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Factors Affecting Bee Pollination of Tree Fruits Nearly 1,000 species of bees occur in the Pacific Northwest, but only a small number of species are…

Most sweet cherry varieties are self-unfruitful (self-incompatible, SI) and require cross pollination with another variety as the pollen source. Some varieties, e.g. Bing, Lambert, Royal…

Pear blossoms have a short season and the small amount of nectar produced is not attractive to bees. Twice as many bees should be available…

All varieties of apple trees require some cross-pollination for fruit set. Even though some varieties are listed as self-fruitful, they will set fruit more heavily and…

There are more than 3,000 pear varieties grown worldwide. Of those, only ten principal varieties are grown commercially in the Pacific Northwest, accounting for 80%…

There are over 7,500 varieties of apples grown worldwide. But only a relative few are suitable to be grown and marketed in Washington and the…

The goal of the Washington State University sweet cherry breeding program is to develop new high quality sweet cherry cultivars with high consumer appeal suitable for growing…

All commercial cherry trees are made up of two parts: the upper fruiting portion (grafted or budded scion wood); and the lower portion ( the…

Pear Rootstocks The majority of commercial pear trees are grown on rootstocks. Pear rootstocks impart characteristics such as vigor, precocity, disease resistance, and cold hardiness.…

Some of the same diseases attack apples, pears and cherries.  Many diseases of cherries  are significantly more serious during seasons in which rain cracking occurs.  Cracks…