How to start an apple tree?
Question:i bought some fresh apples and i want to save the seeds for planting. what do i need to do?
Answers:
Get the seeds from inside the core. Plant them in small pots. Keep the soil moist until they sprout.
Keep in mind, though, that if you plant the seed of a winesap apple, you will not get a tree that produces winesap apples. You will get a hybrid of winesap, and whatever pollinated that particular flower which produced that particular apple. The "father" flower pollen could be from a crabapple tree for all you know.
Apples grown from seed are a crap-shoot as far as the quality of apple. If all you want is cider, then go for it - because cider doesn't need really really good apples. (That's actually what Johnny Appleseed was doing - he had an interest in the cider business, and planted lots and lots of seeds because the variety didn't matter)
Apple tree varieties are reproduced through taking cuttings from a known apple tree, and grafting onto strong rootstock. Then you get a new tree that is genetically the same variety as the "mother" tree.
That's not to say you shouldn't plant your apple seed. My daughter has grown orange and apple trees from seeds from grocery store fruit. And it was the experience of doing so that mattered. It was delightful.
Just know you aren't going to get the kind of apple you think you are. It may produce good apples, maybe not. You won't know or years.
Just stick it in a pot of potting soil and keep watering it. When it gets to be several inches tall. Transplant it outdoors in the spring. The only problem with doing it this way the tree will need to grafted. I would suggest you go on line and type in "apple trees from seed". Item #2 does discourage this type of producing fruit trees. But is all you want is to satisfy your curiosity, then by all means go ahead and do it. Should be very interesting.
Honey, that's just not gonna work. Apples trees are not grown on their own stock; they're grafted. You have no idea what you'll end up with, what will properly pollinate it, etc.
Additionally, those seeds may not even be viable.
Please do yourself a favor; visit your local nursery (NOT Walmart or Home Depot) and talk to an employee who knows what they're doing. They'll sell you healthy trees that will perform for you, properly cared for.
I agree with the poster above. You may sprout the seeds just to keep them as plants but your best bet is to acquire nursery plants.
Heck, Lowes and Home Depot has the remnants of their stock now at even 75% off! They may not be able to give you great advice like a nursery, but if you are already familiar with some gardening I would encourage you to just give it a try. Nursery stock can be exceedingly expensive to experiment with for beginners! And another advantage is, you save your receipt and if your tree dies on you within a year or brings on other problems, return it for a full refund.
I cut off any ugly branches or leaves, treat if I see blight or anything (sometimes the rains and closeness of their trees promote that), plant in yummi compost (which you can buy or make your own), feed some bone meal to grow strong roots and let it be. When it is ready to give fruit, it will.
I bought two semi-dwarf red delicious apple trees this year at Lowe's, reduced at $5.00! I expect them to bloom for me next year. I bought a reduced Stella cherry tree at the same place last year, and already this year we ate yummi cheries.
Allow them to dry for one day, and then place in refrigerator, in the vegetable bin compartment where you can keep them at around forty degrees fahrenheit,BE SURE AND KEEP THEM IN A MOIST TOWEL and rotate the towel, to keep from molding, once or twice weekly this is called the 'stratification' process, some seeds have to go through this before they will germinate, it is to break down the shell of the seed, keep them in the fridge for at least thirty five to forty days, and then place in pots of moist potting soil, and grow them in the sunny side of your house in the window, when spring comes you will have new baby apple trees!
Good luck!
You can grow the seeds but don't expect to get any edible apples from them. Apple seeds do not come true from seed, they have evolved to have a great degree of genetic variation in their offspring. You will most likely end up with hard inedible apples, but you can do one thing with them: Make cider!
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