Pollinating peach trees

flyboy · August 15, 2015, 12:21:56 PM

I have a couple of peach trees in the front yard against the house. My bees are in the back yard. Last year before I got my bees, I went around with a small brush and pollinated. Yes I am sure I was quite the sight, but it worked like crazy. We had peaches galore.

This year with 3 hives I figured there would be lots of peaches, but surprisingly very few. The bees were definitely active as they were flying by early February, so I am wondering why there weren't more peaches.

My guess is that next spring I will move a hive to the front of the house to make it easier for the bees as there are 3 cherry trees, 1 prune plum, 2 pear trees and 1 apple tree in the back, so maybe the bees just have too much to choose from in the back yard. Plus the neighbours on both sides have cherry frees and pear and blueberry bushes.

As an aside one of the cherry trees had an absolutely awesome harvest this year, but the other two were just OK.

Is there some factors I am not aware of? or am I fighting something I don't know about?

mikecva · August 15, 2015, 01:16:51 PM

Not that I can think of. My sister has an orchard with 7 types of apples, 4 varieties of peaches, plums, Asian pears, and a few other tree fruits. The bees will pollinate all of them. They put the hives in different spots at different times (moving the hives about 3-4 times) as the trees require pollination. The bees will go back to the same place (in relation to the hive) until the pollen is exhausted, thus the moving the hives so the bees will relocate their source of pollen (the newer trees around them).
Now in your case, after your move the hives to the front yard those bees will (next year) will find their new pollen source. -Mike

Dallasbeek · August 15, 2015, 01:19:14 PM

Mason bees are better pollinators for stone fruit than are honeybees. I think maybe they fly at a lower temperature, but also, they don't range very far and they lay eggs on your property or wherever you place the tubes and then die, so they will be there the next year. Look for them at organic garden centers. No honey, but good pollinators.

sc-bee · August 15, 2015, 08:22:22 PM

I am in SC peach country. To my knowledge bee don't mess with peaches a lot. Peaches are wind pollinated. If they needed bees for pollination, I would bee sitting on a gold mine.... Wellll maybe not quite a gold mine but I could get more than a measly $50 a hive.

GSF · August 17, 2015, 07:41:50 AM

My thinking was they found something else first. Interesting about the stone fruit.

Dallasbeek · August 17, 2015, 11:49:07 AM

I think the Blue Orchard mason bee is the one to look for.

divemaster1963 · August 17, 2015, 12:20:20 PM

I spoke with one of Ga. Largest peach producers. They told me that the variety of trees that are used by producers now are self pollinators and that they don't use bees anymore. This is not to say that bees will not get pollen from them it is that they are not needed to produce fruit. I do have bees on peach orchards and they get pollen form the trees.

John

Dallasbeek · August 17, 2015, 01:06:13 PM

Quote from: divemaster1963 on August 17, 2015, 12:20:20 PM
I spoke with one of Ga. Largest peach producers. They told me that the variety of trees that are used by producers now are self pollinators and that they don't use bees anymore. This is not to say that bees will not get pollen from them it is that they are not needed to produce fruit. I do have bees on peach orchards and they get pollen form the trees.

John

After a little bit of online reading, you seem t be correct. But apricots, which my daughter also grows, do seem to need pollinators, as well as another variety nearby for cross-pollination. She has one each of apricot, peach, plum and hazelnut. This year she has a bumper crop of apricots and peaches.