The buds that will become your fruit begin to appear after after the apple tree flowers. Your tree must be mature enough to fruit because if it develops fruit before it’s sturdy enough, the branches of the tree can break under the weight of the apples.

In early May, apple trees are covered in apple blossoms. In order for the blossoms to become apples, they must be cross-pollinated. It is at this point that fertilization occurs and ovules within the ovary become apple seeds. After the seeds develop, the petals from the blossoms fall off.

Most apples are harvested by hand, primarily in September and October. The flowers have many parts that are crucial to the formation of apples: Sepals – five green, leaf-like structures that make up a flower’s calyx. Petals – the part of a flower that attracts insects by their color and scent.

In order for fruit to be produced, most trees must be pollinated. Cold weather and a reduction in pollinating insects can cause trees to blossom but bear no fruit. For best results with apple trees, plant two different varieties close together for cross pollination.

Pollination Basics With perfect flowers, apple blossoms have the potential for self-pollination — each blossom houses both male and female reproductive parts. However, seed production has better diversity and genetic strength with cross-pollination.

A flower has to be pollinated to “set fruit” or begin to create the juicy ovaries that will become apples. Some fruits are self-pollinating, and can fertilize themselves without any bees involved. Most fruit trees — pears and apples in particular — are self-sterile for their own pollen.

We may lose all the plants that bees pollinate, all of the animals that eat those plants and so on up the food chain. Which means a world without bees could struggle to sustain the global human population of 7 billion. Our supermarkets would have half the amount of fruit and vegetables.

Here are the top five reasons why they are so important to us.

• They Pollinate Food Crops. Honeybees always travel incredible distances to look for pollen.
• They Pollinate Wild Plants. Bees not only help with food crops, but they also pollinate wild plants.
• They Produce Honey.
• Honey Products.
• Employment.

Where trees and woods are essential to filter our air, bees are vital to both pollinate the food we need to survive and pollinate many of the trees and flowers that provide habitats for wildlife.

The greatest contribution of bees and other pollinators is the pollination of nearly three quarters of the plants that produce 90% of the world’s food. A third of the world’s food production depends on bees, i.e. every third spoonful of food depends on pollination. ”Ending hunger is everyone’s responsibility.”

Role in the Ecosystem: Bees are a keystone species; if bees die off it will end most life. In nature, various animals depend on bees for their survival because their food sources – nuts berries, seeds, and fruits – rely on insect pollination.

So it is with pardonable pride that beekeepers have been known to endorse quotes like the one attributed to Albert Einstein: “If the bee disappears from the surface of the Earth, man would have no more than four years left to live.”

Here are a few easy ways you can help #BeeTheSolution.

1. Plant a Bee Garden.
2. Go Chemical-Free for Bees.
3. Become a Citizen Scientist.
4. Provide Trees for Bees.
5. Create a Bee Bath.
6. Build Homes for Native Bees.
7. Give Beehives and Native Bee Homes.
8. Teach Tomorrow’s Bee Stewards.

How to encourage bees and other pollinators

1. Fill gardens with RHS Plants for Pollinators plants.
2. Allow lawn ‘weeds’ to flower by cutting less often.
3. Provide water for pollinators.
4. Avoid using pesticides wherever possible and never spray open flowers.
5. Provide nest sites for wild bees.