I was watching the honey bees all over my peach tree flowers today and it occurred to me that peaches are self fertile and wondered if the bees help peaches at all or would the trees create the same quantity and quality fruit with no bees at all?
I searched on google and can’t find anything
The peaches will produce the same with or without bees. There are rare exceptions but nothing to be concerned about.
Hopefully they’ll stick around for the cherries and apples
Put in little patches of yarrow, lavender, etc. between (not in) the fruit tree basins to keep the bees coming nearly year-round. Trailing rosemary blooms year-round here but it is best to put it in a pot so it doesn’t get out of hand.
Posted on the regional site I lost all my redskin peach buds and partials on others. European pear buds are all brown plums buds and blooms did not survive. Peach buds were at first pink although no blooms and three nights of 26 to 28 were too much for them. One night closer to 20. Cold was sustained pretty much over the entire three or so days.
Apple still has a ways to go thankfully.
Really nice today after a cold start. Did some pear grafting and saw the damage better when I was up close and the weather warmed.
Some folks call that self fruitful.
Self fruitful and pollination are two different processes.
Try reading this
“Peaches do not require cross-pollination but do require bee activity for the best fruit set.”
Since one of the moderators said you dont need bees and its of no concern you can also go that route instead. You can pollinate the flowers yourself with a paintbrush or something of that nature.
“The pink blossoms of peach trees attract two groups of insects: those in search of pollen and those in search of nectar. This increases the odds of visits to the blossoms by insects that cause the pollen to drop from the anther to the stigma – the more, the merrier when it comes to pollinating peach tree blossoms!”
So its up to you and google and a moderator to figure out the truth.
In general peaches set so much fruit with or without pollinators, that practically speaking, it doesn’t matter.
Technically, peaches will set better with pollinators, but again it’s superfluous. When you have to thin 75% or more of the fruit off, it doesn’t matter if you have pollinators or not.
I’ve read that experiments caging individual peach blooms (to prevent pollinator activity) did result in less fruit set, but still resulted in full crops.
Also remember there are many other pollinators than bees. People focus on honey bees because they are the most efficient pollinators (when the weather is favorable). Wind also carries pollen.
I have my peach tree in an underground greenhouse. (No bees). I simply bang the limbs around and there is pollen flying around, all over the place. If you get high winds, I think you will also have good pollination.