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Probably the strongest driving force of both plant and animal life is procreation.
For us humans, making more of us is usually pretty simple, but plants have many more ways of creating youngsters.
For most fruiting plants, good pollination is one of the most important factors in producing abundant crops.
For successful fruit growing, it is important to have a basic understanding of the miracle of pollination.
Some plants follow the same model as we do - there's a separate female plant and a male plant.
These plants have either female flowers or male flowers. Two examples of these types of plants are
Kiwis and
Seaberry. Then there are plants that have separate male and female flowers on the same plant.
Examples of this type of plant are
Filberts,
Chestnuts, and
Akebia. A third type of plant has perfect flowers, flowers that have both female and male parts.
Apples,
Pears,
Peaches, and most other common fruiting plants are of this type.
Once we identify the type of plant we want to grow, in most cases we need to provide for their pollination. In the case of a
Kiwi, for example, it is necessary to plant both a male and female plant. For these plants, only the female plant will bear fruit.
You might think that because
Filbert,
Chestnuts and
Akebia have both female and male flowers, they would be happy and fruitful by themselves.
However, with many of these plants, the pollen from the male flowers will not pollinate the female flowers on the same plant.
To get a good crop of nuts or fruit, it is necessary to plant two different varieties. Of course, as compared with planting male and female
Kiwi plants, both of these trees or vines will bear nuts or fruit.
Apples,
Pears,
Peaches,
Cherries
and others with perfect flowers can be either self-fertile (their pollen will pollinate their own flowers) or will require another variety for pollination and fruit set.
Virtually all
Apples and
Pears need another variety for pollination while many
Peach varieties and some
Cherries can pollinate themselves. Planting two varieties for pollination is not such a bad thing, as you will also likely harvest twice as much fruit.
Another interest characteristic of fruiting plants is their method of spreading pollen between flowers.
We often think of Honeybees as doing this work, and they are invaluable for many of our fruit crops, including
Apples,
Pears,
Cherries,
Peaches,
Kiwis and many more. But there are other unsung heroes of the insect pollination world. For example,
Honeyberries are largely pollinated by Bumblebees, while
Pawpaws and
Cornelian Cherry are pollinated by various types of flies.
There are also plants that don't need insects at all.
Filberts,
Olives,
Seaberries
and others spread their pollen by wind. Plants pollinated by wind need to be planted close enough to each other so pollen can easily travel from one variety to another. While some
Olives are self-fertile and one plant will do, you can help get the pollen from flower to flower by moving it around with a small brush. Other fruits like
Figs and
Persimmons
simply don't need pollination and bear fruit without needing to plant another variety or having insects to move pollen from flower to flower.
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