How close must apple trees be to cross-pollinate?

[Soliloquy]

Last week I finally acquired two dwarf apple trees, a Caville Blanc and a Sweet Sixteen! I've been wanting them for a while, and when our next door neighbor said we could plant things in their yard I suddenly had the room. So now I'm wondering how far apart they can be, because I'm considering donating the Sweet Sixteen to the local community garden a few blocks away Google is giving very conflicting answers.

 

[Kansas Terri]

Soliloquy, it all depends on what the bees in your area decide to do! Cross-pollination with apples work when one hive of bees is working two or more trees at the same time, and the bees get dusted with pollen from more than one tree. The bees crowd into the hive to unload their pollen, and as they bump into each other, the bees get dusted with pollen from whatever tree their sisters are working. When they go out again they have pollen on their backs from both trees. In this manner, pollen is transferred from one tree to the other. But, the only thing the bees care about is bringing nectar and pollen back to their hive so that the bees have enough to eat: therefore they will work the trees and flowers that are a convenient distance from their hive. If the hive needs the food then a bee might fly for 3 miles to find it. If food is plentiful then they will not fly very far at all, because they can find what they need within a short distance! This might be why google has been so vague: there is no reliable way to predict how far the bees will be flying when the apple trees are in bloom!

In my yard, until we had to remove it, I had a pear tree. Like your Caville Blanc apple tree, it had to be pollinated with a different tree and I had NO idea where another pear tree was! But, every year I got perhaps two dozen pears from the tree, so I know that somebody in my area had a pear tree. Two dozen pears from a largish tree is not a very good yield, so the other pear tree might not have been very close, but it was close enough to give us some fruit.


I LOVE the idea of growing a famous medieval tree like the Caville Blanc! It sounds WONDERFUL!

 

[Soliloquy]

Hm, I'm really not sure about the current state of the honey bees in my area. I know they started a hive at the local botanical gardens some years ago, but I believe it failed over the winter. And though this area is somewhat urban most people have small yards. Still, obviously things manage to get pollinated, so there must be enough wild bees around.

I'm excited about the Caville Blanc as well! I love the idea of preserving a historical line of trees, not to mention they say it's the best apple for making tarts and pies. My sister is a prize-winning apple pie baker, so I'm looking forward to trying her honey apple pie recipe with them. Have to be patient though, I can't let the new tree bear fruit yet.

 

[Kansas Terri]

Wild bees like to nest in hollow trees, so you really MIGHT have wild bees near you! Also, people who DO have bee hives do not always talk about them! Sometimes the neighbors object, and sometimes the beekeeper will get blamed for every sting. They now breed bees that are solid black or solid light yellow, which makes it easier to know if your bees are stinging the neighbors, but even so some beekeepers will hide their hives behind a low fence.

For many years I had seedling apple trees that were bearing, and I found it very exciting to eat apples that were one of a kind! Half of the trees had bland apples, but the other half were every bit as good as what was in the store. I did not have any good cooking apples, though, and I missed that. They all got mushy and lost their good flavor when they were baked.

The power company decided to change their right of way. They were willing to pay us landowners for the inconvenience, but it meant that all but one of my apple trees had to go. I cannot complain, they were very professional and they were careful with the one remaining apple tree. The trunk was right on the edge of their right of way but I only lost a few twigs when the trucks brushed up against them. They were as fair as they could be, but the city near us needed more power, which meant that larger power poles were needed, which meant that we all had trucks in our back yards for the entire summer!

Last year I put in a Freedom apple tree, which is supposed to be disease resistant. I did lose some of my baby apple trees to Cedar Apple Rust, which is common in my area. I will not need as many apple trees now, as I am older and my kids will soon leave home, but I do love having backyard apples!

 

[Soliloquy]

I know what you mean Terri, I can't wait until it's old enough to bear fruit. Is your Freedom on dwarf rootstock or full size? I got the Bud 9 rootstock as I really have very little room.

 

[Kansas Terri]

I got the tree as dwarf as I could get it! I actually have a very large back yard, but not so much room for trees once the new right of way is figured in. I have the house, then some lawn in the shade of the house, then the vegetable garden, then I *HAD* some fruit trees (in what is now the power right of way), and then at the back yard property line I have an area of heavy shade from the neighbors 60 foot tree. The right of way USED to be in the heavy shade at the property line, which was not so bad!

I do not want to re-plant trees where the power company might need to drive, and so now I am trying for really small trees tucked away in whatever available space looks like it has room for a small tree! So, I put the dwarf Freedom apple right next to the shed, and the dwarf pear on the far side of the vegetable garden. By the time the dwarf pear gets large enough to cast a lot of shade the kids will be on their own, and I can make the vegetable garden a few feet smaller. My yard is really large, even by Kansas standards, but the heavy shade in the back and now the right of way has cut my gardening area in half. In fact, the new right of way chopped the corner off of my vegetable garden, but if I loose a few bush beans if they decide to drive through I shall not worry. I would hate to lose another tree, and so I will place them elsewhere!