to eat too many peaches, and they ended up in high gear headed to the woods. Some made it, but others just weren't fast enough.

One lesson was enough.

Too many isn't good for fruit trees, either. Sometimes, trees set more fruit than they can properly mature. This leaves the grower with the task of thinning.

The early-spring cold snap did a little natural thinning. And since most fruit trees produce many more blooms than they need to make a good crop, it may have actually helped you.

But you still may need to thin. If you don't, you could wind up disappointed when it comes time to pick the fruit, which won't be as big and healthy as you'd like.

Here's How to Thin

Here's how to thin:

• Apples and pears grow fruit in clusters. Thin these down to the largest single fruit. If the tree is heavily loaded, you may need to remove some clusters entirely. If you don't, the bloom may be light next year. When you're finished, the fruit should be about 6 inches apart.
• Thin peaches and nectarines so the remaining fruits are spaced about every 6 inches. Do this about six weeks after they bloom.
• Thin plums so they're 3 or 4 inches apart.
• And on blueberry bushes, remove about half the fruit on those branches with excessive berries. Once the bushes reach knee-high or larger, you don't need to thin anymore.

Just as my dad found out about eating peaches, growing too many fruit on a tree is just too much of a good thing.