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Do I need pollinators to have access to a peach or pawpaw for pollination?

 
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I'm thinking about putting pawpaws and/or peaches in a greenhouse since my climate is a touch cold for them.  When they'd be flowering I don't think there will be any local bees flying around, and likely not inside the greenhouse even if they were flying around.  

My 8 seconds of research indicates that pawpaws need two trees for fertilization so I presume I do need winged helpers for them.

The peach I'm looking at says it doesn't need a pollinator but I'm not sure if that means it doesn't need another peach tree or that it doesn't need a bee.

Thanks!
 
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pawpaws have stinky flowers and are fly-pollinated. you could always graft a stick of a second variety onto your one tree if space is an issue. might be a time for hand-pollination?
 
Mike Haasl
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Hmm, flies might be easier to get in a greenhouse than bees.  But hand pollination might be an option too.  Do you know how long the flowers are open/fertile?
 
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If it makes a difference in your calculations, pawpaws have a deep taproot, and they also send up a lot of suckers from the roots.  
 
Mike Haasl
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Thanks MK!  The floor is dirt and the water table is about 14' down so that sounds good to me so far.

I'm thinking about putting the two pawpaws about a foot or two apart.  They'd basically take up the space of one tree but pollinate themselves.  I think...
 
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Mike Haasl wrote:The peach I'm looking at says it doesn't need a pollinator but I'm not sure if that means it doesn't need another peach tree or that it doesn't need a bee.



I bet that it's talking about being self fertile, but you may either need pollinators or either be the pollinator.

Do you know how long the flowers are open/fertile?



If I'm remembering correctly, mine seemed to stay open/fertile for a couple days.

 
Mike Haasl
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Thanks everyone!  I decided to buy the paw paws and skip the peaches.  I did buy some Manchurian apricots which are hardy in my area so I should be covered for stone fruit.

My plan is to plant the pawpaws really close together so they don't take up much room.  Basically a "starter thicket".   I have two figs from Greg Martin that if they survived this winter inside the greenhouse in their pots, I'll plant them in the ground too.  Likely also really close together so they don't take up too much room.

Yay!
 
greg mosser
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may they make you fruit!
 
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Mason bees are effective early pollinators and easy to introduce to greenhouse from cold storage at the right time for pollination. Leaf cutter bees can be introduced when temperatures are high during the day. I have a good population of mason bees which I share surplus with Crown Bees
 and order the leaf cutters.
 
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I've found bee pollination  can be iffy if the tree doesn't have a high enough concentration of flowers for the bees to notice it. I was told once that it can take a 4'x4' patch of the same type of  plant to be sure the bees will find it.

For that reason, I admit I'm the pollinator for my peach tree - it's not large, it tends to bloom in two goes and depending on the weather, I never know which go will produce fruit for the year. I pull a blossom from a cluster and holding by it's stem just push it against a bunch of other blossoms sequentially and hope for the best!
 
Mike Haasl
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I finally figured out that I needed to do that for my bird house gourds that were inside the greenhouse.  Even with some vents open (unscreened) the bugs weren't coming in to play with the flowers.  
 
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