I've heard that wind pollination is how the sea buckthorn is pollinated, but I plan to put the trees crosswind. would this work for proper pollination of all plants?
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What's the average wind speed during summer? – Graham Chiu Jun 10 '16 at 04:00
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calm to 20mph, will bees, or fruit flies help solve the concern? – black thumb Jun 10 '16 at 04:18
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Nope, bees etc. won't be interested in the flowers - no nectar to bribe them. And it typically blooms very early, before the majority of pollinators is out from hibernation. – Stephie Jun 10 '16 at 05:19
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Where do you live? (Are there also wild Hippophae (sea buckthorn) around? – Giacomo Catenazzi Jun 10 '16 at 06:09
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I live in MN, USA, and got approval from the city arborist to put them in. They're new to the USA. Maybe in a few years there will be a lot of wild ones in the fields next to my house. – black thumb Jun 10 '16 at 15:35
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As sea buckthorn tends to get large, most sources discuss minimum distance... ^_^
But I did find one source (in German, sorry), that claims up to 50m still works and that insects aid in pollination. Another warns not to exceed 10m downwind.
I personally would be a bit wary of that first claim - I guess 50m if the female plant is downwind from the male and wind speed is usually high and I have never seen insects at my blooming sea buckthorn, neither male nor female.
One reassuring fact, though: ours are planted exactly the wrong direction1 and still we got enough berries for about a pint of jam from just one young female plant (ca. 1.80m / 6 ft high). The nice thing about wind is that it usually does not blow from exactly one direction but shifts and the air moves in different directions. And a male plant releases a lot of pollen: on a sunny spring day you can sometimes observe a real "cloud" of it billowing around.
If planting totally cross-wind, I would probably put the male plant in the center of the row, not at the end.
1 We tried to plant it correctly, but our nursery had them mixed up. Unless they are blooming or fruiting, you can't really distinguish the plants. And by the time they bloomed the year after planting, they were so firmly rooted, that we let them be, opting to plant a second male on the other side of the row if necessary. (Apparently not...)
Stephie
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1@blackthumb then you put the male in the middle and count on the fact that only in very few places on this earth the wind blows *from exactly the same direction* all the time. – Stephie Jun 10 '16 at 15:37