Do I need two apple trees for pollination?
It is true that apple blossoms must be pollinated by pollen from another tree in the apple family in order to bear fruit, but there are so many members of the apple family grow in our area that pollination is seldom a problem. Keep in mind, ornamental flowering crabs will pollinate apple trees. Whatever bee comes to your apple tree likely found a flowering crab tree first.
If you do plant two apple trees in hopes of improving pollination, make sure the trees are not of the same variety. Two trees of one particular variety are no better than one.
When trees do not bear, it is almost always because they do not set bloom. Pollination should only be suspected as a problem To solve the problem of an isolated, unpollinated apple tree, cut a bouquet of flowering crab blooms and put them in a vase underneath the tree you wish to pollinate.
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