Self-Pollinating Fruit Trees

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Shop the Best Self-Pollinating Fruit Trees for Small Yards Self-pollinating fruit trees let you grow delicious fruit without needing a second tree for cross-pollination. Whether you're working with a small backyard, a container garden, or just getting started with a home orchard, self-fertile varieties make the whole process far less complicated. We've been growing and shipping fruit trees from our North Florida nursery since 1980, and we carry a wide selection of self-fruitful options including peaches, figs, cherries, persimmons, and more. What Does It Mean to Be Self-Pollinating? A self-fertile fruit tree does not require pollen from a second tree to produce a crop. Pollination can happen between the male and female parts of flowers on the same tree, or even within a single flower, carried by bees, wind, or other natural means. This is different from trees that need cross-pollination, where pollen must travel from one cultivar to another. Crabapple trees, for example, are commonly used as pollinators for apple trees that cannot set fruit on their own. Want to go deeper on the science? Read our blog post on pollination in fruit trees for a full breakdown of how it all works. How Self-Fertile Trees Actually Produce Fruit Like any other tree, self-fertile varieties flower in spring and rely on pollinators such as bees and other insects to move pollen around. The difference is that pollen transferred from one flower to another on the same tree, or even within the same flower, is enough to trigger fruit set. The fruit itself is the tree's way of dispersing seeds, so pollination needs to happen for that seed to form and the fruit to develop around it. One important thing to keep in mind: almost all self-fertile fruit trees will produce a bigger and better crop when a compatible pollinator tree is nearby. If you don't have room for a second tree yourself, check your neighbors' yards. A suitable tree within 100 feet, the closer the better, can make a real difference in y