Growing apples from seeds

I’ve started other trees from seed. The most successful was this peach/nectarine that I planted about a year ago. No fruit, but it’s growing like gang busters.

My family eats a lot of apples, so I have plenty of seeds to work with. Figured why not give try growing an apple tree from seed? Let me pause at this point. If you’re impatient, this isn’t for you. Growing apples from seedling to tree will take years. My kids will probably be in highschool before I see any fruit, if I ever do. There are other potential issues. Some say the fruit won’t be true to the parent or might not taste good, but this has been proven wrong.

Why I’m doing this..There’s something about growing your own tree that intrigues me. Each one of those seeds is imprinted with a genetic code and everything it needs to grow. I just need to provide the soil, water and sun. Most of them probably won’t make it, but seeds don’t cost anything so there’s really nothing to lose.

The process is simple. When you finish with an apple, collect the seeds and store them. We’ve been eating a lot of Pink Lady /Cripps Pink (Pink Lady is a variety of Cripps Pink) which happen to be one of my favorite apples. I put the seeds in a ziplock bag and store in the refrigerator until I’m ready to plant. The refrigerator helps to stratify the seeds. Essentially it replicates the natural dormancy process the seed goes through over winter. You’ll find that some seeds you collect might have already started to germinate, like the ones below. This can happen when an apple is kept in cold storage for an extended period of time.

Planted some of the seeds I collected about a month, month and a half back and it was already pretty hot. Not sure that this is a problem for growing the seeds. However, when I’m ready to plant the actual tree I’ll want to wait for much cooler weather. Between the two pots I used 10 or 12 seeds. Nothing fancy, just regular potting soil and kept them moist and out of the direct sun. This is what I have now.

Pink Lady Apple Seedling

The Pink Lady/Cripps Pink should do well here. The tree originated in Australia so it’s used to the heat. Not sure about the humidity, but we’ll just have to wait and see.

Stay tuned for more updates. Happy gardening!