Do You Need To Plant Multiple Trees To Produce Fruit? It Depends

Growing your own fruit at home can be a challenge if you have a relatively small yard with room for only one or two trees. While not all fruit trees require another tree of the same or a similar species to cross pollinate with, many do. Even some of the trees that can technically be self-fruitful, or self-fertile, tend to produce more fruit when they have another tree to cross pollinate with. Before picking up a fruit tree for your yard, be sure to do your research to see whether it is self-unfruitful, partially self-fruitful, or fully self-fruitful. Considering the amazing number of fruit trees available for your yard, you're sure to find some that are a good fit.

Many fruit trees, including pawpaws (Asimina triloba), the majority of apples (Malus domestica), and most pears (Pyrus communis), are self-unfruitful. This means you'll need at least two trees if you want fruit. The trees need to be different cultivars so they can cross pollinate each other. Some apple trees cannot pollinate others, so be sure to confirm that the cultivars you're interested in are compatible to avoid wasting money, space, and time helping the apple trees in your yard thrive, only for them to fail to produce fruit. You can generally pollinate your apple trees with a crab apple tree (Malus coronaria) as well. Just make sure both trees flower at around the same time so they can pollinate each other.

However, not all fruit trees are self-incompatible. Sour cherry trees (Prunus cerasus) are self-fruitful, as are most peaches (Prunus persica). Almost all citrus trees can bear fruit without needing another tree to cross pollinate with as well. These self-fruitful trees are great options for any growers who want to dip their toes into backyard orchard culture but have limited space. 

There are also some trees that are considered partially self-fruitful. These include 'Anjou' and 'Bartlett' pears, as well as European plums (Prunus domestica). 'Golden Delicious' apples, unlike most apple trees, are also partially self-fruitful. While these partially self-fruitful trees may give you some fruit if planted alone, they are unlikely to crop nearly as well as they would if they had another variety to cross pollinate with. Considering the size many of these trees grow to, it may not be worth devoting so much space to trees that will bear only small amounts of fruit.