Fertility Rules in Fruit Planting

Abstract

THE John Innes Horticultural Institution has produced a very useful leaflet (No. 4) with the above title, which sets out clearly the rules for interplanting fruit trees to ensure effective pollination. Based on many years of research to test the success of crosses between varieties of cherries, plums, pears and apples, this leaflet will be an invaluable guide to growers in the planning of new orchards and in the improvement in fertility of existing trees. It is estimated that the value of the total fruit crop of Great Britain could be increased 10-20 per cent by correct interplanting. In some existing orchards containing large blocks of trees of a single variety, much could be done to increase the crop by top-grafting a proportion of the trees with suitable pollinators. Brief reference is made in the leaflet to the causes of unfruitfulness, and exhaustive lists are provided to show which varieties are self-compatible and which varieties will ensure effective cross-pollination. Attention is directed to the reduced population of wild bees in many orchard districts and the necessity for keeping hive-bees in correctly interplanted orchards.