Plant apple tree from seeds

Growing Apple Trees From Seed.

Introduction: Growing Apple Trees From Seed.

Hello.
I am going to tell you how to grow apple trees from seed. This is a lot more complicated than just throwing a few seeds in the ground, but with my help I can show you how.

Step 1: Materials Needed

You will need:
An apple
Compost
Pots
Paper towel
plastic bag
Knife
Later On:
Grafting tape or Cling film
Grafting Wax or Masking tape

Step 2: Getting the Seeds

Now, Carefully cut down the middle of an apple and take out the seeds. You may need a few apples always remember on average only 30% of your seeds will germinate.

Step 3: Getting the Seeds to Germinate

Now we need to get our or paper towel and wrap our seeds in them. Wet the paper towel and put it in the plastic bag. Make sure the plastic bag is sealed tight, and put it in the fridge. Your seeds should take about a month to germinate but check every few weeks and wet again if dry. Your seeds will start to have little white sprouts coming out of them soon enough thats when you know there ready for planting.

Step 4: Planting Seeds

Once the seeds have germinated just drop them into any pots about 1 — 2″ deep and cover in good compost. Then just watch them grow.

Step 5: The Most Important Step: Grafting

This step is vital or you apple trees will not produce any apples.
First wait until your apple trees are about 30-60 cm high.(Like in picture)
Now there are many different methods of grafting apple trees but the one I use and find most helpful is the «Whip and Tongue» graft.

Use pictures to help with the graft. Pictures used on random pieces of wood for an example.
Firstly you get a piece of wood (Scion wood) from the variety of apple you want.
Then you cut down at an angle on wood.
Now make an identical cut on the apple tree.
Then cut downwards on the sliced wood. Do this on both tree and scion wood.
Then push together and wrap with cling film and then masking tape.
Done.

Step 6: Watch for Results Some Will Be Unsuccessful.

Watch closely for results if you graft is growing leaves then it is successful if it isn’t it probably isn’t successful, After 1-3 months take off the grafting tape.

Step 7: Watch Your Lovely Apple Tree Grow.

Thanks for reading my instructable.

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199 Comments

Question 1 year ago on Step 2

I have an apple tree seedling and he’s been 2 inches for the last year.
All he does is sprout new leafs and that’s it.
Any idea why he’s so tiny and refuses to grow?
I have an apple tree seedling and he’s been 2 inches for the last year.
All he does is sprout new leafs and that’s it.
Any idea why he’s so tiny and refuses to grow?

Tip 1 year ago on Step 4

You can add some Epsom salt mixed with water but only 1 tbs of Epsom salt

There are a lot of misconceptions and errors in this thread, and some good stuff too. The article is really about growing apple root stock from seeds in order to graft on a variety that you like, such as pink lady, Wickson, etc. Nothing wrong with that. People used to do this all the time. If these seeds were allowed to grow out and produce fruit instead of grafting them to another variety, each one would produce a unique new variety of apple, which may or may not be good and may or may not resemble the original parent.

Most of what you read or hear about growing new varieties from seed is very negative. Michael Pollan in particular has done a great disservice by blugeoning home the message in his book Botany of Desire that it is almost impossible to grow really good apples from seed . The experience of many people disproves that notion though. For instance, my friend Freddy Menge has been growing seedlings and says that more of the apples he grows from seed are worth eating than not. and he’s a picky apple collector. My very first open pollinated apple seedling to fruit is quite promising and I happily ate all of them. I named it BITE ME! for all the people that say it can’t be done. I have over 100 intentionally cross pollinated seedlings growing and more coming this year. If you want to know more about growing apples from seed intentionally to produce new varieties, I’m producing a youtube video series that follows my efforts and shows how I do everything. I hope to start getting fruit from those this year.

In short, I think more people should be growing fruit from seed and a little intention in selection of parents can probably go a long way toward skewing results in our favor.

Apple Breeding video playlist:

Reply 1 year ago

Awesome!! awesome advice, I will definitely be following your YouTube channel! I have a three month old Apple tree sitting in my window, I sprouted the seeds early April.

Reply 1 year ago

Thankyou for this excellent resource! I am a horticulturist with very little apple experience, but keen to breed from seed selectively to suit my climate just because its a challenge and because i have never done it. My climate is tropical to sub tropical but I reckon if I move far enough in land I will get lower night time temperatures.

Reply 1 year ago

Agree. The worst that would happen is that inferior apples could be made into cider (preferably hard).

