A GUIDE TO fruitful pollination

David Patch explains the botany behind fruit tree pollination and techniques for success

- David Patch

Without doubt, pruning fruit trees is the most common area people struggle with when growing fruit trees. Pollination, however, comes a very close second. I think it is because there is a little science involved, and a lot of jargon, all of which seem to confuse and make things seem much more complicated than they really are. The reality is that with a little bit of botany, and some common sense, it's easy to get to grips with the basics behind fruit tree pollination and learn practical steps to take to ensure the heaviest possible crops.

POLLINATION GROUPS

If you look on most websites or gardening catalogues, you'll see that top fruit trees are normally given a pollination group. The pollination group basically describes the flowering time of that variety in relation to all other varieties of that particular fruit. It's not set in stone - blossom can appear weeks earlier or later from year to year, depending on the weather, but it does act as a good general guide. There are a few different systems, using either numbers (1-7) or more commonly letters (normally A-D), and the idea is that all varieties in the same group will be flowering at the same time.

The groups all overlap though, so in effect a tree in Group B would be pollinated by any other tree in Groups A, B or C. For pollination purposes, you can also include any suitable tree within 300m or so, as bees travel a huge distance in their daily forays out for nectar and pollen, so the trees don't have to be physically next to each other. This radius means that for many urban or suburban trees, there is generally a suitable apple tree within range. Some varieties of apple are particularly good pollinators – all the crab apples in particular, as they produce an abundance of blossom and flower for a very long period, so overlap with all the pollination groups.