pollinating greengages

Filey

I have a youngish greengage tree which is in bloom at the moment. It has not so far produced any fruit. I am wondering how early flowering fruit trees get pollinated as there doesn't seem to be many insects about to do the pollinating. Or doesn't it work like that.

Not far from it is a cherry plum/myrobalan which is the same age and it is covered in blossom and last year it had a small crop. So if the myrobalan can manage to get pollinated, why not the greengage. Or is it just because it has not yet reached puberty, so to speak?

I'd appreciate any input.

Gold_Dust_2

Pollination can also occur by wind. Are you sure that it's not self pollinating? Mine is, and if yours is you can pollinate by hand, with a piece of cotton wool - might be worth a try, and maybe you can try to cross pollinate with the other plum tree's flowers. Are you sure that there are no plums developing? Have a close look in the centre of the flowers and you might see some very small fruits developing at the base of the stigma.

As soon as mine started flowering, it produced fruit, however, it has masses of flowers and only a few fruits, despite hundreds of the little baby fruits developing. I wonder why that is?

theoretica

Do you know what variety of greengage you have? Some need pollen from a different plum tree in order to set fruit, others are self fertile.

Plum are usually insect pollinated so your best bet would be to find a different plum tree and transfer pollen across with a soft brush.