Time to start apple seedling

In a continued effort to increase my apple tree population at the farm, this is the 4 year I have been starting apple trees from seed. Seeds have been collected from 3 different kinds of trees in early October and put in the fridge. Last week I planted the first of the seed and have 14 trees growing already. I have roughly 100 seeds and hope to have a good 50-60 2-3′ tall seedling going by spring planting time. It easy, cheap, and something to do over the winter.

Just an FYI (and maybe you already know this…). When you plant apple seeds you don’t get the same variety as where the seed came from. It is a new variety that has never been on this earth before. Some people don’t know that factoid! RR

Yep, I am aware of that, thanks. It all depends on what the other tree was that pollinated it. These are not eating apples, just for wildlife so I try to get varieties that drop at different times. Other than that I just want apples for the critters.

That certainly is a cheap way to do it! That’s a great idea…Side note…Until the trees get tall enough (out of the reach of deer mouths!) they should always be wrapped in some deer protection because those little munchers LOVE the 1 years growth from the previous Spring’s growth in the winter. Those branches they eat are the future fruit bearing branches. Deer actually like the branches more than the actual apples! (Hanging chunks of bar soap (Dove works great!) in a sock from the tree works great as a deer repellent…) RR

Oh yeah, All the ones I have planted to date have 5′ cages around them plus a 3′ tree guard on the trunk to keep the mice and rabbits away. Also, since these are not on a dwarf or semi dwarf root stock they will grow to 30′ plus tall keeping the branches out of reach. Once they get to the 12-15′ height the cages can be removed and just trunk protection left for critters and deer rubbing.

Good points, thanks

Awesome idea. Do you start your seeds in a bigger 5 gallon type bucket? If not, what steps do you take? Start with a dixie cup…..etc.

Thanks!

I would also like to know more. Are the seeds just pulled out of any regular eating apple and then planted? I’m assuming you have a timed light for them?
DT

You can use any apple. Just remove the seeds, clean all the fruit off and dry them for 3-5 days. Then place them in a wet paper towel inside an unsealed plastic bag in the fridge for 30-45 days. Then take them from the fridge and I start them in 3″ pots with potting soil to start. I keep them under a florescent light on a timer that is on 16 hours and off for 8 hours. Once they get 4-6″ tall I transplant them into 1 gallon rootmaker pots. Again, any apple will work, store bought, neighbors yard, crabapple, I even have pear trees going from seed, but those you need to get a more hardy pear like asian pears for MN winters.

I recently was doing some research on this and it turns out you can also grow apple trees by rooting branch cuttings.

I use cuttings as a way to propagate grape vines and as it turns out, it also works for apples.

The advantages of doing this are that you can get a much larger new tree growing in the same amount of time that it would take to grow from seed. The way I’ve done this in the past is to take a couple of hundred cuttings. I then root them using the normal rooting process in groups of 10-20. Then I plant them in rows just like you would plant carrots in a garden.

The survival rate on grape vines is about 25%. Hence the need to do so many. What I do then is overwinter the cuttings and the next spring I figure the ones that come alive as yearlings are going to be good stock, so I use what I need and throw away the rest.

The above info on seeds regarding the fact that seeds rarely grow the same apple tree as the parent is (generally) correct, BTW. With cuttings, however, you can (under some circumstances) grow a clone of the parent tree. There are lots of fine details to this, but it is do-able, unlike growing from seed where you have no control whatsoever.

There’s a lot of info about this online including lots of how-tos for growing from cuttings.

Grouse

So, I can call you the apple whisperer…

Question, I’ve either read or watched a video online that said for young apple trees it’s OK to remove the blossoms in the spring so the tree doesn’t waste precious energy growing fruit. You ever heard anything like this?

I planted two new trees last fall, about 6 foot tall. They are protected by chicken wire 4 foot tall around them. I need to get tree tubes for them.

Sticker: How long before your trees produced apples from seed? According to the net everyone has there own opinion, just curious if you have had any first hand experience? I have seen 4 years, 3-15 years and then 7-10 years…..so pretty much all over the board.

Kooty – I did read where one nursery recommended to pick the blossoms until the tree is 4 years old……???

Kooty, you can call me anything but late for dinner. Its a great idea to pinch the flowers until the tree is strong and healthy and can support bearing fruit. I did this on 4 trees last year.

SES, I started planting seeds 4 years ago. My first group of trees had 4 trees that threw blossoms/flowers last year. I pinched all of them off to help the tree get stronger. I am hoping to leave them go to fruit this year. The others that flower will get pinched. It really depends on what type of seed you plant. I have 2 year old pears that are as big as my 4 year old apples, I expect them to throw flowers this year, apples I would say 4-5 year before you get fruit. It also depends on soil, watering, how much sun they get, ect.

Apples eaten, seeds dried and safely placed in fridge. Only time will tell.

Sweet! I just transplanted the first group of 10 into larger pots and planted another 10. They are about 2-3″ tall in less than 2 weeks.

Great post Sticker!

I have some seeds dried and ready for the fridge.
DT

Seeds are in the fridge. Apple and pear.
DT

My paper towel is starting to turn orange around the seeds. Is this just color bleeding out of the seeds? It is happening to my apple seeds and not my pear seeds.
DT

totally normal, yep just color from the seeds bleeding. One kind of my apples is doing that, one is not and the crab apples are not. Sometimes you’ll get brown bleed, or red bleed. All depends on the fruit.

Here are the fist set of trees planted to date, sorry the pics are a little blurry. They are 2-3″ tall and doing well. I have 10 more in my planting kit that are just starting to pop.
I built this rack to hold some new planting trays I order from Bigrock trees in Wi. They are 18 cell trays with rootmaker pots. The rootmaker pots are designed to air prune the root to make a healthy root ball and not get over crowded roots. I planted these two trays, one full of golden hornet crab apple seeds and the other tray is half from my apple tree at home which produces a huge amount of large red apples the deer hammer and the other half in seeds from a tree at work that also produces high quantities of very taste very large red apples.

Here is the update on how my apples from seed are doing. 3-4 weeks and they will be ready to transplant into 1 gallon pots. I have a total of 48 trees growing from seed after I weeded out the weak and slow growing ones.

What type of bulb are you using?
DT

Just the menards grow light bulbs, nothing fancy, just make sure they say grow light on them to get the right ultra violet. I think they were under $20 for 2 bulbs.

Here are mine after two days under the light. Most are breaking through with one that shot up.
DT

Excellent, that’s a great start

Here is an update on mine. About a week under the lights.
DT

Nice going. Are you growing these guys at work??

Looking good

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Nice going. Are you growing these guys at work??

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In my basement. A few will go in the yard and the rest up at deer camp.
DT

Here is a pic of my biggest tree from seed this year. 27″ tall including pot. This is by far my biggest, most are between 12-18″ including pot.