If you’ve ever noticed small, green apples falling from your apple tree in early summer, you’ve likely witnessed a phenomenon known as June drop. This is a perfectly natural process that occurs around late May to June, depending on local climate, and is common in apple, pear, and plum trees.

June drop is the tree’s way of balancing its fruit load. After the spring blossom, fruit trees often produce far more developing fruits than they can support to maturity. To avoid exhausting themselves, trees instinctively shed the weakest or least developed fruits. This helps ensure that the remaining apples grow larger, healthier, and with better flavor.

The dropped fruits are usually small and underdeveloped. In some cases, they may have been poorly pollinated or affected by pests, such as codling moth, or by adverse weather during flowering. Rather than waste resources on fruit that’s unlikely to ripen properly, the tree redirects its energy into strengthening the healthiest fruit.

While June drop is natural, sometimes a tree may still hold onto more fruit than it can manage, particularly in good growing years. In these cases, gardeners can help by manually thinning the fruit. Ideally, leave one strong apple per cluster, spaced about 4 to 6 inches apart. Thinning helps prevent issues later in the season, such as branch breakage due to heavy crops or the production of small, poor-quality fruit.

For home growers, June drop might seem alarming, but it’s actually a sign of a healthy, self-regulating tree. By understanding and supporting this natural process, gardeners can encourage better harvests, with larger, tastier apples come autumn.