The investigations were carried out in a commercial orchard in the Lublin region on 5-year old apple trees cv. Jonagold’/M.26 in the years 1997-1999. Hand thinning was made in the middle of May, leaving the fruits from king or lateral flowers intact, or after the June Drop. The fruitlets were not thinned in the control trees. The obtained results show that control trees were characterised by typical biennial bearing. All thinning methods in the studied seasons caused an increase in the individual fruit mass, flesh firmness and soluble solids content as compared to the control. It was noted that the season had a great effect on the quality features of apples. Apples harvested in 1998 and 1999 had much higher dry matter, soluble solids and sugar content than fruits in the first year of study.