Planting Apple Seeds

[Mackay]

I have some apple seeds from a local tree and would like to know the best way to get them going. Any ideas?

 

[Ridgerunner]

Don't. At least, not for those apples.

Apple seeds do not breed true. They have to be cross pollinated with another variety to start with so the genetics start out messed up. Many professional growers use crab apples as pollinators. Even with a good apple as a pollinator, you are most likely to get small, twisted, gnarly, bad-tasting apples after a few years of growing the tree. What a bummer!

It is best to either buy started apple trees or to graft from that tree if you want that kind of apples. Since you need a tree to graft onto, you can sprout those seeds, just dont depend on them for apples.

You can go online to see how to germinate them. Basically dry the seeds, then keep them in the refrigerator or freezer for a couple of months, then plant them about a half inch deep. Ive done that with crabapples successfully. I planted the seeds in late winter where I wanted the trees to grow so I didnt kill it trying to transplant it.

 

[897tgigvib]

It really depends on what the known female parent of the apple tree is before deciding to undertake this project.

Many of the Macintosh type Apple varieties will give you Macintosh type Apple tree descendents. That one is a good family. I know. I've done it.

Dolgo Crab Apples are another Apple tree family that breed approximately true, experience with these too. and the same for Indian Crabapples.

There are many I never started, of course, but I have clues that Pippin varieties will breed to at least decent apples and trees. The true old Golden Delicious has been crossed with a lot of apple varieties, and even selfed to produce good apples and trees.

Red Delicious on the other hand only has a few varieties that it can cross with to make good seed, and is only rarely used as breeding material. It is a tetraploid, as are maybe 1 eighth of apple varieties. That means it has a complex set of chromosomes. There is an old heritage standard delicious that might be a good breeder.

A lot of the orchards use a macintosh variety called Liberty for the pollinator, about one per row, spread out. Liberty fills the air with pollen, is one of the most disease resistant apple trees, and even makes a modest crop of heavy skinned apples resistant to worms, thereby not helping to spread bad things. I think Liberty would make a good male parent, if that was what it was.



Even if you don't get anything great, raising apple trees from seed is a fun experience.


I let the raccoons eat them. I knew where they were, uh, relieving themselves. I just tossed a bit of gravel over it. Come late spring, there they'd be, along with things like Spirea, Cherries, Cotoneaster...
Come late fall I'd transplant them, and bring them into the greenhouse.

I got one special Crabapple that made silvery leaves. Another one had the deepest red bark, glossy. Before I moved here, I had it setup for Brandywine Apple, pink double flowered, dry bitter apples though, to be crossed with a bunch of other apples. I have not heard about if they took care of that last crossings I did...I wanted a brandywine tree with decent apples.



Have fun! Chances are you'll get something that has some good quality to it. A good landscape tree, or extra healthy. It might turn out to be a bush. Ya never know, especially if you don't know who the dad was...

 

[hoodat]

apple seeds are easily started but almost all of them will produce small sour apples that are only good for cooking. You can let it grow till the trunk is about thumb sized and then graft in a known variety if you want to be sure to get a good apple. Apples take a graft easily.

 

[Mackay]

Well maybe this tree will come out ok. It was next to a different kind of apple tree so cross pollenation might have happened...all in all. it doesnt sound worth the trouble, well see if I can get them to sprout and meanwhile I'll keep shopping.