Apple

Most Apple

Apple

The apple is the pomaceous fruit of the apple tree, species Malus domestica in the rose family . It is one of the most widely cultivated tree fruits, and the most widely known of the many members of genus Malus that are used by humans. Apple grow on small, deciduous trees that blossom in the spring...

s are self incompatible and must be cross pollinated. A few are described as "self-fertile" and are capable of self-pollination although they tend to carry larger crops when pollinated. A relatively small number of species are "Triploid", meaning that they provide no viable pollen for themselves or other apple trees. Apples that can pollinate one another are grouped by the time they usually flower so cross-pollinators are in bloom at the same time. Pollination management

Pollination management

Pollination Management is the label for horticultural practices that accomplish or enhance pollination of a crop, to improve yield or quality, by understanding of the particular crop's pollination needs, and by knowledgeable management of pollenizers, pollinators, and pollination...

is an important component of apple culture. Before planting, it is important to arrange for pollenizer

Pollenizer

A pollenizer or polleniser, sometimes pollinizer or polliniser is a plant that provides pollen.In American English, the words pollenizer and pollinator are often confused: A pollinator is the biotic agent that moves the pollen, such as bees, moths, bats, and birds...

s - varieties of apple or crabapple

Malus

Malus , the apples, are a genus of about 30–35 species of small deciduous trees or shrubs in the family Rosaceae. Other studies go as far as 55 species including the domesticated Orchard Apple, or Table apple as it was formerly called...

 that provide plentiful, viable and compatible pollen

Pollen

Pollen is a fine to coarse powder containing the microgametophytes of seed plants, which produce the male gametes . Pollen grains have a hard coat that protects the sperm cells during the process of their movement from the stamens to the pistil of flowering plants or from the male cone to the...

. Orchard blocks may alternate rows of compatible varieties, or may plant crabapple tree

Tree

A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...

s, or graft

Grafting

Grafting is a horticultural technique whereby tissues from one plant are inserted into those of another so that the two sets of vascular tissues may join together. This vascular joining is called inosculation...

 on limbs

Branch

A branch or tree branch is a woody structural member connected to but not part of the central trunk of a tree...

 of crabapple. Some varieties produce very little pollen, or the pollen is sterile

Infertility

Infertility primarily refers to the biological inability of a person to contribute to conception. Infertility may also refer to the state of a woman who is unable to carry a pregnancy to full term...

, so these are not good pollenizers. Good-quality nurseries

Nursery (horticulture)

A nursery is a place where plants are propagated and grown to usable size. They include retail nurseries which sell to the general public, wholesale nurseries which sell only to businesses such as other nurseries and to commercial gardeners, and private nurseries which supply the needs of...

 have pollenizer compatibility lists.

Growers with old orchard blocks of single varieties

Variety (biology)

In botanical nomenclature, variety is a taxonomic rank below that of species: as such, it gets a three-part infraspecific name....

 sometimes provide bouquets of crabapple blossom

Blossom

In botany, blossom is a term given to the flowers of stone fruit trees and of some other plants with a similar appearance that flower profusely for a period of time in spring...

s in drums

Drum (container)

A drum is a cylindrical container used for shipping bulk cargo. Drums can be made of steel, dense paperboard , or plastics, and are generally used for the transportation and storage of liquids and powders. Drums are often certified for shipment of dangerous goods...

 or pails

Bucket

A bucket, also called a pail, is typically a watertight, vertical cylinder or truncated cone, with an open top and a flat bottom, usually attached to a semicircular carrying handle called the bail. A pail can have an open top or can have a lid....

 in the orchard for pollenizers. Home growers with a single tree and no other variety in the neighborhood

Neighbourhood

A neighbourhood or neighborhood is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town or suburb. Neighbourhoods are often social communities with considerable face-to-face interaction among members. "Researchers have not agreed on an exact definition...

 can do the same on a smaller scale.

During the bloom each season, apple growers usually provide pollinator

Pollinator

A pollinator is the biotic agent that moves pollen from the male anthers of a flower to the female stigma of a flower to accomplish fertilization or syngamy of the female gamete in the ovule of the flower by the male gamete from the pollen grain...

s to carry the pollen. Honeybee hives

Beehive (beekeeping)

A beehive is an enclosed structure in which some honey bee species of the subgenus Apis live and raise their young. Natural beehives are naturally occurring structures occupied by honeybee colonies, while domesticated honeybees live in man-made beehives, often in an apiary. These man-made...

 are most commonly used, and arrangements may be made with a commercial beekeeper

Beekeeper

A beekeeper is a person who keeps honey bees for the purposes of securing commodities such as honey, beeswax, pollen, royal jelly; pollinating fruits and vegetables; raising queens and bees for sale to other farmers; and/or for purposes satisfying natural scientific curiosity...

 who supplies hives for a fee.

number of honey bee hives per acre for optimal pollination
Apples (semi dwarf)	2
Apples (dwarf)	3
Apricots	1
Pears	1
Plums	1

Orchard mason bees

Megachilidae

The Megachilidae are a cosmopolitan family of solitary bees whose pollen-carrying structure is restricted to the ventral surface of the abdomen...

 are also used as supplemental pollinators in commercial orchards. Home growers may find these more acceptable in suburban locations because they do not sting. Some wild bees such as carpenter bee

Carpenter bee

Carpenter bees are large, hairy bees distributed worldwide. There are some 500 species of carpenter bee in 31 subgenera...

s and other solitary bees may help. Bumble bee queens are sometimes present in orchards, but not usually in enough quantity to be significant pollinators.

