Apple Tree Pollination

Pollinating your Apple Trees Increases your crop Size 

Most apple trees need to be pollinated in order to bear fruit, and even self-fertile varieties still benefit. 
However, apple and crab apple trees are very common all over the UK, even in the city, so there is a high chance that you have a suitable pollination partner in your area already, in which case you can ignore this article! 

What are Pollination Partners?

Cross pollination happens when two apple trees of different varieties are in flower at the same time, and insects are present to move the pollen from one flower to the other. 

Pollination groups represent flowering periods, and trees will cross pollinate with other trees in their own group and adjacent groups, e.g. a tree in Pollination Group C will cross pollinate with trees in groups B, C, and D (note that the letters can be replaced with numbers, so Group C is the same as Group 3).

Use our easy pollination checking tool to quickly find partners for a given variety, or browse the table below.

Crab Apple Trees are Perfect Pollination Partners 

Crab apple trees are the best pollinators. They have long flowering periods, therefore covering most pollination groups, and make loads of pollen.
There are plenty of good options, but Malus John Downie or the bright yellow Malus Golden Hornet both make useful fruit for cooking, and are the best for an orchard owner.

Are Apple Trees Self-Fertile?

The holy grail of apple breeding is to produce a variety that pollinates itself and produces its best quality and quantity of fruit: so far, no apple is totally self fertile in the sense of achieving all those things.
a "self-fertile" tree still needs to be pollinated by another variety, although they crop reasonably well without cross pollination.

Triploid Apple Trees:
Triploid trees have totally sterile pollen: they cannot pollinate themselves or other trees. They can only be pollinated by other trees.
This means that a triploid tree needs another tree to pollinate it, and that other tree also needs a pollination partner, since the triploid tree cannot return the favour. 

Bees make Pollination happen:
Thousands of insects get involved in pollination, but bees (including all the wild solitary and bumblebees) do more than 90% of the work: no bees means poor pollination. Everything that attracts & support your local bees is good for your apple trees. Avoid neo-nicotinoid based pesticides, and provide habits for solitary and bumblebees - even better, get a honey bee hive.

A self-fertile tree in a closed greenhouse will need hand pollination to move the pollen around the flower (by the same token, apple breeders use fabric bags to keep insects off the flowers of trees growing outdoors, so that the breeder decides which varieties to cross-pollinate by hand).

