298 



THE GARDENERS* MAGAZINE, apkil 13. 1912 



1 



about three 



POLLINATION OF HARDY 



FRUITS. 



T\ie following iiot<?.s from the "Journal" 

 of the Koyal Horticultural Society on the 

 xperinicnts conducted by Mr, C. H. Hooper, 

 ii.E.A.C., on the pollination of hardy 

 fruits, are of special interest at the present 

 treason : 



The experiments recorded were designed 

 to gain information upon the following 

 points:— (1) To what extent can our ordi- 

 narv fruits set without the visits of insects 

 to the blossoms ? (2) To wliat extent fruit 

 flowers set when pollinated with their own 

 pollen, whether from the t^ame flower, the 

 same tree, or another tree of the same 

 variety? (3) Ho fruit blossoms, when pol- 

 linated with pollen from another variety, 

 set fruit more plentifully and of better 

 quality than when pollinated with pollen of 

 the same variety? 



Mr. W. E. S. Erie Drax most kindly gave 

 nie permission to carry out my trials in his 

 garden at Olantigh, his gardener, Mr. Bond, 

 kindly giving me information as to varieties, 



etc. 



The Trials. 



To test the effect of excluding insects, fine 

 mu.slin paper bags were placed over unopened 

 flower buds; where any flowers had already 

 opened thev were picked off. Tlie liags were 

 tied at the mouth with twine, with label 



date, variely, and number. After 



weeks, "when the fruits outside 



had set, the truss inside the bag was ex- 

 amined and notes taken as to results, the 

 bag was taken off, leaving label with notes, 

 etc. 



2. To test whether fruit blossoms set 

 fruit when pollinated with their own pollen 

 or pollen of the same variety, muslin or 

 paper bags were placed over unopened blos- 

 soms, wliich were tied up and labelled. When 

 the flowers opened the stigmas were dusted 

 with pollen of the ^ame variety either with 

 a camelH hair brush or by the use of a pair 

 of forceps, taking the stamens from another 

 flower, the antli-rs o^ which were shedding 

 their pollen, and touching the stigmas with 

 these anthers. In order to avoid mixing 

 pollen, the l)rush was after use dipped in 

 methylated spirit and dried before uning 

 again for other pollen, so four or five brushes 

 were needed for the work. After pollination 

 the flowers were again bagged, the date of 

 |X)l]ination added to the label, and in some 

 cases a note of the nunibci' of flowers take-n, 

 with any note of injury by caterpillars, or 

 other point influencing results. Where the 

 blossoms were not all open at once, as in 

 gooseberries, currants, and cherries, pollina- 

 tion was repeated ; in some cases there w^ere 

 three separate pollinations. The bags were 

 kept on i'or a fortnight or more after pollina- 

 tion ; when the bags were removed, the labels 

 saying what had been done were left on. 



3. To test whether foreign pollen — i.e., 

 pollen of another variety— gave better re- 

 sults than pollen of the same variety, un- 

 opened blossoms w^ere bagged. Accepting 

 the fact shown by experiments in the U.S.A. 

 and by Mr. F. J. Chittenden, that most varie- 

 ties will not set fruit with their own pollen, 

 when the flowers opened I took pollen from 

 other varieties, either by brush or by carrv- 

 ing the stamens with forceps, and dusted it 

 on the stigmas of the hagged flowers with- 

 out emasculation. The onlv varietv that 



garden. The only insects I found in any of 

 the bags, to the best of my remembrance, 

 were caterpillars, apple isucker, and aphis, 

 and sawfly in the young applets, the eggs (-f 

 which must apparently have been on the 

 flower buds when bagged. The resultti 

 seemed similar whether in paper bag or 

 muslin bag. With the fruits experimented 

 on I think very little pollen was blown about, 

 and none came through the muslin bags to 

 affect results. Glazed, transparent paper 

 bags may be the very best of all to use, and 

 if I make further triak I propose using them 

 to try and avoid possibility of error. 



Gooseberries, Red cind White 



Currants. 



Bags were placed over small boughs of 

 unopened blossoms, with the result that very 

 few fruits set, and those ehiefly at the tip 

 and at the ba&e, where rubbed by the bags. 

