Once flowers fall from nectarine tree, small green knobs will begin to appear. These are beginnings of fruit. But many times the fruit will go dry and falls off before ripening. The reason? Typically it’s due to poor pollination, not an unhealthy tree.
Many people think that a single self-fertile tree are enough for a full crop. Wrong. Having several varieties in close proximity mean greater reward: more fruit and better-quality crops. The cross-pollination boost the entire crop’s success rate, adding almost a third to your haul.
How to Help Bees Pollinate Your Nectarine Trees
Nectarine flowers last just a few days before falling off. This means it’s critical that biology gets into gear fast, because pollen has to get from stamen to pistil within those few days. And who does that best? Bees! In particular, bumblebees do the trick best on cooler spring mornings when honeybees don’t venture out of their hive yet. Both type of bees can be found here, along with other bees as well. The bumblebees goes to work early, when no one else is around and make sure the pollen transfers properly; getting the flower to set fruit depends hugely off this first part of the process.
To be pollinated, the trees needs to be matched: A midseason-flowering variety won’t pollinate an early spring-blooming one; a late-summer bloomer won’t pollinate an early spring one. The good news is that midseason bloomers like Fantasia pair nicely with other midseason varieties such as Flavortop (they’re cousins of one another). And so do peaches (a relative): Hardired would make a good combo with a Redhaven peach, for instance, which freely shares pollen among relatives.
Don’t mix early and late bloomers in hopes of having several types on the calendar: Theirs won’t match. Just because you can put any two stone fruits together doesn’t mean it’s a winning combination; they may not all flower at once.
Pollination efficiency is also impacted by distance between trees; bees are industrious but lazy by nature and prefer to forage close to home. Twenty-foot separation between trees is just at the cusp of being efficient for most bee. An eight-foot separation between dwarf trees makes for a tight grouping, which can be appealing to pollinators. Semi-dwarf types strikes a nice balance between convenient spacing and good-sized canopy when mature. Standard sizes need more space, but make a bigger target once they get up and going. The idea is to have bees focused on your trees, not having them drift off elsewhere.
Even with careful planning, weather will knock out the crop; protect your flowers from late frost (anything under twenty-eight degrees), as in photo above. Rain on bloom day washes off pollen before it has time to stick, further limiting chances for fruit set. During a freeze, cover trees with frost cloth; an hour spent doing this could of saved the season’s crop.
Don’t spray any insecticides while blooms are open; harmful to bees who want to do their thing, anyway. Wait until the petals fall. It is better for both pollinators and the crop.
Early blooms of companion plants such as phacelia and borage offers nourishment during lean periods. They attract bees from far away, and tend to keep them once they gets there. Native solitary bees (like those supported by mason bee houses) are great pollinators on fruit trees.
Make an ecosystem where the timing, flowers, and bees all work together and you will succeed. Even if you have the best tree in the sunniest location, without something planned for how pollen is going to be moved, you’re out of luck each year. Get the timing right, watch who’s blooming when, make your pairings…and let the bees do the rest with juicy, sweet results.