How many apples were pollinated? I know I totally said that wrong. What I mean is how many blossoms were able to get the job done and get pollinated in my apple orchard. I should be able to tell by now. It has been a couple of weeks since my apple trees were in full bloom. Some bloom later some bloom earlier. Above are 5 potential apples. Of course I don’t want all 5 to grow into a big red juicy apple, but I am hoping one will. I took this picture a week ago so you can’t quite tell yet.
In this picture, you can tell which one is pollinated. The one on the right did not get pollinated and the one on the left did. Basically, the one on the left is pregnant and come September will be a nice big apple. It looks so cute pregnant. Just a little bump, not like Jessica Simpson. 
These are also easy to tell. The middle and the one on the right were pollinated. The poor guy on the left was not. Sometimes you get a great pollination rate and too many apples. On years like that, the branches get really heavy and I will have to thin some out. I don’t think that is going to be the case this year. I am happy to see many are going to be nice apples, but I don’t have an excess. Some trees have very few little apples while others seem to have a good amount. I am quite surprised since this spring had been so strange. It amazes me how plants will adapt and will usually pull through. They’re fighters!
The Farm Wife
You may want to try adding some native bee houses near your apple trees or you can plant some early-blooming nectar-filled flowers near the apple trees to bring in more pollinators. But you are right in that this spring’s weather has been strange.
Thank you Mary. We have a beekeeper who used to keep bees on the farm, but had trouble with them and did not bring them back. He lost 40% of his bees in one year (not just on our farm – all over). He warned me about keeping bees and I trust him because he has been doing it for 40 yrs. I want to venture into bee keeping but I had trouble getting a colony this spring. There is always next year. Thanks again for your comment.
I just bought an (indoor) meyer lemon tree and have been doing the same thing–I was “painting” the pollen from one bloom to another with a paintbrush to help things along as i hope there are not enough bugs in my house to do the job. Re the bees, my aunt just got mason bees (I blogged about it as it was new to me) so maybe that is a solution?