How to Hand Pollinate Fruit Trees

We rely on honeybees to pollinate our fruit trees. With the honeybee population in decline and not enough people doubling their efforts as beekeepers, sometimes backyard fruit growers have to do the pollination work on their own. This is also the case for people who live at high elevations where honeybees are scarce. Hand pollination isn't too difficult, but anyone who endeavors to do it should enlist some friends to help with the work.

Camelhair paintbrush

Piece of paper

Sterile container

Talcum powder

Collect pollen from the stamen, the male part of the flower. You can identify the stamens because there is more than one in the flower and they usually surround the single female part, the stigma. You may wish to separate the stamens from the flower with tweezers. Grasp the stamen at the filament -- the thin piece that connects it to the plant -- and remove it.

Lay the collected stamens on paper until the anthers --- the little bulbs at the top --- release their pollen, as the University of Florida Extension recommends.

Mix pollen with talcum powder in a sterile container to make it easier to handle and distribute. The talcum powder won't hurt the flowers.

Dip a dry camelhair paintbrush in the pollen powder and brush it on the stigma. There is only one stigma and it sometimes protrudes farther than the stamens.

Keep pollen from different fruit trees separate, and use a new brush for each type of tree.