FRUIT TREE POLINATING

[Connecticut]

Will my Sour Cherry tree polinate a Sweet Cherry tree?

[sherwindu]

Hi in Connecticut from the Heartland, Genetically there is no problem here. However, these trees do not produce blossoms at the same time, and that may be the limitation.

Sherw> Will my Sour Cherry tree polinate a Sweet Cherry tree?

[sherwindu]

Hi again, Another thought. There are at least three well known sweet cherries (Stella is one) on the market, which are self-pollinating.

Sherw> Will my Sour Cherry tree polinate a Sweet Cherry tree?

[Mike]

This is something I really don't understand. Fruit and vegetable trees have to have a second proximate tree of the right gender to bloom? For instance, I have two pineapple plants and one avocado tree. How would I find their gender?

Btw Dad, can I take out the car tonight?

[bamboo]

This link will take you to all the pollination info you ever wanted and then some.

Insect Pollination Of Cultivated Crop Plants by S.E. McGregor, USDA Originally published 1976

[Travis]

What vegetables grow on trees?

Fruit trees have no gender. Pollination is just better with some fruit trees if there is another tree of the same kind but different variety.

Holly (Ilex) trees have gender. Kiwi vines have gender. I am sure there are others.

[sherwindu]

Just to set the record straight, some fruit trees are definitely not self-fertile, and cannot produce fruit unless their is a suitable polinizer in the area. Other varieties of fruit are self fertile to greater or lesser degrees. As you correctly stated, having a second tree adds to the effectivity of pollination, even if it is self-fertile. It can get quite complicated, as some varieties of fruit trees are not able to pollinate other specific varieties. Also, some varieties can do a better job of pollinating other varieties. The main requirement is that for pollination, varieties must be in the same genetic family. Plums won't pollinate apples, etc. What does best for a particular variety is usually found in catalogs, books, or from other horticultural sources.

Sherw> Mike wrote:

Does not even have to be a different variety. This may sound strange, but it may be due to just having increased pollen around.

[Mike]

since it has no pineapple section, I went back over my Hi Coop. Ext. fact sheet (Dale O. Evans et al., 1988) and will reproduce parts here in hopes of further clarification.

~ Description - Pineapple is a perennial herb 50 to 100cm high. It has narrow tapering, pointed leaves up to 100cm long arranged in a spiral rosette, crowded on and tightly clasping a central stem. Leaf margins are usually but not always spiny. The inflorescence consists of 100 to 200 flowers arranged in a compact spiral cluster. The flowers are perfect, with a floral bract, three short fleshy sepals and petals, six stamens, and an inferior ovary with three locules. Commercial clones are self sterile but cross easily with plants outside their varietal group. The fruit is a terminal, cylindrical, compound structure at the apex of the stem and is formed by the fusion of the berrylike fruitlets that develop from the flowers.

Propagation - Pineapple is propagated asexually from various plant parts.

Cultural practices - forcing (fruition) - The growth regulator most commonly used for forcing is ethephon (C2H6NO), an ethylene releasing compound that is widely used for field application. Ethylene and acetylene are also used for forcing.

Fertilization regime - Kg/hectacre: Urea 22.0 - Potassium nitrate (alternatively potassium sulfate or ammonium sulfate) 22.0 - Iron sulfate

1.5 - Zinc sulfate 0.5 - Magnesium sulfate 2.75. ~

So pineapple are hermaphrodites; I think I would have to take a magnifying glass to see, though.

I doesn't say anything about (nor have I ever seen) bees, wind or bird pollination.

The two I have are father-son, or of the same type. There are commercial fields at, I would say, a thousand yards away.

I know there is a lot of Iron in molasses, but where would one get, preferably naturally, such chemicals as ethephone and potassium as well as, zinc and magnesium?