For decades, the importance of bees and other insects for pollination and thus the harvest of apples has been emphasized. If there are bottlenecks due to a lack of insects visiting the apple blossoms, you can help out yourself if necessary.

Without pollination there is no fruit

While most grains are self-pollinating or sufficiently wind-pollinated, an apple tree needs insects to visit its blossoms in order to produce fruit. In this way, the principle of evolution is ensured in nature by creating new apple varieties from the combination of the tree's own genetic material and the pollen's own genetic material. Since the pollen from a flower usually gets caught on the abdomen of bees, it can land on the pistil of the next flower either by being stripped off or accidentally.

Ensure sufficient pollination in your own garden

Usually the pollen from another flower on the same apple tree is not enough to ensure pollination and fruit formation. Therefore, as a garden owner, you should plan in advance and ideally plant several apple trees of different varieties in the garden. The bee colonies of a beekeeper in the neighborhood often ensure a higher yield of all fruit trees, since bees, in contrast to other flying insects, are flower-constant and thus only collect the nectar and pollen of certain types of plants during a foraging flight. You can also increase pollination by providing ample nesting and foraging opportunities for wild bees, bumblebees, and other flower-visiting flying insects.

Take over the job of the bee yourself

In China it is already a sad reality, what usually only happens in breeding farms in this country: the pollination of apple blossoms by hand by humans. If you notice a lack of insects visiting the flowers in your garden, you can also help pollinate yourself. For this you need the following things:

  • Apple pollen from another apple tree (a couple full of blossoms from a gardener will do)
  • a soft, long-haired brush
  • a ladder
  • some patience

Use the brush to carefully pick up some pollen from the prepared container. Then dip it into the blossoms on the tree and move the brush tip a bit in there. Repeating this process a hundred times takes patience, but can pay off in extremely isolated locations with larger harvests.

tips and tricks

Some beekeepers rent out their hives so garden owners can successfully fertilize their fruit trees in this way. This usually doesn't cost very much and saves having to visit every apple blossom with a brush.

Category:

Trees