Fruit tree pollination

Pollination of fruit trees is required to produce seeds with surrounding fruit. It is the process of moving pollen from the anther to the stigma, either in the same flower or in another flower. Some tree species, including many fruit trees, do not produce fruit from self-pollination, so pollinizer trees are planted in orchards.

The pollination process requires a carrier for the pollen, which can be animal, wind, or human intervention (by hand-pollination or by using a pollen sprayer). Cross pollination produces seeds with a different genetic makeup from the parent plants; such seeds may be created deliberately as part of a selective breeding program for fruit trees with desired attributes. Trees that are cross-pollinated or pollinated via an insect pollinator produce more fruit than trees with flowers that just self-pollinate. In fruit trees, bees are an essential part of the pollination process for the formation of fruit.

Pollination of fruit trees around the world has been highly studied for hundreds of years. Much is known about fruit tree pollination in temperate climates, but much less is known about fruit tree pollination in tropical climates. Fruits from temperate climates include apples, pears, plums, peaches, cherries, berries, grapes, and nuts which are considered dry fruits. Fruits from tropical climates include bananas, pineapples, papayas, passion fruit, avocado, mango, and members of the genus ''Citrus''.

Temperate fruits

Apples

Most apple plants/trees are self-incompatible, that is, they do not produce fruit when pollinated from a flower of the same tree or from another tree of the same cultivar, and must be cross pollinated. A few are described as "self-fertile" and are capable of self-pollination, although even those tend to carry larger crops when cross pollinated from a suitable pollenizer. A relatively small number of cultivars are "triploid", meaning that they provide almost no viable pollen for themselves or other apple trees. Apples that can pollinate one another are grouped by the time they flower so cross-pollinators are in bloom at the same time. Pollination management is an important component of apple culture. Before planting, it is important to arrange for pollenizers – varieties of apple or crabapple that provide plentiful, viable and compatible pollen. Orchard blocks may alternate rows of compatible varieties, or may plant crabapple trees, or graft on limbs of crabapple. Some varieties produce very little pollen, or the pollen is sterile, so these are not good pollenizers. Good-quality nurseries have pollenizer compatibility lists. Growers with old orchard blocks of single varieties sometimes provide bouquets of crabapple blossoms in drums or pails in the orchard for pollenizers. Home growers with a single tree and no other variety in the neighborhood can do the same on a smaller scale.

During the bloom each season, commercial apple growers usually provide pollinators to carry the pollen. Honeybee hives are most commonly used in the United States, and arrangements may be made with a commercial beekeeper who supply hives for a fee. Honeybees of the genus ''Apis'' are the most common pollinator for apple trees, although members of the genera ''Andrena'', ''Bombus'', ''Halictus'', and ''Osmia'' pollinate apple trees in the wild. Solitary bees or wild bees such as ground-nesting mining bees (''Andrena'') may play a far bigger role in pollination than at one time suspected, and are alternative pollinators in orchards. Bumble bees are sometimes present in orchards, but not usually in enough quantity to be significant pollinators; in the home garden with only a few trees, their role may be much greater. Apple growers also rely on several species of wild bees for pollination in their orchard.

Increasingly Orchard bees (spring mason bees, genus ''Osmia'') are being used in fruit tree pollination. According to British writer Christopher O'Toole in his book ''The Red Mason Bee'', ''Osmia rufa

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