Donnie: Nope. curious why a person wouldn't train the tree to a more manageable height instead.

Michael

Thanks, Michael, for a straightforward feedback.
I work with a lot of homeowners who...because they just bought the house....or because they have neglected the tree for years....now find they want to take a modest interest in their tree and maybe have a FEW good apples....but don't wish to spray.....and don't wish to reduce the height of the tree so much that they have to prune it year after year.
In other words, they are not the expert gardeners we have on this forum....they have an apple tree that has sentimental or ornamental value for them and don't want to do much on the tree other than just to put foot sox on a few of their apples.
I am wondering if they could just spray off the top part of their trees while blossoming and then reduce the number of bad apples and manage the lower ones instead.
I work with people on this but don't own my own property with which to experiment.

I actually like the idea a lot. It sounds like a worthy research experiment for commercial production. If you had a power washer with controlled pressure you might be able to actually thin buds throughout the tree this way.

I see your point Donnie and agree with H-man. There is probably an endless limit to the possible combinations of pressure, nozzle types, distance to target, bloom stage, etc. to experiment with. Give it a whirl.