All types of bee and most other pollinating insects visit apple flowers to collect pollen and occasionally nectar. It is generally believed that honey bees play an important role in pollinating apple trees ( Free, 1970 ). However, others have suggested …
Unfortunately, apple flowers are not as attractive to honey bees as several other crops. Pear flowers and the flowers of oil seed rape and several weed species prove much more attractive. Apple varieties may also differ in their attractiveness to bees. …
The stigma is the organ in the flower on which pollen must germinate to achieve subsequent fertilisation. The surface of the stigma consists of tiny papillae, which are turgid at anthesis (i.e. when the flower first opens). A surface secretion develops as …
Studies conducted many years ago ( MacDaniels and Hildebrand, 1940 ) showed that use of fungicides could inhibit the germination of apple pollen on the stigma. More recent research has shown that sprays of certain fungicides, when sprayed onto apple trees …
Researchers have for more than 30 years sought to improve the fruit set and retention of apples, using sprays of various plant growth regulating chemicals. The principal ones tested have been Auxins Auxin transport inhibitors Gibberellins Gibberellin …
Sprays of fertilisers, either major or trace elements, have often been tried in attempts to improve fruit set. Spring applications of nitrogenous fertilisers should be avoided where possible, as these can stimulate shoot growth, which in turn reduces …
In some seasons flowering of the pollinating varieties in an apple orchard may be insufficient to guarantee set of an optimum crop. This may be a consistent seasonal problem, possibly due to there being inadequate numbers of pollinators planted in the …
Where the problem of inadequate pollination is a more permanent one, whole or part trees of the main variety can be grafted over to a pollinating variety using frame working or top working grafting techniques ( see Garner, 1988 ). Work conducted at Long …
In situations where the orchard has insufficient pollinators or these trees have become biennial in cropping it may be necessary to supplement the supplies of flowers/pollen in the orchard. Where pollen supply in the orchard is inadequate due to biennial …
Research conducted at HRI-East Malling in the 1980s ( Robbie et al ., 1993 ) showed that training branches of the variety Cox’s Orange Pippin to the horizontal during August, produced flowers that gave better fruit set in the subsequent year than flowers …
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