To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Apple pollination
Date: Tue, 12 Apr 2005 07:06:18 -0400
On Apr 12, 2005, at 12:16 AM, derry and bill wrote:
I have the feeling that matching bloomtimes is not as important in the
East as in
the West. I've heard that the East warms up quickly and all the apples
come into
bloom at approximately the same time.
I think this is true. I live in Massachusetts, and as far as I can
tell, everything apple blooms the same week. I suppose you might have
trouble if you had only two trees, a very early one and a very late
one, but if you have one good, fertile midseason bloomer, I think
everything else would be covered.
Dick is in zone 3, MN, so maybe more important than bloom time charts,
he needs a second good cold-hardy cultivar. Maybe a hardy ornamental
crab would be a good choice, if he doesn't need another eating apple.
Some of the crabs are very hardy and have long bloom time. Or maybe he
should give Honeycrisp a try. (Although I'm sure he can buy that, or
will be able to soon. Some of us try to grow stuff that's hard to get
retail.)