Planting Fruit Trees. What Sequence?

[Grande Pedro]

I have bought two apple and two cherry trees. I intend to plant them at the bottom end of my garden in a line along the boundary, and (according to the labels!) they're compatible for mutual pollination by type.

My question is what order do they need to be in? Should I do the two apples and then the two cherries, or can I alternate one of each so it goes apple, cherry, apple, cherry?

Does it make any difference to the pollination and is there any aesthetic advantage doing it one way or the other?

[sherman]

I would do the cherries first purely for getting to see the cherry blossom.

If you plant in a grid then you will get best chance of pollination.

[skeeterm5]

I would do apple - cherry - cherry - apple

[OutInTheShed]

Apples seem to get pollinated from several tens of metres away.

One gotcha I will share is that a tree in a sunny position will blossom and be over before one in a cooler position has got going.
I have one tree which is in a bit of a sun trap and it's out of synch with the others despite being in the same group.

[Silvanus]

Depending on varieties, they will likely blossom at slightly different times. Either way, plant them how you prefer, it won't make a huge amount of difference regarding pollination.

[Simpo Two]

If nature fails you can act the bumblebee with a small paint brush.

Or buy self-pollinating varieties. What did you buy?

[Grande Pedro]

Simpo Two said:

If nature fails you can act the bumblebee with a small paint brush.

Or buy self-pollinating varieties. What did you buy?

Mine aren't self-pollinating as far as I can tell and I've bought a complimentary plant to ensure pollination.

[Grande Pedro]

OutInTheShed said:

Apples seem to get pollinated from several tens of metres away.

One gotcha I will share is that a tree in a sunny position will blossom and be over before one in a cooler position has got going.
I have one tree which is in a bit of a sun trap and it's out of synch with the others despite being in the same group.

That's an interesting point, thanks. I wasn't sure how close to each other they needed to be to help each other out, but within tens of metres is easily done.

To the poster that said a grid would be better I don't really have that option and they'll be planted in a line on the boundary.

[Simpo Two]

Well, if you want pollen to go from one tree to another, I wouldn't put a different sort of tree between them to get in the way.

[OutInTheShed]

Simpo Two said:

Well, if you want pollen to go from one tree to another, I wouldn't put a different sort of tree between them to get in the way.

Bees won't be impeded by a tree. Generally, you get more tiny apples than the tree can support, you want to thin them out when the trees are young.

I think it's really a non-problem, unless you get a week of gales that blows all the flowers off.

Some people say it's helpful to have other early flowering plants close by, so the bees are in the habit of cruising the area by the time blossom appears.
No point stressing about the cherries, the birds will eat them anyway!

[Silvanus]

Simpo Two said:

Well, if you want pollen to go from one tree to another, I wouldn't put a different sort of tree between them to get in the way.

Unlikely to be an issue.

[Panamax]

skeeterm5 said:

I would do apple - cherry - cherry - apple

You need bar - bar - bar for the jackpot.

[Scarletpimpofnel]

OutInTheShed said:

Simpo Two said:

Well, if you want pollen to go from one tree to another, I wouldn't put a different sort of tree between them to get in the way.

Bees won't be impeded by a tree. Generally, you get more tiny apples than the tree can support, you want to thin them out when the trees are young.

I think it's really a non-problem, unless you get a week of gales that blows all the flowers off.

Some people say it's helpful to have other early flowering plants close by, so the bees are in the habit of cruising the area by the time blossom appears.
No point stressing about the cherries, the birds will eat them anyway!

Quite. I have many fruit trees and the bees that travel miles every day never fail to pollinate them all. It's nature's way. If trees had to be bang up against another of the same type to pollinate then we'd have far less fruit.

[WyrleyD]

Just remember that when mature you might get many more apples than you could possibly eat yourself, clearing up the windfalls can be a pain. If you don't clear them up you'll get a problem with wasps, we had a mature apple tree the was a profuse producer (I'm talking hundreds of apples and was the Gala type apple) and in the end I resorted to mashing them up a couple of times a week with the ride-on mower!

[Riley Blue]

1) Dig hole

2) Insert roots into hole

3) Shovel soil around roots

4) Give drinkies (to tree)

5) Repeat for remaining trees

6) Step back and realise none of the trees is vertical

7) Open beer

[Cold]

Panamax said:

skeeterm5 said:

I would do apple - cherry - cherry - apple

You need bar - bar - bar for the jackpot.

I was thinking more of a nice thick crumble and brown sugar topping.

[Simpo Two]

Silvanus said:

Simpo Two said:

Well, if you want pollen to go from one tree to another, I wouldn't put a different sort of tree between them to get in the way.

Unlikely to be an issue.

For a bee, no; I was thinking of wind-blown pollen. But even then, wouldn't a bee be more likely to go from one tree to the next, rather than thinking 'Whoops that's a different tree, I'll go round it'?

[Silvanus]

Simpo Two said:

Silvanus said:

Simpo Two said:

Well, if you want pollen to go from one tree to another, I wouldn't put a different sort of tree between them to get in the way.

Unlikely to be an issue.

For a bee, no; I was thinking of wind-blown pollen. But even then, wouldn't a bee be more likely to go from one tree to the next, rather than thinking 'Whoops that's a different tree, I'll go round it'?

For apples and cherries, the non self pollinated types are typically insect pollinated. Bees can be selective pollinators if a certain source is available, but they will happily go from flower to flower regardless of the plant type. This wont prevent a fruit tree being pollinated even if there are multiple none related species in between. I'm not sure of the varieties being planted (apologies if I've missed that info above), but they are likely to blossom at different times, even the same species can have a slight variation in the period in which they will flower.

I don't know the OPs location, but it's very likely that there will be other cherry and apple species in the vicinity, whether wild species or cultivated varieties. Honey bees are happy to forage up to a couple of miles, even up to 5 if food sources are scarce. Chances are the OP's trees will be pollinated with pollen from trees that are growing away from his own plot.

[biggiles]

I don't think it makes a jot of difference to the tree.

But when I was planting an orchard, I was advised it's helpful to have the trees roughly in order of flowering, so it's easy to track them. And put the earliest-flowering ones closest, so you can see it happening (and you won't blink and miss it!).

There are tables online showing the relative flowering days of apples, they all seem to have some kind of magical internal calendar!

[Grande Pedro]

Thanks to all for the helpful comments. I will confirm what varieties I have later today, but I am reassured that I'm perhaps over-thinking this and that nature will just do its thing, so I'll maybe just focus on the aesthetics. I'm now thinking apple-cherry-cherry-apple.