Thinning Peaches

It's that time of year again -- time to thin the fruit trees. There are 6 peach, one apricot and one nectarine tree to thin. I remember the first year my husband thinned the peaches. I just about had a heart attack. He hauled bucket after bucket full of small green peaches to the garbage. I was sure we wouldn't have any crop left at all. But somehow there was plenty left for ourselves and some to give away. Since then, I have learned that if they are not thinned, they are not only small, but they don't taste good either. They are not juicy and just not like they are supposed to be. My favorite peach is Flavorcrest, it is the first peach in our yard to ripen, probably a good reason for it to be a favorite, but the flavor is really good as well. Next to ripen is Suncrest, pictured above. (Maggie's favorite tree for climbing) These are the early peaches. For mid-season, we have O'Henry and Faye Elberta, which ripen in early to mid August. The late tree is Summerset and it ripens in mid September.
The nectarine is Fantasia, a yellow fleshed fruit packed with lots of flavor.
The apricot is Tilton, a very old variety, but does good in the hot summers we have here.
The last fruit trees to blossom and the first to ripen are the cherries. We have a Bing and a Stella. Stella is not only the pollinator for Bing, but is also self-pollinating, so if you have room for only one cherry tree, it's the one to grow; besides it tastes a little better than Bing. The Dwarf Stella is really cute, wish I had one of those. I'm happy the cherries never have to be thinned.
We have a Fuyu Persimmon tree that last year was so loaded, I thought the limbs were going to break off. I'll either have to thin it this year or get more props to prop up the limbs.
We used to have a Black Mission Fig tree, and it did very well the first several years and then something happened to it, the leaves would turn brown every year and it didn't produce fruit anymore. So, we had it taken out. I'm thinking something might be in the ground, way down deep. Now I read in my "All About Growing Fruits, Berries & Nuts" book that any fig can be grown in a container. I think I'll try that.
Oh, I almost forgot -- there is a Pomagrante tree and one Thompson grape stump.
Ah, so much fruit! Not bad for one city lot.