One of my apple trees has a lot of mini apples and still in bloow flowers. Does it matter if I wait until the flowers are done blooming to thin it all? Or can it be thinned taking off flowers and mini apples without any problems?

I don't think you need to rush and do it now. It can be done in June. Besides, I think some apples will drop some of it's own fruit. Then you'll have a better idea what to thin.

it shouldn't hurt to take a few off whenever you walk by.

It is true that some might drop of their own accord later...but if it is just covered...the sooner you take them off, the better (definitely when smaller than your thumbnail)

I like the, thin some when your walking bye, school. Gardening chores should be fun and often with a cuppa coffee or a beer in hand.

Around here we are pretty apt to get a frost after the bloom that will thin them, or some years take the whole crop. I don't get in a big hurry to thin until June 1.

Don't get in roo big of a hurry. Most fruit and especially apples, go through two thinning drops. One about a month after fruit set and again when the fruit is approx the size of golf balls. I the tree is two loaded after that then thin to your liking. The thinning will determine, to some extent, the fruit size.

The thing I understood about timing of thinning...

is if you thin early, you can get a bigger size increase (obviously, you are never going to talk a tree into a giant apple....but I am talking just the largest for that tree). If you wait too long before you thin, then the tree is already set into 'smaller apple size' mode. The thinning is still helpful in that the tree won't exhaust itself, or break branches under apple weight, but you will still have smaller apples, not the largest size the tree is capable of.

Of course I can't remember the cutoff size, so sorry. But I am *pretty* sure the cutoff is soon after thumbnail size.