Fruit Tree Pollination

Pollination of Fruit Trees 

The common fruit trees of Europe - apples, pears, cherries, plums and so on generally carry flowers that have male and female parts.

For fruit to form, the female part (pistil) must receive pollen from the male part (stamen) of another flower preferably from a different but compatible variety of the same species.

So a Discovery won't pollinate another Discovery, but there are other apple varieties that will. And no apple will pollinate a pear or a cherry or a plum, irrespective of variety. 

There is one important detail: the two trees must be in flower at about the same time. So you can check this, most fruit trees are arranged into "pollination groups". Those groups define which varieties are both compatible and in flower at the same time. 

If you are interested in finding a pollination partner for a particular variety, why not use our online Pollination Checker which will do the work for you?

There are 3 types of fruit tree when it comes to pollination:

• Self-fertile trees - there are a few varieties that will pollinate themselves and cross-pollinate other trees that are in flower at the same time. However, they always crop better if cross-pollinated by another variety, so only plant them by themselves if you do not have space for 2 trees.
• Pollinators - most fruit trees fall into this group. They can't pollinate themselves but will cross-pollinate other varieties of the same fruit type that are in flower at the same time.
• Triploids - these trees can't pollinate themselves or other trees. This means that although you only need one other tree to pollinate the triploid, you will need a third tree to cross-pollinate with the pollinator as the triploid can't return the favour.

These detailed lists of pollination partners are divided into groups to make choosing a partner easy:
Apple Trees.
Cherry Trees.
Pear Trees.
Plum, Gage, Damson, Mirabelle, Bullace Trees - these will all pollinate each other.