This is a public-interest archive. Personal data is pseudonymized and retained under GDPR Article 89.

Re: peaches

In a message dated 98-03-19 13:39:28 EST, medium.kyootie@internetMCI.com
wrote:

<< Hi Tom, Do you grow the peaches just on one tree?  My parents gave me a
 dwarf peach tree last year.  It said that it was self pollinating, so I
 didn't get another one. However, recently, I heard that you really need
 another one or you will get very small yields. >>

   If you want to be accurate, you should say peaches are self-fertile. Very
few plants pollinate themselves. With peaches, it requires a bee or other
pollinator to move the pollen from anther to stigma.

   As with most self-fertile crops, you tend to get better quality, when cross
pollinated. That would require another compatible tree as a pollenizer, and,
of course, you need bees as pollinators.

   Interesting, I just got a call from a desperate peach grower, whose crop
froze badly last week. I figured he had given up, but he is looking now at the
late opening buds, and he wants to jam in all the bees he can get. He's got
several hundred acres, so I have my job cut out for the next few days.  He
wants them all yesterday.

   He is purchasing live pollen from Washington (state) and we are going to
place it in the entrances of the hives, so the bees have to walk through it.
This is in case the anthers are damaged, but the pistil is not. So we start
loading this evening, so as to deliver the first load in the morning.

Pollinator@aol.com     Dave Green  Hemingway, SC  USA
The Pollination Scene:  http://users.aol.com/pollinator/polpage1.html

Jan's Sweetness and Light Shop    (Varietal Honeys and Beeswax Candles)
http://users.aol.com/SweetnessL/sweetlit.htm
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index