 The pollen of gooseberries and currants is 

 sticky, and cannot be trantsferred from the 

 anthers to the stigmas without mechanical 

 means, and these plants are therefore depen- 

 dent on insects to do thin office for them in 

 oi,-der to set fruit. They are self-fertile — 

 i.e., set fruit perfectly when pollinated with 

 pollen of the same flower or same variety. 



Cherries. 



\J 14 i/ ^ limvj^ " ^ 



had all the flowers experimented upon emas- 

 culated before the anthers shed their pollen 

 was a Cox's Orange tree, on which I tried 

 pollen of nine different varieties of apple; 

 but in two trials of Cox^s Orange Pippin 

 pollinated with its own pollen, in neither 

 case did fruit mature, and in five trials 

 l)agged and not touched none set any fruit. 

 Emasculation would therefore seem unneces- 

 sary. T 



For thef?e trials I used some 200 muslm 

 hags mo<^t of them of green colour and fine 

 mesh, and about TOO paper bags, used by 

 bakers and grocers. The season being dry, 

 the latter answered quite well, and did not 

 come ungummed. Green muslin bags were 

 used for the sake of the appearance of the 



On some ten varieties of cherries on which 

 unopened blossoms w^ere bagged and left un- 

 touched, not a single fruit set; when pol- 

 linated with their own pollen several set, 

 but none matured except on Morello cher- 

 ries, whilst in the five cases in which I 

 bagged and afterwards pollinated with 

 pollen of another variety all set fruit. It 

 appears neces>^ary when growing cherries to 

 have several varieties for cross-pollination, 

 and to have plenty of bees to carry the 

 pollen. 



Plums. 



I made trials on eleven varieties of plums 



Victoria, Czar, Rivers' Early Pro- 



viz. 



fruit. I thought to have Ix'en able to in- 

 clude General Todleben also as self-fertile, 

 but the fruit withered after July 7. I did 

 not make many cross-pollinations in pears, 

 but apparently the pollen of Duchesse 

 d'Angouleme sets the fruit of Williams' Eon 

 Chretien well, the pollen of Conference that 

 of General Todleben, and vice versa. 



In the case of Yicar of AVinkfield, I bagged 

 four buds, and afterwards pollinated them 

 with AVinter Crasanne, and had two fine 

 pears, some of the Ije-st on a large tree, 

 there being only about ten fruits, though 

 plenty of blossom. This, I think, exempli- 

 fies the importance and value of pollination 

 with another variety. 



The tw^enty-two varieties of pears of which 

 flower buds were bagged and then left un- 

 touched were : Josephine de Malines, 

 Duchesse d'Angouleme, Beurre Alexandre 

 Luca«, Durondeau, Conference, Clapp*s 

 Favourite, Doyenne du Cornice, General 

 Todleben, Winter Crasanne, Marie Ix)uise, 

 Colmar d'Ete, Dr. Jules Guyot, Margaret 

 Marillat, Beurre Diel, Catillac, Citron des 

 Carmes, Uvedale's St. Germain, St. Luke, 

 Louise Bonne of Jersey, Souvenir du Cou- 

 gres, Beurre Superfin, and Pitmaston 

 DuchesiS. 



Apples. 



Out of sixty-thrae varieties of apples on 

 which unopened blossoms were bagged and 

 left untouched, the only fruit that set and 

 matured wae on Irish Peach, and this wa- 

 very good; of those bagged and polliiiuted 

 with their' own pollen by brush or anthers 

 the following set and matured their fruit: 

 Irish Peach, White Transparent, Newton 

 Wonder, Ecklinville, Summer Golden Pip- 

 pin, Baumann's Red Winter Eeinette, Peao- 

 good's Nonesuch (very fine), Christmas Pear- 

 main, King of the Pippins (damaged by saw- 

 fly, eventually fell) ; ashington and 

 Adams' Pearmain fell in June. I beli>eve 

 American Mother and James Grieve set with 



lific. Early Orleans, Bittern, Cox's Emperor, 

 Jefferson, Denniston's Superb, Pond's Seed- 

 ling, Greengage, and July Greengage. Of 

 those bagged and left untouched, four varie- 

 ties set fruit out of eleven, but only fruits of 

 two varieties came to maturity — namely, 

 Victoria and Czar — and these were not as 

 large as others in the open. 



