North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Douglas Woodard <dwoodard@becon.org>]

A self-fertile flower may still need insect (or human) activity to carry 
its heavy, sticky pollen to the right place.

Pollen from another cultivar may result in faster growth of the pollen 
tube and greater likelihood of fertilization under adverse conditions.

I understand that a few peach cultivars are self-sterile. My memory says 
that J.H. Hale is one of them.

Doug Woodard
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada



Mark & Helen Angermayer wrote:

[snip]
> Hi Diane,
>
> What you're describing is "showy" vs. non-showy flowers.  Peaches can have
> either one.  As far as I know, there is no correlation between the type of
> flower and any characteristic of the fruit.  My non-showy peach varieties
> pollinate just as well as the showy type.  Some examples of non showy peach
> flowers are: Reliance, Harken, Belle of Georgia, Redhaven, PF1.  Examples of
> showy flowers: Redskin, White County, White River, PF7a.  Are your peaches
> blooming in really wet weather?  Peaches are self-pollinating, but according
> to this study http://www.actahort.org/books/374/374_23.htm.  There was only
> 15 to 20% fruit set in enclosed, or caged flowers.  Perhaps with rainy
> weather the pollination could be worse.  However my best guess (assuming no
> frost) is you have something nutritional going on that is causing the peach
> flowers to abort.

[snip]

> Mark
> KS