Pollination partner for Gala apple

[orangepippin]

Some nurseries leave their trees in the field over winter and lift them as they fulfill orders, others lift them all in the autumn and keep them in cold stores - the latter approach means there are fewer weather-related problems for shipping orders, but obviously adds cost to the process.

There is a view that late spring planting can be a good thing (provided the tree is still dormant and has been kept in a cold environment) because the sudden increase in temperature kickstarts it into growth. So a late delivery is not the end of the world as long as the trees have been stored cold.

[FB.]

I can see that lifting in late autumn followed by cold storage could actually be a good thing.
Why?

Because if the tree is left in the ground it will continue to grow new roots as long as the soil temperature is above about 6'C. But when lifted, these soft roots will be broken and will have been a waste of the trees energy.
If kept in a cold store and out of the ground, root growth will be negligible, but as soon as it is planted into the warming soil of springtime, it will let out its pent-up frustration with a lot of new root growth and none of it will have been wasted.

The downside of cold-stored trees is if/when they sit in a warm shop for a few days because it quickly brings them out of dormancy - often before they are planted. This risks dehydration from the roots not being in soil, or if planted outside risks chill damage (and loss of vigour) to the shoots which have emerged before they should due to the warm shop.

[Darwin.]

I wondered about pollination of my fruit trees too so I bought two of most things. I have 2 Gala apples a cooking apple and 2 crab apple. The pear is the only one I'm not sure I have a buddy for.

[FB.]

I wondered about pollination of my fruit trees too so I bought two of most things. I have 2 Gala apples a cooking apple and 2 crab apple. The pear is the only one I'm not sure I have a buddy for.

It's possible that someone nearby will have a compatible pollinator tree. It's also possible that your tree is self-fertile or partially self-fertile.

Self-fertility is not clear-cut. It depends on the variety to some extent, but also is influenced by climate (optimum temperature at flowering time) and I think the rootstock also plays a part.

I find that, in general, the more vigorous rootstocks tend to have a higher flower viability (flowers which turn into fruit) than trees on dwarf rootstock: in other words, while a dwarf might produce one fruit from every fifteen flowers, a vigorous rootstock might produce one fruit from every ten flowers.

[FB.]

self-fertile or partially self-fertile.

While on the subject of self-fertile: plums are often too fertile when planted with a pollinator - resulting in over-cropping, small fruit, biennial bearing and branches breaking under the weight of fruit.

However, fruit which is self-pollinated tends to be of lower quality than cross-pollinated fruits, probably as a result of the pips within the fruit being inbred and weaker, so the hormonal and chemical signals from the fruit for "more sap, please!" are weaker.
The number of pips, the vitality of the pips and the vigour of the pips within a fruit will affect how well the fruit grows.

In apples, bitter pit seems to be made worse by self-pollination or related-variety pollination, and seems to be much less severe when cross-pollinated by an unrelated variety.
My Fiesta (Red Pippin), for example, is self-fertile (will set fruit with only one or two pips) but it is also horrific for bitter pit and in such years even non-pitted fruits quickly "ferment" and taste like aniseed/antiseptic.
But in years when its flowering coincides with its neighbouring Spartan, the Fiesta fruit is laden with large, healthy pips, does not suffer bitter pit, and is of normal eating quality.

[Darwin.]

You mentioned plumb there. I have a normal plumb and a yellow plumb not too far from each other. Should I worry now that they're too fertile?

I can't stress enough how absolutely clueless I am when it comes to gardening. I'm going to have people on here tearing their hair out because I ask so many stupid questions.

[FB.]

You mentioned plumb there. I have a normal plumb and a yellow plumb not too far from each other. Should I worry now that they're too fertile?

I would just let them get on with it.