I just planted a bunch of apples that seem to do well in the south. I’ve looked up some of the pollination requirements but don’t know if I’ve left one or more of them uncovered. Can anyone advise whether I need another pollinator?
Bramley’s Seedling
Devonshire Crimson Queen
Blairmont
Liberty
Hunge
Anna
Reverend Morgan
Arkansas Black
Williams Pride
Royal Limbertwig
Swiss Limbertwig
And there is one on a Golden Delicious interstem and there is a branch of that still present.
I know the Bramley’s is a triploid and covered by Hunge and Reverend Morgan.
I would suggest a Yellow Delicious and or Grimes Golden to give them a reliable pollinator. They seem to bloom long enough each spring to help make sure the other apple trees have an opportunity to be pollinated.
Thanks Mark. I actually have trouble understanding that chart. Do you need to have a couple in the same group to pollinate each other? And none of the limbertwigs, the blairmont, and the Devonshire are listed and very little information is offered online about them.
When we first built our current home… I started an orchard … back in 2002.
2 apples 2 pears 2 peaches 2 plums.
1 of those apples was my early mcintosh.
The other red delicious.
They were abut 20 ft apart.
I also planted a pink flowering crab in the back yard … like 70 yards away.
In year 3 or 4 the red delicious died of fire blight… I planted another variety… and in year 3 or 4 it died of fireblight… and yes… I planted another and it died too.
The only pollinator my early mcintosh ever really had was a crab 70 yards away and it produced lots of nice apples.
The crab that I have starts blooming before my early mcintosh which is in FG2… and it continues to bloom until my Novamac (FG4) has been blooming for a couple of weeks.
It produces a big flush of blossoms early on and after those are done it continues to produce blossoms in the limb tips on new growth for weeks longer. It successfully pollinates a tree in FG2 and in FG4.
With that many varieties you have everything covered. Plus, the bees that work your trees will likely be working other apple trees in the area. I’d be dumbstruck if pollination is an issue. More likely you’ll be like everyone else, spending a lot of time thinning.
There is actually a new technique to limit the amount of fruit set so as to lower the expense of thinning commercial orchards. They net the trees to limit honeybee access. It also controls pests like codling moth. The trees are enclosed in netting after a certain percentage of open king bloom. Then netted the rest of the summer. Also reduces sunburn and hail damage.
@fruitnut …. That’s good to know! I wondered about the different varieties being enough but then some were diverse enough not to be listed anywhere or it becomes a loop trying to figure out on Orange pippin. So I choose the lazy way and ask those who know a lot more than me about apples. Texas is not apple friendly and my experiment is to find some varieties that might be hardy enough to make it. I may not live long enough…….
I ordered a Dolgo crab just to make sure and it was fireblight resistant and the apples make good jelly according to the advert.
I have started about 10 apple seedlings from jonagold apples. My sister lives in an area that hasn’t any apple trees that we know of within a couple of miles and i was going to give her a couple of these trees. Since the mother tree was a Jonagold but the father tree could be several varieties will they pollinate each other, or does she have to get another tree for pollination once she sees that time of spring that they bloom. She will have enough room for 2 trees, but I told her if they wouldn’t pollinate, she could graft another variety on each tree later. I am going to grow out a couple of them too, but I have some established trees for pollination.
I seriously doubt you’ll have any issues. The Ark Black (triploid) I have blooms at the same time as the Golden D, a little later than the Williams Pride. If I were to add another tree to strengthen the pollination portfolio, it would be a Yellow D. They are the bud light of apples, but it is a beast of a pollinator and is very blight and fungus resistant. I lost a full-grown Yellow D to wind last year and the loss of that tree has really diminished one of my small orchards to near zero yield. My Summer banana just doesn’t do a good of a job as a YD.
I don’t like the Golden D for my 7B NC area. Too much blight and foliage fungal issues.
I use my Golden Delicious more of a pollinator than anything else. If I get apples off of them to use fine, if not the pollen the tree produces does it’s job of pollinating my other trees around in my orchard.
Although numerous internet sites state Golden Delicious as a variety suitable for pollinating Jonagold (?!), this should not be true. Varieties are in most cases incompatible with direct relatives, and Golden Delicious is one of the parents of Jonagold - both S-alleles from Golden Delicious are contained in the Jonagold genome (S2S3).
Therefore, Golden Delicious is not a compatible pollinator for Jonagold!