Symptoms of inadequate pollination are small and misshapen apples, and slowness to ripen

Ripening

Ripening is a process in fruits that causes them to become more palatable. In general, a fruit becomes sweeter, less green, and softer as it ripens. Even though the acidity of fruit increases as it ripens, the higher acidity level does not make the fruit seem tarter, which can lead to the...

. The seed

Seed

A seed is a small embryonic plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some stored food. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant...

s can be counted to evaluate pollination. Well-pollinated apples are the best quality, and will have seven to ten seeds. Apples with fewer than three seeds will usually not mature and will drop from the trees in the early summer

Summer

Summer is the warmest of the four temperate seasons, between spring and autumn. At the summer solstice, the days are longest and the nights are shortest, with day-length decreasing as the season progresses after the solstice...

. Inadequate pollination can result from either a lack of pollinators or pollenizers, or from poor pollinating weather

Weather

Weather is the state of the atmosphere, to the degree that it is hot or cold, wet or dry, calm or stormy, clear or cloudy. Most weather phenomena occur in the troposphere, just below the stratosphere. Weather refers, generally, to day-to-day temperature and precipitation activity, whereas climate...

 at bloom time. It generally requires multiple bee visits to deliver sufficient grains of pollen to accomplish complete pollination.

Pear

Pears are similar to apples, with the notable exception that pear blossoms are much less attractive to bees, due to lower sugar content than apple or contemporaneous wildflower nectar. Bees may abandon the pear blossoms to visit dandelions or a nearby apple orchard. There are two possible methods used to compensate. One is saturation pollination

Saturation pollination

Saturation pollination is a pollination technique for agricultural crops in areas dominated by non-crop plant species that are preferred by pollinators. The technique involves keeping a larger number of bee colonies than normally maintained for honey production so as to exhaust the preferred plants...

, that is to stock so many bees that all area blossoms are worked regardless of the attractiveness to the bees. The other is to delay the movement of the beehives into the orchards until there is about 30 per cent bloom. The bees are moved into the orchard during the night and will usually visit the pear blossoms for a few hours until they discover the richer nectar sources. The recommended number of hives per acre is 1.

Citrus

Many citrus

Citrus

Citrus is a common term and genus of flowering plants in the rue family, Rutaceae. Citrus is believed to have originated in the part of Southeast Asia bordered by Northeastern India, Myanmar and the Yunnan province of China...

 varieties are seedless and are produced parthenocarpically without pollination. Some varieties may be capable of producing fruit either way, having seeds in the segments, if pollinated, and no seeds if not.

Citrus that requires pollination may be self compatible, thus pollen

Pollen

Pollen is a fine to coarse powder containing the microgametophytes of seed plants, which produce the male gametes . Pollen grains have a hard coat that protects the sperm cells during the process of their movement from the stamens to the pistil of flowering plants or from the male cone to the...

 must be moved only a short distance from the anther to the stigma

Stigma (botany)

The stigma is the receptive tip of a carpel, or of several fused carpels, in the gynoecium of a flower. The stigma receives pollen at pollination and it is on the stigma that the pollen grain germinates. The stigma is adapted to catch and trap pollen with various hairs, flaps, or sculpturings...

 by a pollinator. Some citrus, such as Meyer Lemon

Meyer lemon

Citrus × meyeri, the Meyer lemon, is a citrus fruit native to China thought to be a cross between a true lemon and either a mandarin or common orange. It was introduced to the United States in 1908 as S.P.I...

s, are popular container plants. When these bloom indoors, they often suffer from blossom drop because no pollinators have access. Hand pollinate

Hand pollination

Hand pollination is a technique used when natural, or open pollination is insufficient or undesirable. The most common techniques are for crops such as cucurbits, which may exhibit poor pollination by fruit abortion, fruit deformity or poor maturation...

 by a human pollinator is a solution, though it is important to learn whether the variety is self fertile or self incompatible.

A few citrus varieties, including some tangelo

Tangelo

The tangelo , Citrus × tangelo, is also widely known as the honeybell. Tangelo is a citrus fruit that is a hybrid of a tangerine and either a pomelo or a grapefruit. The fruits are the size of an adult fist and have a tangerine taste, but are very juicy, to the point of not providing much flesh...

s and tangerine

Tangerine

__notoc__The tangerine is an orange-colored citrus fruit which is closely related to the Mandarin orange . Taxonomically, it should probably be formally named as a subspecies or variety of Citrus reticulata; further work seems to be required to ascertain its correct scientific name...

s are self incompatible, and require cross pollination. Pollenizers must be planned when groves are planted. This last group generally requires the addition of managed honeybee hives at bloom time for adequate pollination.