How to Pollinate Peach Trees Quickly and Well? A Detailed Guide to the Methods

Hand pollination and hand pollination can be used. Although peach trees can set fruit through self-pollination, cross-pollinated peach trees have a higher fruit-setting rate, better quality, and higher yield. In greenhouse cultivation, because the air circulation inside the greenhouse is poor, the temperature is low, and the humidity is high, the possibility of cross-pollination is very small. Therefore, in greenhouse peach tree cultivation, supplementary pollination should be carried out to increase the yield and quality of the peaches.

1. Hand pollination

1. Anther collection. 1 to 2 days before the main cultivated variety blooms, collect flower buds of the pollinating variety peach trees at the large bud stage. Pry the flower buds open, use the index finger of the right hand to gently brush the anthers onto smooth paper, and dry them under a 40w incandescent lamp for 12 hours, with the anthers 30 to 40 cm away from the bulb. Do not place them too close, to prevent the anthers from being scorched by excessively high temperature, which would inactivate the pollen. After the pollen grains disperse, place the anthers in a clean and dry small glass bottle, tie the bottle mouth tightly with a plastic bag, and store it in the freezer compartment of a refrigerator for later use (if conditions permit, it can be placed in a desiccator). Be sure to dry the anthers thoroughly, otherwise the anthers in the bottle are very likely to become moldy and lose viability.

2. Pollination method. Choose fully open flowers on the peach tree. During the peach tree flowering period, every day from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., use a clean and soft writing brush or the eraser tip of a pencil with an eraser to dip up pollen and dab it onto the flower stigma.

2. Bee pollination

1. Number of bees to release. Generally, place 1 to 2 boxes of bees per half mu of solar greenhouse. Too few bees cannot allow every flower to be pollinated promptly and properly, while too many bees wastes bee sources and increases production costs.

2. Time to put them into the greenhouse. 1 week before the peach trees bloom, use the evening or nighttime to place the beehives into the greenhouse, so that the bees can better familiarize themselves with and adapt to the environment inside the greenhouse.

3. Placement position. Place the beehives in the middle part of the greenhouse. If two boxes of bees are placed, the distance between the two beehives should be about 10 m, placed side by side in an east-west arrangement. Keep the beehives about 50 cm above the ground to prevent the beehives from getting damp.

4. Bee colony management. After the pollination beehives are placed, do not open the entrance immediately. Wait 5 to 6 hours until the bee colony has settled, then slowly open a small opening in the hive, with the small opening just large enough for two bees to squeeze through. After 2 days, the bees gradually adapt to the environment inside the greenhouse and then leave the hive to collect honey and pollinate the peach trees.