there's actually more bearing and light interception surface per square centimeter of trunk diameter with this system than with large, traditional trees... there is no replacement for proper thinning, regardless of how you are growing fruit. each tree may only have 120 apples on them at maturity... but there are 1200 trees per acre, as opposed to traditional trees having 300-400 apples on them and only being 150 per acre. What ends up happening with systems like this is that you end up with the same quantity of large fruit per acre, but several times greater smaller fruit (still perfectly saleable size, just takes one extra apple to make a peck) per acre than with a more traditional orchard. One must realize that while traditional trees are large, most of the space they take up is wasted on blind (non-fruiting or light intercepting) support wood.