Reply 3 years ago

Thanks 4 the positive vibes n video efforts. I’ll check it out later 🙂 Americans r raised 2 go 2 the store & buy a bag of apples. Unfortunately, it’s not in r vocabulary 2 «grow your own trees from seed. » I only started that journey recently as my mom has a little orchard in her backyard. I want 2 leave an even bigger orchard 4 r next generation (my daughter & nephews) plus teach the kids in r family 2 b self reliant in the process. Part of the problem is that we’re raised in such a commercialized atmosphere that we don’t know anything other than pre-packaged foods. which is ruining r overall health & quality of life. We CAN grow r own trees, but the pioneers of r time r being totally discouraged online. Only the serious rebels don’t care what others r saying & r going 4 it anyway. I’m 1 of those ppl. bound & determined 2 do it anyway because my daughter deserves 2 learn how 2 really feed herself & her future family. Doing nothing is not an option. We gotta try. R great grandparents didn’t bring r ancestors into this world going 2 a store n buying a bag of apples. We need 2 take this «do it anyway despite what u hear» approach in more avenues of r lives. Thanks 4 the encouragement! Keep it up please!

Reply 3 years ago

Reply 5 years ago

I think you should read or perhaps reread Michael Pollans’ book Botany of Desire he actually credits John Chapman or people like him with spreading and nurturing apple seeds which have led to most known American varieties.Every garden/Hort/herbal/plant book that I have read that talks about planting seeds mentions 1in 50000 apple seeds will produce an apple as good as either parent. Pollan does not walk that line in his book.As a side note it I have spent a lot of time looking for someone that has actually run the experiment. Gathering 50,000 apple seeds grown and collected under the same growing conditions then planted and germinated under the same conditions and then waited the 3-15 years for the trees to fruit etc,etc. Does anyone actually have that much time, money and land to perform this experiment? I would love to see the results.

Reply 3 years ago

Reply 3 years ago

I did re-read it and he states repeatedly that the odds are enormously against getting anything good to eat. The relevant quotes are here:

It is very overstated and the entire chapter is wrapped around the mistaken idea that almost all apples from seed are not worth growing for anything but cider. That was the message. He mistakenly picked up that idea and ran with it. his point was that almost all the apples from seed sucked and were good for only cider and it was only by sheer numbers that new varieties happened. He may not have understood at the time either just how many apples sprung from that chaos of seeding planting. It wasn’t just seedlings planted to grow as seedlings, but seedlings were used as rootstocks then and often ended up overgrowing the top, or the top might die. Many good apples have also always come from hedgerows. I know people that hunt hedgerows for worthwhile apples The 1 in 1000’s thing derives from the commercial breeding paradigm where the number of criteria an apple has to meet has become very high, so very few apples make the grade. As home growers we don’t have so many criteria to meet.

Regarding an experiment, we can do the same experiment in small numbers. I know people with various numbers of seedling trees. All we need is for them to report what percentage are worth growing and eating. All results from anyone growing a number of seedlings has been pretty encouraging. It’s a gamble for sure, but it’s not the dismal odds we are often told.

Pollan is an intellectual and academic. He decided to write about something he didn’t know anything about and ended up building a case on a fundamental error. That isn’t that surprising given the prevalence of the misunderstood 1 in thousands thing, but it’s unfortunate, because millions of people read that and they frequently cite him to make the case that it’s a waste of time to grow apples from seed.

Источник

How to Grow An Apple Tree From Seed (Easy Tutorial)

Published on January 19, 2021 Last updated November 18, 2021 ♛ By Melissa J. Will

Use this simple tutorial to grow an apple tree using the seeds found in fruit from the grocery store. It’s an excellent beginner project for anyone wanting to try simple plant propagation. This same method works for pears as well.

Want to turn other food into plants? See How to Grow Avocado From Seed.

Grow Your Own Apple Tree

Of all the ways we can encourage a love of plants, nature, and gardening, it seems that starting something quite prolific from seed—like an oak tree from an acorn or an apple tree from seed—are sure ways to create a lifelong interest in growing. And how cool is it that you take the seeds from fruit you’re eating and grow them into fruit-bearing trees?

Contents

Before You Start

Before we dive into the step-by-step instructions there are a few things to know.

• For seeds to be viable (able to grow), they need to be mature. An apple you buy at the grocery store is very likely mature but an apple picked from a tree part way through the growing season will not have fully-formed seeds. So start with mature, ripe fruit.

• Apple seeds, along with other fruit seeds including pear, peach, and cherry, require stratification (cold, damp conditions) to prepare for germination. The amount of time required to stratify varies depending on the variety. It’s generally between 60 and 90 days. The instructions (below) show you how to mimic stratification.

• Not all apple seeds will sprout. Even if you do everything right, some types never sprout, and for those that do, only half may germinate. It varies a lot. So, increase your odds by starting a bunch, preferably from several different types of apples.

• You won’t get McIntosh apples from McIntosh seeds. Or any other variety (with a few exceptions*). If your apple seeds do grow to become fruit-bearing trees, the apples produced will not be same as the ones you started with. Most apple trees require cross-pollination from another apple tree so any apples produced will have genes from both (the tree you grew and the pollinator tree) and, similarly, no two seeds will produce genetically-identical trees. In other words: every seed has a different combination of genes. That’s why plant breeders who want specific varieties do not grow their trees from seed but instead propagate vegetatively, taking stems and grafting them onto other established rootstock, to grow genetically identical apples. *Antonovka seeds are one example of apple seeds that reproduce true to parent.

