Hi
I have a Haralson apple tree that I planted 2.5 years ago. No apples.
Supposed to be self-fruitfull, but since then I have read that apple
trees really aren't self-fruitfull, and I need a pollenizer (they tell
me this is the right term, but it still looks weird when I type it. )
Then I found out that the blooming period has to match (which makes
sense, you need pollen when you have blossoms) but I am having such a
hard time finding charts of bloom periods that have any varieties that
do my area (Twin Cities area of Minnesota. We're zone 4a, so I need a
variety that will stand up to the cold, maybe -25 or -30 F, -31 to -34
C ) Can anyone point me towards a good source of info, or possibly
recommend cold hardy varieties with the right bloom period?
Also, I planted a sour cherry last year (meteor) and they tell me sour
cherries are self-fruitful. Is it true?
Thanks
Chris Oinonen Ehren
oinonenehren@comcast.net
If I were you, I'd ask the question of your county extension agent. If they
don't know the answer, they could get it from someone in the agriculture
college at your land-grant university. New York state ag people are very
knowledgeable about apple trees, but with ubiquitous budget cuts, they may
not answer questions from out of state. Margaret L
What kind of rootstock is this tree on? If it's a standard tree, it may not
fruit until it's 9 years old. Two and a half years is really too soon to
expect a crop, even for semi-dwarf or dwarf trees, IMO. Margaret L, who
re-thought her previous answer
Chris wrote:
http://www.colorwithplants.com/nate/lw/pollinationofapples.asp
Haralson is usually listed as "self-fertile", but will produce better with
any of the trees listed as "Late".
> Also, I planted a sour cherry last year (meteor) and they tell me sour
> cherries are self-fruitful. Is it true?
All sour cherries are described as "self-fruitful", and Meteor usually
produces well with just one tree.
Ada
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In a message dated 2/11/05 10:24:56 AM Eastern Standard Time,
melauter123@MSN.COM writes:
<< I have a Haralson apple tree that I planted 2.5 years ago. No apples.
> Supposed to be self-fruitfull, but since then I have read that apple
> trees really aren't self-fruitfull, and I need a pollenizer (they tell
> me this is the right term, but it still looks weird when I type it. )
> Then I found out that the blooming period has to match (which makes
> sense, you need pollen when you have blossoms) but I am having such a
> hard time finding charts of bloom periods that have any varieties that
> do my area (Twin Cities area of Minnesota. >>
I planted a semi-dwarf MacIntosh apple tree several years ago. When I heard
it had to have a pollinator I was upset, because as far as I knew, there were
no other apple trees nearby. However, I've had fine crops every year. I think
my neighbor's ornamental crabapple trees may be providing the pollinator. Does
anybody know if this is possible?
Mary Ann
My sour cherry, a Danish kind, is self-fruitful. Carol
Chris wrote:
> Hi I have a Haralson apple tree that I planted 2.5 years ago. No
> apples. Supposed to be self-fruitfull, but since then I have read
> that apple trees really aren't self-fruitfull, and I need a
> pollenizer (they tell me this is the right term, but it still looks
> weird when I type it. ) Then I found out that the blooming period has
> to match (which makes sense, you need pollen when you have blossoms)
> but I am having such a hard time finding charts of bloom periods that
> have any varieties that do my area (Twin Cities area of Minnesota.
> We're zone 4a, so I need a variety that will stand up to the cold,
> maybe -25 or -30 F, -31 to -34 C ) Can anyone point me towards a
> good source of info, or possibly recommend cold hardy varieties with
> the right bloom period?
> Also, I planted a sour cherry last year (meteor) and they tell me
> sour cherries are self-fruitful. Is it true?
Hi Chris
I expect by now you know that you are being far to impatient! As apple
trees will often last up to one hundred years they are in no hurry to
get fruiting. Even peaches and plums which live out their lives at a
much faster pace like to spend a couple of years getting a good
framework established. I don't know if you realize, but apple wood which
grows in one year never develops fruit buds until it has gone dormant
for the winter, so you will never find either flowers or fruit until the
shoot has been on the tree a whole year. This applies to pears as well
and to a lesser extent to plums.
Fruit production takes a lot of the year's growth energy and if
attempted too soon can result in a miserable little stunted tree which
never afterwards grows enough wood to bear a good crop. In fact I should
be very unhappy to see any young apple tree, even a dwarf, under about
four years old actually setting any fruit and would probaby take a pair
of scissors and snip most of them off as soon as formed, leaving only
one or two as a sample.
You have also been told that this variety is self-fruitful, though
all apples do tend to set more and better fruit if pollinated by another
tree, even another individual of the same variety, and as someone was
enquiring crab apples will often supply suitable pollen for the job. The
tree which supplies the pollen may not be within sight of your garden as
long as it is not too far away to be worked by the same lot of bees..
What you _do_ need is at least a few bees or other suitable insects
(certain flies, for instance) to actually do the job and if you are in a
district where very few are around you could even find it necessary to
do the work yourself with a small fine paintbrush, but even a very few
insects seem to be able to do the job surprisingly thouroughly.
Apples are in fact one of the easiest groups to satisfy and there is
seldom any need to track down a specific pollinator (I have never myself
heard of "pollinizator", which sound an awful mouthful I agree). Many
pears and plums are much more fussy.
So I would suggest you should relax for the present and concetrate in
getting your little tree to grow plenty of strong well-spaced branches
to carry those fruit buds. You do not have to keep every growth, but
can thin them out over winter leaving the strongest and cutting out weak
crowded and crossing ones. The best fruit in the future will be formed
on the strongest wood, especially that which gets plenty of light and air.
One thing you will have to learn to recognise is fruit buds and the
fruit spurs they will grow into. In the year a shoot grows it carries
only vegetative buds, which are small and lie close against the stem,
but over their second winter some of these will alter and become stout
little torpedo-shaped structures sticking out from the branch. These
will produce flowers in the following spring and some or all may go on
to set fruit. if they do fruit, you should e very careful when you pick
to leave these structures intact, as they should last for many years,
slowly evolving with time from single into branched structures with
several "heads" which are known as spurs and these will be the
foundation of the tree's fruitfulness from then on.
Sour cherries are also self fertile, which I think someone else has
already confrmed. Unlike apples cherries need very little pruning other
than the removal of broken or crossing branches.
Moira
--
Tony & Moira Ryan,
Wainuiomata, North Island, NZ.
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