Most of my apples were doing their thing this year, coming into bloom at slightly different stages as per normal - except that I felt like my Haralson was much later than normal. Thing is I used to be able to count on the State Fair to be there for a pollinating partner, but the deer girdled it and so he’s no longer there. I had a couple of clusters on two very young GoldRush trees, at the very early stages of the Harlson bloom time, but then those few blossoms were quickly gone.
So there my Haralson has sat, blossomed out in all it’s glory - but all alone…, no other Apples in bloom, no Crabs or anything nearby either.
Anyway, it’s been a few days since I’ve been over there and I went to check things out today and I have little clusters forming just like any other year. How does that even happen absent a pollinating partner?
And then to top it off - I’d planted a Zestar! last year and so it’s brand new to me. (You may recall the Stark Bro’s thread showing the rather large Zestar’s I got in??? Well this one wasn’t one of them - it was a nice enough tree that I’d gotten from Grandpa’s Orchard, just not nearly as sized up as the ones I’d ordered in for friends and family from Stark’s)
So I literally know nothing about it other than I wanted one in the ground so I put one over there.
But I am surprised by two things 1) That it’s got a couple little clusters of blossoms on it at this late date, and 2) I’d read somewhere about another apple that said an ideal pollinating partner would be something that flowers early like Zestar!
Well I seldom look at blossom dates of varieties anymore as I just mostly felt like with 14 apple trees over there there’s probably never going to be a pollinating issue. But is it normal for Zestar! to blossom as late as mine has, or is this just maybe an oddity due to the young age of the tree, or the strange winter-spring weather?
I’m scratching my head on both - my Haralson having apples w/o any pollinators around, and with how late the Zestar’s couple of little clusters appeared.
)