thx again guys. when the "drop" hit, everything went-there is no fruit left on this tree. As for polination, like I said I have an orchard within 500 ft of this tree (about 45 acres) and the be hives every spring are usually located about 800 ft from my tree.
I've decided that Mother Nature has more to do with the yield and the quality of the fruits of any of the 20 assorted trees in my orchard. 45 years ago, when I was a newbie (still am), I studied the horticulture of the various fruits. One of the issues was the spray schedule, e.g. dormant spray, pre-blossom and post-blossom spray etc.
As my kids and job got more important than the orchard I gave up on it all and just harvested whatever there was. We did enjoy many a plum, peach, apple, cherry and pear.
The apple picture was an example of a bumper crop of fine apples....just out of the blue...noting that I did.
Fruit should be grasped in the palm of the hand and rotated and lifted upward to remove them. The stem should remain attached to the apple. Never grasp the fruit with your finger tips or pull the fruit downward.