Apple Tree Pollination Table

Name	Use	Harvest	Pollination Group	Fertility note
Bountiful	Cooker / Eater	Late Sept	A/B	Long flowering period - will cross pollinate with trees in Groups B & C
Ballerina Samba	Eater	October	B
Bardsey Island	Eater	Late Sept	B
Bright Future	Eater	October	B
Broadholme Beauty	Cooker / Eater	September - Dec	B
Christmas Pearmain	Eater	Early Oct	B	Reliably Self Fertile
Core Blimey	Eater	Oct	B
Egremont Russet	Eater	Late Sept - Early Oct	B	Partially Self Fertile
Foxwhelp	Cider	Sept	B
Greensleeves	Eater	Oct	B	Partially Self Fertile Incompatible with: Lord Lambourne
Irish Peach	Eater	Mid Aug	B
Keswick Codlin	Cooker / Eater	Mid Aug - Sept	B	Partially Self Fertile
Reverend W Wilks	Cooker	Late Aug - Early Sept	B	Reliably Self Fertile
Rosette	Eater	Aug	B
Slack ma Girdle	Cooker / Eater		B
Tremletts Bitter	Cider	Early Oct	B
Adams Pearmain	Eater	Early Oct	C
Allington Pippin	Eater/Cooker	Oct	C	Partially Self Fertile
Arthur Turner	Cooker	Late Aug - Nov	C	Partially Self Fertile
Ballerina Flamenco	Eating	Mid-October	C
Beauty of Bath	Eater	Early Aug	C
Catshead	Cooker	Oct	C	Triploid
Charles Ross	Eater / Cooker	Mid Sept	C	Partially Self Fertile
Christmas Pippin	Eater	Late Oct	C
Cobra	Eater / Cooker	Sept-Oct	C
Coxs Orange Pippin	Eater	Late Sept - Early Oct	C	Incompatible with: Jupiter & Sunset
Crispin	Eater	Mid Oct	C	Triploid Incompatible with: Golden Delicious
Delcorf	Eater	Late Sept	C
Discovery	Eater	Late Aug	C
Early Victoria/ Emneth Early	Cooker	Aug	B / C	Partially Self Fertile. Long flowering period.
Elstar	Eater	Late Oct	C
Fortune	Eater	Sept	C	Partially Self Fertile
Grenadier	Cooker	Mid Aug	C	Partially Self Fertile
Granny Smith	Cooker / Eater	Late Oct	C	Self-fertile
Herefordshire Russet	Eater	Oct	C
James Grieve	Cooker / Eater	Early Sept	C	Partially Self Fertile
Katy / Katya	Eater	Early Sept	C
Lord Lambourne	Eater	Mid Sept	C	Partially Self Fertile Incompatible with: Greensleeves
Morgan Sweet	Cooker / Eater	Sept	B / C	Triploid. Long flowering period.
Norfolk Royal Russet	Eater	Sept	C
Paradice Gold	Eater	Oct	C
Peasgood Nonsuch	Eater Cooker	Mid Sept	C	Partially Self Fertile
Red Falstaff	Eater	Early Oct	C	Partially Self Fertile
Red Windsor	Eater	Oct	C
Ribston Pippin	Eater	Late Sept - Early Oct	C	Triploid
Rosemary Russet	Eater	Mid October	C
Santana	Eater	Late Sept	C
Saturn	Eater	Late Sept	C	Reliably Self Fertile
Scotch Bridget	Cooker	Early Oct	C
Scrumptious	Eater	Sept - Oct	C	Reliably Self Fertile
Sops in Wine	Eater	Aug-Oct	C
Spartan	Eater	Early Oct	C	Reliably Self Fertile
Sunset	Eater	Late Sept	C	Reliably Self Fertile Incompatible with: Coxs Orange Pippin & Jupiter
Surprize	Eater	Sept	C
Tickled Pink	Eater/Cooker	September - October	C
Tom Putt	Cooker	Early Sept	C
Worcester Pearmain	Eater	Mid Sept	C	Partially Self Fertile
Yellow Ingestrie	Eater	Early Sept	C
Ashmeads Kernel	Eater / Cider	Early - Mid Oct	D	Triploid
Black Dabinett	Cider	Nov	D
Blenheim Orange	Eater / Cooker	Late Sept - Early Oct	D	Triploid
Bloody Ploughman	Eater	Mid Sept	D
Bramley	Cooker	Early Oct	D	Triploid
Chivers Delight	Eater	Mid Oct	D
Cornish Aromatic	Eater	Dec	D
Court of Wick	Eater	Late Sept	D
Dunkerton's Late	Cider	Early Nov	D
Ellisons Orange	Eater	Mid Sept	D	Partially Self Fertile
Fair Maid of Devon	Cider		D
Fiesta	Eater	Late Sept	D	Partially Self Fertile
Fillbarrel	Cider	Late Sept	D
Frederick	Cider	Mid Oct	D
Gala	Eater	Oct	D
Golden Delicious	Eater	Late Oct	D	Incompatible with: Crispin
Harry Masters Jersey	Cider	Oct - Early Nov	D
Hoary Morning	Eater Cooker	Early Oct	D
Howgate Wonder	Cooker	Early Oct	D	Partially Self Fertile
Jonagold	Eater	Mid Oct	D	Triploid
Jupiter	Eater	Early Oct	D	Triploid Incompatible with: Coxs Orange Pippin & Sunset
Kidds Orange Red	Eater	Mid Oct	D
King of the Pippins	Eater	Early Oct	D	Partially Self Fertile
Kingston Black	Cider	Early Nov	D
Lanes Prince Albert	Cooker	Mid Oct	D	Partially Self Fertile
Laxton Superb	Eater	Early Oct	D	Partially Self Fertile
Limelight	Eater	Sept	D
Lord Derby	Cooker	Late Sept	D	Partially Self Fertile
Michelin	Cider	Oct - Early Nov	D
Newton Wonder	Cooker	Mid Oct	D	Partially Self Fertile
Norfolk Beefing	Eater	Mid Oct	D
Pitmaston Pineapple	Eater	Early Oct	C / D
Somerset Redstreak	Cider	Oct	D
Sweet Alford	Cider	Late Oct - Early Nov	D
Sweet Coppin	Cider	Late Oct - Early Nov	D
Taunton Cross	Eater	Mid Sept	D
Topaz	Eater	Mid Oct	D
Tydemans Late Orange	Eater	Mid Oct	D
Winter Banana	Eater	Early Oct	D
Winter Gem	Eater	Oct	D
Yarlington Mill	Cider	Late Oct	D
Annie Elizabeth	Cooker	Nov	E	Partially Self Fertile
Braeburn	Eater	Late Oct	E
Browns Apple	Cider	Mid Oct - Early Nov	E
Hangy Down	Cider		E
Hereford Redstreak	Cider		E
Orleans Reinette	Eater / Cider	Mid Oct	E	Triploid
Red Pixie	Eater	Mid Oct	E
Ashton Brown Jersey	Cider	Nov	F
Isaac Newton's Tree / Flower of Kent	Cooker	Mid Oct	F
Major	Cider	Late Sept - Early Oct	F
Court Pendu Plat	Eater	Mid - Late Oct	G
Stoke Red	Cider	Late Oct	G
Crawley beauty	Cooker	Mid - Late Oct	H
Improved Lambrook Pippin	All Purpose	Late Oct	H
Medaille d'Or	Cider	Late Nov	H