Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Grow An Apple Tree From Seeds

Save your seeds next time you eat an apple to grow your own apple tree!

My kids want to plant every seed they find, so when my daughter dug the seeds out of her apple, I figured we could give it a try. 


Steps for success:
  1. Allow your seeds to dry out for a few days
  2. Place seeds in a Ziploc baggie with a wet paper towel. Place in refrigerator for about a month or until they start to sprout.
  3. Plant seeds in small cup with soil and wait for some growth. Make sure soil stays moist.
  4. Replant seedling into larger pot, one seed per pot recommended so they don't have to compete for nutrients.
  5. When plant reaches 1.5-2 ft tall, carefully transplant outdoors in full sunlight, making sure there is enough room around for growth.




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10 comments:

  1. I never would have thought to refrigerate the seeds to get them to sprout. We going to try this the next time my girls have apples, most likely this afternoon. :-)

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  2. Are they going to get actual apples? I thought they have to be crafted to do so. Not sure. Curious.

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    Replies
    1. You know, I'm not really sure. My neighbor has a tree as well, so they would be able to cross pollinate. Since the seeds came from apples at the store, I'm not sure if those trees were engineered in a certain way. We'll find out one day. My tree is still pretty small and hasnt even flowered yet.

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    2. The reason commercial apple trees are grafted is so producers get exactly the same kind of apple from every tree. When you grow a tree from seed, you get 1/2 the genetics from each parent, and the resulting tree/apples can be significantly different from either parent. Grafted trees are basically clones, so they all have exactly the same genetics, and will produce exactly the same fruit. Anyway, yes, the seed grown tree will eventually produce fruit if there's a cross pollinator around, but the fruit will probably not taste like the apple the seeds came from.

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  3. My kids have always wanted to plant their apple seeds... I'll give it a shot!
    Great Blog post! Thank you so much for sharing with us on the Homesteader Hop!

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  4. My oldest son tried this this past year and the tree is over 3 feet tall; still skinny and we definitely need to replant/ re-pot it but I've been so surprised that it's still growing and it was so easy!

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  5. Why do you refrigerate it? My daughter did a plant-a-seed project but put the ziplock bag taped to the window for sunlight.

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    Replies
    1. Apple seeds require a period of cold stratification to break their dormancy and start the germination process like what happens in nature outdoors during winter.

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  6. Hi there i have an apple tree my 4 year old has been growing from seed for about 3 months now i went to water it tonight and it was laying down is there any way i can fix the poor little thing .

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