Personally, I love experimenting with seed starting, watching things grow, and propagating plants from food scraps is a favorite rabbit hole to explore.

And, what a wonderful thing for a child (or anyone) to grow something from a simple seed and nurture it for years to come.

How to Sprout Apple Seeds

This is how to germinate apple seeds. You can follow the same steps to sprout pear seeds as well.

Get Seeds Ready

Some apples have many seeds, some have few, others have none or just little white cases where you’d expect to find seeds. Pay attention to store bought apples like McIntosh, Delicious, Granny Smith, Sparta, Fuji, Gala, and so on, and, as you eat them, look for fully formed (dark brown) seeds.

It’s best to start quite a few (10-20) from different types of apples to increase your odds. If you do, be sure to keep each type separate and labelled so you know what worked.

Start with a ripe apple (one you would eat) to ensure the seeds inside are mature. Cut around the core to avoid damaging any of the seeds with your knife.

I like to take clear, close up pictures at this point so I have something to compare with later on.

Ever Find Sprouted Seeds In Your Apple?

When fruits become over-ripe, the hormones that control seed dormancy decline and the seeds within the fruit can actually start sprouting. This is called vivipary (“live birth”). If you ever find germinated seeds in your apple, sow them! And thank them for making propagation so easy.

Sand Seed Coats

Next, to help the process along, you can very gently soften the seed coat. I do this by folding a small piece of sandpaper with the right (rough) sides together. Insert one seed at a time and gently sand off a little bit of the coat by rolling everything between your fingers. Easy does it: you don’t want to expose the embryo inside.

Soak in Moist Paper Towel

Once sanded, spread your seeds out on a moist (not dry, not soaking wet) paper towel (or a dish cloth), fold it up, and place everything in a food storage container or plastic food bag.

You may see other methods where the seeds are placed in moist potting mix instead of paper towel. I prefer paper towel because it makes it easy to check on the seeds and see any sign of sprouting without having to dig them out and rinse them off.

Chill in Fridge

Add a tag or write on tape or with waterproof marker noting the seed name (McIntosh, Delicious, Granny Smith…) and the date.

Place in refrigerator and set a reminder on your phone to check on the seeds weekly.

Most fridges run around 35 to 38°F (1.7 to 3.3°C) and apple seeds do best around 40°F (4.4°C). With the insulation provided by the container and paper towel, our seeds in the fridge will do fine.

How long does it take for apple seeds to germinate?

Depending on the variety, they may need 60 to 90 days of moist and cold conditions to germinate. Never allow the paper towel to dry out or become waterlogged: just add moisture as needed.

When they have sprouted, they are ready for sowing.

If they haven’t sprouted after 90 days in the fridge, try setting the container on your countertop at room temperature and give them another few weeks. I’ve had some sprout this late, right when I was going to give up.

Planting Sprouted Apple Seeds

I’ve sprouted my apple seeds, now what?

While you could plant your apple tree seedling right in the garden (in spring or summer), it will be much easier to protect and care for it if you grow it in a container for as long as possible.

Start with a 4 to 6-inch wide (and deep) plastic flower pot with drainage holes and use organic potting mix.

This larger pot (in the photo, below) has seven apple tree seedlings. Once they get a bit bigger (about 6 to 8-inches tall), they should be transplanted into their own containers to avoid getting the roots tangled.

Frequently-Asked Questions

When Will My Apple Tree Produce Fruit?

With optimum growing conditions, it may take 7 to 10 years for the tree to flower and fruit—if it will do this at all. Some apple trees grown from seed will never fruit.

We grow from seed for fun but buy grafted apple trees if we want a tree that will provide a specific type of apple.

The whole topic of pollination is worth researching if you do get this far. If you want a chance of pollination (leading to fruit), there will need to be other apple trees nearby for cross-pollination.

Also, some types of apple tree including Jonagold and Gravenstein have sterile pollen and require pollen from two other trees for fertilization to take place. These are called ‘triploids’. So much to know!

Apple Tree Pollinators
Honey bees (Apis mellifera) are the most common pollinators for apple trees, along with orchard mason bees (Osmia lignaria), and (in much smaller numbers) bumblebee queens (Bombus genus). You may also notice that each variety of apple tree has its own time to flower from late winter to late spring. Fruit trees that flower at the same time are called ‘pollinator partners’.

Are Apple Seeds Toxic?

Apple seeds do contain cyanogenic glycoside, a cyanide-based compound. But it would take a very large dose to harm someone. That’s why it’s not an issue when we accidentally swallow seeds when eating apples. There are no cases of apple seed poisoning on record.

Can I Grow An Apple Tree Indoors?

It would be fun but no, not under normal household conditions. These are cold-hardy trees needing four seasons to flourish.

More Tutorials

I hope you’ll give this a try and be sure to sign up for the free Empress of Dirt Newsletter for new growing tips and creative garden ideas.

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