In midsummer and autumn, apples from our own garden are not only a fruity refreshment for fresh consumption, but also the basis for juices and cakes. However, the foundation for a rich harvest is already laid with the apple blossom in spring.

The herald of spring as an indicator of the harvest

From around the end of April, many gardens and avenues are covered with a sea of white and delicate pink blossoms when the fruit trees blossom. Due to the widespread distribution of apple trees in this country, the apple blossom is an essential factor for beekeepers and the feeding of their bee colonies in spring. The delicate apple blossoms are all the more visible in the landscape because they appear before or at the same time as the first leaf sprout on the apple tree. As the green grows ever denser, the petals slowly rain down to the ground with the spring breeze. Whether the flowers have been pollinated correctly can be seen when, after a few weeks, the pistil has become a small apple on the stem.

Encourage the formation of numerous flowers

For a fruitful apple harvest, you should know with regard to the care of your apple trees that blossoms and thus fruits only appear on shoots of the apple tree that are at least two years old. You should therefore be careful not to remove all new shoots, especially when pruning trees in summer. Nevertheless, you should clearly shorten the towering water shoots at the upper end of the tree crown, as these change the shape of the tree crown unfavorably and only rarely produce flowers in the following season. If you ensure that the crown of the tree is light when you cut it, then the fruits that ripen from the blossoms and all the leaves will also get enough sunlight for healthy growth. Fertilizing the tree with compost or green manure in autumn promotes the formation of numerous inflorescences in the following spring.

Ensuring pollination of apple blossoms

Poor harvest years for apple trees sometimes occur when strong night frosts or severe storms occur exactly at the time when the apple blossoms. If a large part of the apple blossoms fall off, there will also be considerable losses in the harvest. Rainy weather also prevents pollination of the flowers, which are normally visited by the following insects:

  • bees
  • bumblebees
  • wild bees

In emergencies, the apple blossoms can also be pollinated by applying pollinating pollen to the respective pistil with a soft brush. However, since apple trees are usually self-sterile, pollen from another apple variety must be used. If there are no other apple trees in the vicinity, it is also possible to plant apple trees of compatible pollinator varieties.

tips and tricks

If you copulate the scions of a pollinator variety on an existing apple variety, you can ensure pollination with suitable pollen.

Category:

Trees