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Apple pollination partners.

mort

Member
Joined
15 Nov 2015
Messages
2,384
Hi, since I had chemo my brains been a bit fuzzy so I can't remember how far apart my apple trees need to be in order to pollinate each other. I have elstar and discovery that were only a couple of metres apart, and have had apples this year, but I needed to move one during the summer and put it in the front garden instead of the back. They are now about 20m apart and I think they should be about 3-5m max. Can anyone confirm as I don't want to play musical chairs if I don't need to and would rather move them whilst it's still possible. I also don't have space for another couple.

My bramley apples I know are fine as it said they had to be within 5 miles of each other and my gardens not quite that big;)
 
Hi all,
I have elstar and discovery that were only a couple of metres apart, and have had apples this year, but I needed to move one during the summer and put it in the front garden instead of the back.
No, you will be fine. Both Discovery and Elstar are "group 3" apple and most other Apples (and Crab Apples) will pollinate them. Because Apples are mainly Bee pollinated distance isn't an issue, like it would be a wind pollinated plant.

Bramley Seedling is actually more likely to have pollination problems because the trees are triploid (3n), and need two different diploid (2n) pollinators. It is also a group 3 (mid-season) flowerer, but can't pollinate any of the diploid apple varieties.

cheers Darrel
 
Thanks Darrel. Most of the trees are still tiny so producing little cannon balls but those two were pretty decent this year so glad I don't have to worry.
 
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