Sunday, August 24, 2014

Cross Pollinating Apples





I always knew from reading that Apples needed cross pollinating trees to fruit out properly but it wasn't anything I ever really played around with because we had four large Apple trees that had been here longer than anyone could remember. Even some an old Local 70 year old I talk to occasionally who grew up in this house said they were big when he was a kid.

We always had Apples and they were always pretty much the same. They looked like the small yellow ones with light red streaks you see in the picture above. Some more yellow or greenish than red some less, some would be red on one side but less so on the other. I kinda thought they were some type of Breabern because they always had that look to em but they were never more than palm sized at best.

Then we steadily started losing trees. We lost one in 2010, one in 2011 and then the third one, and biggest best producing, in 2012 during the drought. We got no Apples in 2012 and although I planted some new trees around that year so we have twice as many now as we did, we got no Apples last year either.

This year however the last remaining old tree is heavy once again with Apples. The thing is we are seeing a brand new type with much less red and more greenish yellow....

And they are HUGE.

I mean twice to three times the size of anything I have ever seen that tree produce in 30 years of being around this property.

While I always believed what the experts said about needing cross pollinator trees for Apples I never knew the type of Apple you would get would also change depending on what type you had cross pollinating the other. I mean I figured it would  make a difference in the seeds but thought it would play out like say two different types of Watermelon. It would pollinate but not show a cross until the cross pollinated seeds develop fruit themselves.

I guess with Apples it shows up in the fruit as well although I have never seen any thing I read about it stating it would specifically. I read plenty that said different cross pollinating schemes would produce more Apples but never different types.

Or maybe I am wrong and it is simply something different about the climate or who knows what? All I know is that ancient old tree is producing Apples that I have never seen before after years of picking and mowing over them.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!



11 comments:

  1. You're right the tree determines the type of apple you get and pollinator determines the genetocs of the seed, alonh with every other type of genes in their backgrounds. The cause is something else.

    Best,
    Dan

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    Replies
    1. Dan - That's the way I understood it as well but I thought maybe I had missed something. I have never seen this tree produce Apples like these. Maybe it has something to do with the mini-drought we had?

      I am at a loss but the Apples this year are so different there has to be something going on.

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  2. Apple trees produce 3 varieties of pollen, according to Stark Brothers Nursery booklet, either A, B or C. They often need a type other than what they produce, & some need both A & B. Golden Delicious trees produce "B" pollen & are one of the few self-pollinating trees. Most crab apples produce "A". Winesap trees produce "C" pollen, but need A,B. Once I planted a crab apple tree, all my non-producing trees began to have apples on them. Now I make it a poitn to have a Golden Delicious tree & at least one crab apple tree. I used a Maypole columnar crab apple, because I have a small lot, & it doesn't take up much space.

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    Replies
    1. Marivene - Yes I understand that. I even have a few crab Apple I placed on the border to help with pollination. Pollination isn't really my question though I achieved that, at least with my old tree by adding in the new ones. The problem is I have never seen the old tree produce the fruit like it is this year which lead me to question whether the cross pollinator can actually effect the fruit on the parent tree. Nothing I have read suggest it can but something is doing so.

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    2. I guess maybe a good theory could be that perhaps the old cross pollinating set up was missing one of the three pollen types and now one or more of the new trees has that type which is making the old tree produce better ie bigger Apples?

      Maybe?

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    3. The little pamphlet indicates that most of the trees need A.B, which is two kinds. Perhaps WHICH of the two kinds makes a bigger difference than we thought? With the odd weather we have had this year throughout the US, I wonder if the "order of pollination" by the bees might have affected which pollen actually cross pollinated the old tree, or perhaps one of the new trees was just a superb pollinator for the old one. Every so often in the tree descriptions in various fruit tree catalogs, they will say something like, "pollinate with Golden Delicious or Red Delicious for larger crops", so my guess is that some varieties cross pollinate with better results than others.

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    4. Marivene - I am thinking you are right. In fact one of the new trees I planted was a Golden variety. I have the exact variety name written on my tree map but am too lazy to go find it right now. Anyway I know it was a Golden or Yellow type and we have never had a yellow Apple variety before. So perhaps we are on to something and having the right cross pollinator can effect not only the overall yield but the average size of the fruit?

      Like I said nothing I have read specifically states this is possible but something has certainly made the Apples this year larger than I have ever seen and more golden.

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  3. I don't know much about apples other then a good apples pie...:) I do know that Honey Crisp apples came from The U Of MN. They do a lot of R&D on food.

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    Replies
    1. Rob - All I know is what I have read. This is the first year I have had results that seems to show what I have read works. Or not lol

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  4. Pioneer: I saw a study that having different types of bees pollinate can have a huge effect increasing the yield/harvest of crops. I wonder if your new bee hives might be having that effect on your trees? I think the research is sort of preliminary, but some of the data suggests that there can be up to 150% more yield.

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  5. It is fairly well known that if apple trees produce a large crop they will often go dormant the following year. I have two trees that did that this year, one has two apples and the other none. It seems that the solution is to thin the apples when they are tiny so that the tree is not overly worn down. The year before, both of these trees had the best crop I had ever seen on either of them...the apples were large and hardly a one was even blemished. Good luck with your trees.

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