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how to pollinate an apple tree

andyferrisandyferris Posts: 12
in Fruit & veg
Hello.

We have two apple trees a few yards apart. For a couple of years one of them was showing signs of fungal infestation from scars in the bark and branches. It hasn't produced much in the way for blossom or fruit since we moved into the house 3 years ago. The other has produced a good crop of edible apples. Early last year we trimmed the diseased tree back to the trunk in the hope of ridding it of disease. it has started to grow a few shoots, but last summer the other tree had loads of blossom and no fruit.

 I am assuming that this is because the second tree wasn't flowering so couldn't cross pollinate.

Am I correct in this is or is it a coincidence?

If I am correct is there any way I can manually pollinate the flowers this year? The pruned tree doesn't have enough shoots on it to do anything yet and may have to be cut down anyway. Its extreme pruning was a last ditch attempt to rescue it I think.

Thanks

Posts

  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    Apples usually need at least one pollinator from another variety that flowers at around the same time.  Some are trickier and need 2 pollinators and are known as triploids.  

    If you know the variety of the one that's still healthy it will be easy to look up suitable pollinators on the RHS website or a good fruit nursery website.   If you don't have space or don't want another apple, crab apples also make good pollinators for a wide range of apples.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • Nanny BeachNanny Beach Posts: 8,719
    If you had apples before either your other tree or one near was pollinating,, when you cut back hard,they do take s couple of years to recover
    . when we moved here,we inherited 3,1 didn't produce and fruit for several years, the old man was going to remove then it proved to be the best one for both yeald and flavor
  • clarke.bruntclarke.brunt Posts: 215
    edited March 2021
    Just wondering if your 'fungus' was actually woolly aphid - they do produce a 'cotton wool' covering, and particularly like pruning cuts or other wounds - presumably they can get at the sap more easily at these places. Did it reappear where the branches were cut off?

    The 'triploid apple' thing: I think 'they need two pollinators' is a common misinterpretation of what's going on. They can't self-pollinate themself, and they can't pollinate anything else either, but they only need a single pollinator tree. The the thing is, if the pollinator tree itself isn't self-fertile, then a 3rd tree will be needed to pollinate the 2nd one (since the triploid tree can't) - assuming you want fruit on all trees.

    Sorry those are just questioning things rather than supplying new information, but maybe worthy of discussion.
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/pdfs/ApplePollinationGroups.pdf 

    See the 2nd paragraph at the top of the page
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • clarke.bruntclarke.brunt Posts: 215
    I've started another thread about how even the RHS propagate the myth about triploid apple pollination (includes a link to one page that gets it right):

  • andyferrisandyferris Posts: 12
    Thanks for the comments .I don't mind a third tree if I can get one, we have the space.
    It was almost certainly woolly aphid but it doesn't appear to have come back. We pruned it at the start of last year.

    I don't know how to identify the variety, so I expect I will be posting here again :)

    Ta
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    I posted that link precisely because the RHS explains more succinctly than you did @clarke.brunt that triploid trees have sterile pollen so not only need another to pollinate them but cannot pollinate another, hence the need for 3 trees if a triploid is being grown.

    No myths being propagated at all. 
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
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