Of those bagged and afterwards pollinated 

 with their own pollen, seven of the eleven 

 varieties started by netting fruit, but only 

 five matured— viz., Victoria, Czar, Eennis- 

 ton*s Superb, Bittern, and Rivers' Early 

 Prolific. 



Out of ten cross-pollination trials, I had 

 good fruit mature on five (the pollen coming 

 from the second named) — namely, Victoria 

 X Czar ; Victoria x Denniston's Superb ; 

 Rivers' Early Prolific X Victoria ; Rivers' 

 Earlv Prolific x Denniston's Superb; and 

 Ponds Seedling x Czar; the fruit produced 

 by the cross being generally larger than 

 that where self-pollinated. All the varie- 

 ties, except perhaps Victoria, seem to set 

 finer fruit more plentifully when pollinated 

 with another variety. 



With plums also it appears advantageous 

 to grow several varieties for cross-pollina- 

 tion, and have bees in the neighbourhood. 



Pears. 



Whilst the pears were in flower in 1911 

 in Kent, although the weather wa^ sunny 

 and warm, the wind during most of the time 

 was boisterous and too rough for hive and 

 humble bees to work in, which accounts, I 

 think, for the short crop of pears this 



Out of twentv-two varieties of which T 

 bagged blossoms and left them afterwards 

 untouched, only Duchesse d'Angouleme, Col- 

 mar d'Ete, General Todleben, Dr. Jul 

 Guyot, Josephine de Malines, and Duron- 

 dean set fruit : all the fruits, however, fell 



before maturity. n- . 



Of those blossoms bagged and pollinated 

 with pollen of the same variety, about the 

 same number proportionately set but only 

 two kindfi thus treated— viz., Duchesse d An- 

 gouleme and Colmar d'Ete— matured their 



their own pollen, but am not quite certain. 



In nearly all the crosses made, good fruits 

 resulted; "out of the sixty-four varieties 

 crossed forty-eight were successful. Among 

 the best may be mentioued : Brabant Belle- 

 fleur with pollen of Beauty of Bath, Glad- 

 stone with Beaut V of Bath, Alfriston witli 

 Beauty of Bath, Allington Pippiu with Sum- 

 mer Golden Pippin (the finest on tree). Gre- 

 nadier with Seaton House, Hoary Morning 

 with Seaton House and vice versa, Christmas 

 Tearmaiu with Cox's Pomona. Mere de 

 Menage with Lady Sudeley, Sandnngham 

 with Hormead Pearmain, Beauty of Batli 

 with Summer Golden Pippin, High Cannons 

 with Grenadier, The Queen with Baumann s 

 Bed Winter Eeinette, Lane's Prince Albert 

 with The Queen, Golden Spire with Holland- 

 bury and Bismarck, and Cellmi witli 



Graham's Eoyal Jubilee. 



These crosses were made without remov- 

 ing the stamens from the flowers, whicli 

 were pollinated by brush or anthers ; it 

 the brush was used it was dipped m methy- 

 lated spirits and allowed to dry before using 

 with another pollen; but in the ca^e of a^tree 

 of Cox's Orange Pippin, nine bunches ot un- 

 opened blossoms bad their stamens taken om 

 with forceps, and were pollinated by camel s 

 hair brush or anthers with the pollen ot nine 

 different varieties of apple to try to find out 

 which would give the best result. Fruit set 

 with pollen of the eight following varie- 

 ties: Bramley's Seedling, High Caiui<ni^. 

 Grenadier, Ladv Henniker, Golden >pi.";; 

 Duchess's Favourite, The Queen, aiul wm' 

 its own pollen; only with Peasgood .s >oiu- 

 such did fruit not set ; however, all gradually 

 fell before maturity except those pollmateQ 

 \N ith Bramlev's Seedling and High Cannon^. 



The following is a list of apples c^Vf^}- 

 mented on.— Self-fertile : Irish Peach \\ (i'Ti 

 Transparent, Newton Wonder, FcklmvUK. 

 Summer Golden Pippin, Baumann s Kea 

 Eeinette, Peasgood's Nonesuch, Christina- 

 i^earmain. King of the Pippins, Adams 1 ear- 

 main, Washington, American Mother (•)• 

 James Grieve (?). Self-sterile, or, P<"rhap 

 better, those that did not set or niati m 

 fruit with their own pollen in those triai^- 

 Allington Pippin. Annie Flizalx^tl. . Altristoii. 



