Pollination for Apple Trees

Chiefs Mess

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Boy I thought I had this down and ready to go Fruit Tree shopping. Nope
Okay I received the Stark Bros. catalog and was shopping through the magazine. But I am also shopping to see if any stores would have any trees. I prefer hands on when I shop if all is possible. Well, Lowes has the Semi-Dwarf Apple Trees I am interested in with a goooood price. I would rather have Dwarf Trees in a perfect world. Here is were the Science is getting me confused:

The Semi-Dwarf (SD) Golden Delicious Apple needs a SD Red Delicious for pollination

The SD Red Delicious needs a SD Granny Smith for pollination

Have no idea what a Granny Smith needs since they did not have any.

Also the tag stated they grow to be up to 20' tall and wide. Gonna big for me, that sounds like a Standard Tree to me.

Now I came home to check all this with the Stark Bros catalog. For one the SD trees do not grow that tall, thiers grow up to 15' tall.
Then for the pollinations, Starks Bros does not have the same trees for pollination. Now I am wondering if it is that Stark Bros. has their own strain, breed (what ever you call it) of SD Gold. Del. and SD Red Del. Maybe that is why they have those two cross pollinate.

I will do some searching on the computer and books. But I am wondering if anyone out here had just SD Gold. Del and SD Red Del and the pollination went fine with just those two. Oh and bought the trees from a store not a catalog.

Also how many trees should I have to get a good pollination? Is like corn; couple of rows for good pollination? Or will just one tree each do the trick. Oh for bees and other insects to help out the pollination is no problem.

Again and always thank you for your help. Awesome site!!
 

smom1976

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I just planted this year too.. I just went off what the guy told me..

I planted 3 apple trees..

1 granny smith, 1 anna apple, and 1 Gala apple. They are planted like this


x x



x x



x


the two on the right are florida king peach trees..the apples are down the left side..


with about 15 feet between them..

I want to plant a fig in the last spot below the peach trees. I only planted them this way because I had a spot in my yard.. and I filled it up..
 

patandchickens

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The thing with apples is that you need a pollinator that flowers at the same time, has the same # chromosomes, and *has* pollen. This actually gives you a pretty broad range of choices. The catalog is just saying "of the few things we sell, these are the combinations that will achieve pollination".

The subject of who pollinates whom has been discussed on another thread(s) and if you Search and find it there's some links to websites that tell you what combinations work. Or just google.

Just one tree of each, within a hundred feet or preferably twenty or so, will do just fine. Neighbors' trees or wild trees count too in this regard ;)

You will find different sources quoting different mature heights on plants because of different marketing strategies, also some quote mature height and some quote height at X years but *call* it mature, and some revise the estimate for their climate and others don;t. Also, with apples there are different rootstocks that your semi-dwarf trees could be growing on, which will slightly affect their eventual height. Really, I would not sweat the difference between 15' and 20' - yours will probably end up some entirely different number anyhow :p

BTW, do you REALLY want to INTENTIONALLY plant a Red Delicious??????? There are about a million different varieties that are a whole big lot better, in terms of taste and some in terms of disease resistance as welll... (Golden Delicious, which is utterly unrelated except for coming from the same original breeder, is really quite a useful and tasty apple)

Good luck, have fun,

Pat
 

patandchickens

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Did you perhaps read it in the Stark catalog? LOL

It's not true. A quick google finds many common cultivars such as Gala, Empire, Granny Smith, etc etc recommended as potential pollinators.

Here is one chart I ran across:

http://www.fruit-tree.com/applepollen.html

It is not massively comprehensive in terms of what varieties it includes, but Yellow Delicious is in there (and Red Delicious not ;))

There are SO many better things to grow than Red Delicious anyhow... :p


Pat, with "Liberty" "Freedom" and "Novaspy" getting towards bearing age, I hope.
 

Rosalind

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What Pat said +1.

Seriously, you WANT a couple of Delicious apples? Really? Well...OK...

My objections to Delicious varieties is that 1. you can buy them in any grocery store 2. they taste like sweetened cardboard 3. they are insanely prolific. You'll get far more sweet cardboard spheres than you can really use.

You can use lots of other apples for cross-pollination. They should be planted within reasonable bee-range, so, within spitting distance.

Even if it's on semidwarf stock, you can keep it pruned to dwarf size. Apple trees put up with a lot of pruning.

Current orchard has: Northern Spy, Lady, Darcy Spice, Spitzenburg, Porter's Perfection, Roxbury Russet, Seek-No-further, Calville Blanc D'Hiver. Used to have Jefferis & White Pearmain, but they died in a very bad deer attack.
 

Chiefs Mess

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The Golden Del. is my main Tree. I use only Golden Del. in my apple pies. Never had a negative comment for over 20 years now. Never tried another type of apple. Really not sure what else is good for pies. Never really looked into it.

I don;t buy apples in the store. The only time I bake pies is when we go to the Mts. and buy apples from the Orchard.
 

patandchickens

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Rosalind said:
Seriously, you WANT a couple of Delicious apples? Really? Well...OK...
Don't lump Golden Delicious and Red Delicious together. They are totally unrelated, the only reason they have the same name is they come from the same breeder. But from utterly different parentage.

Golden Delicious is QUITE a worthy apple, both for fresh eating and for cooking/baking. Honest. Keeps pretty well too.

Red Delicious should be reserved only for looking at. If that.


Pat
 

nightshade

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patandchickens said:
Did you perhaps read it in the Stark catalog? LOL
Okay so there is no reason to be rude! It was a question, I had read it in a few orcharding book from the 80-90's as well as had the local apple orchard tell me this was the case. I was wondering if that was truthfully the case or not. I personally do not have either because I think there are just better varieties out there for both eating and baking.

But I think that no one should criticize someone else for their choice of what varieties they grow. You should grow what you like, not what other people think you should like.
 

Rosalind

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patandchickens said:
Golden Delicious is QUITE a worthy apple, both for fresh eating and for cooking/baking. Honest. Keeps pretty well too.
You can have 'em then! :lol: For yellow fresh eating apples, I'd rather Mutsu, Ginger Gold or Cox Orange Pippin, myself.

Re: Baking apples, around these parts folks are all about the Rhode Island Greenings. I am a huge fan of Northern Spy as a nice all-purpose apple, but IMHO if you want seriously gourmet apple desserts, use a blend of Spy, Greening, and either one of the russet varieties or a Reinette. The Reinettes in particular tend to taste somewhat of oranges, pineapple, elderflower, muscat grape, etc.--interesting fruity flavors that complement the apple-ness.

If you bake a LOT and like to make apple dumplings: Lady apples are these sort of little bitty apples that you see in stores around Xmas time, sometimes used as decorations. Eaten fresh, they're sort of awful and taste a bit like nutty Play-Doh, not good. But cooked! OMG. Good. I did miniature two-bite apple dumplings for Xmas and also a hot cider bowl with baked Lady apples floating in it. They magically became yummy by cooking. You would not think so from eating fresh, but cooked they are very decent. The mini-dumplings tend to get eaten by people who would not normally eat a whole dessert by themselves.

Me personally, I like to try eating an apple before I commit to growing a lot of them. You gotta figure, it's a multi-year investment of time and $$ before you see any fruit.
 
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