Fruit Tree Pollination
Garden Tips for Winter and Early Spring Planting
Pansies will brighten your flower beds with their happy faces and bloom all through the spring. Plant seeds of broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, and other spring vegetables now. Many fine varieties of flowering dogwoods, tulip magnolias, Japanese maples, and other specimen plants are now available at nurseries for winter planting. Blueberries are a delicious fruit that can be planted now from young plants—give them a rich, acid bed prepared with lots of peat moss. Roses should be pruned in February near the end of the dormant season, but you can clean them up now by removing all the old leaves on and around the plants.
Pollination in the Home Orchard
The job of a fruit tree is to make seeds, which will produce more trees. The fruit itself is part of the package from the tree’s perspective, but seed development requires pollination, which can be done by wind or insects. Most fruit trees rely on bees, wasps, and hover flies for pollination. For a successful home orchard, it’s important to understand the pollination requirements of the trees you plant.
- Self-fruitful trees can be fertilized by pollen from another flower on the same tree and will produce fruit even if isolated. Examples include most peaches, apricots, sour cherries, and some apples, pears, and plums.
- Partially self-fruitful trees will produce a crop on their own but yield a larger harvest (up to twice as much) if cross-pollinated. Many apples and pears fall into this category.
- Non-self-fruitful trees require pollen from another variety to set fruit. Their own pollen is defective or sterile. Most sweet cherries, some apples, plums, and a few peaches are in this group. For example, a Bing cherry tree needs a Van or Black Tartarian cherry nearby for pollination.
Pollination Best Practices
- Cross-pollinating trees must bloom at the same time—blooming time doesn’t always match fruiting time, so verify compatibility.
- Plant pollenizer trees within 50 feet of each other, as bees must visit both on the same trip.
- Avoid spraying pesticides while trees are in bloom to protect pollinators.
- Alternatives to planting multiple trees include:
- Planting a combination tree with several grafted varieties.
- Grafting a branch of a fertile-pollen variety onto a tree that needs pollination.
- Crabapple trees often serve as excellent pollenizers for regular apple trees.
Factors Affecting Pollination
Even with compatible trees, weather can interfere with pollination. Spring frosts or heavy rains can damage flower buds, with more developed buds being more sensitive. Fortunately, not every bud needs to survive for a good crop, but repeated frost incidents reduce fruiting potential.
When planning your orchard or adding new trees, always check pollination requirements to ensure fruit production—not just blossoms—in the years ahead.