Noob Question. If I Plant Supermarket Bought Apple Seeds...

[wild]

Will they grow?

I've got some regular apples from Aldi & have taken the seeds out. I fancy experimenting and seeing if they'll turn into apple trees. Will they work?

[veggiechicken]

They may grow and in a few years you will have a little tree but the apples (if any) will not be the same variety as the ones you've just eaten. Its good fun to try though

[scarey55]

They will certainly grow into apple trees. I don't think every apple comes true to the original fruit but you should get apples from it... eventually.
I think it will take a long time to become mature but we still have an apple tree in the garden of my childhood home that my granddad grew in exactly this way, apples are lovely too

[wild]

Oooh, interesting! I'll definitely give it a go. If nothing else, it'll be fun to try

Can anyone explain why the apples won't be the same variety as the ones I've planted? I've heard the same thing before... I don't get it! Why not?

[Jay-ell]

Thes can grow but ne warned that the resulting tree may not be one you would growing in your back garden.

First of all the resulting fruit may be totally different to the one you bought as most likely it would have been pollinated by a different type of apple, which may be a crab apple.

Secondly, tree may be massive as it won't have semi-vigorous/dwarfing roots. Bigger trees make more shade, block out your windows, lift your paths with their roots and suck the juice from your garden and probably the garden next door. You're also going to have to get up high to harvest. And that's just one tree - your post said trees.

You could try to control the vigour by growing in pots and root pruning - one method was to have pots with almost no bottom growing on a gravel bed. turning the pots regularly would break the roots off.

You could also try training and heavy pruning to control the vigour - cordons, espaliers etc removing the majority of new growth each year.

Once they have fruited you could them make a decision based on the quality of the fruit - keep it, cut it down or have it grafted onto a different rootstock.

[AkionTotocha]

Oooh, interesting! I'll definitely give it a go. If nothing else, it'll be fun to try

Can anyone explain why the apples won't be the same variety as the ones I've planted? I've heard the same thing before... I don't get it! Why not?

Because seeds are children, so they will be 1/2 mum and 1/2 dad. If mum is a red apple and dad is a green apple the child might be stripes, green, red, or any combo etc.

Also there's grandparents and great grandparents, and so on. With humans it's very basic, only a few races, but with apples it's like mongrel dogs. Apple genetics can be very dirty, most fruit really.

And finally, in commercial fruit, you don't know the parentage but it's almost always a crab apple - small hard and sour most of them, the opposite traits you want in an apple. Apple blossoms are fussy lovers, so commercial orchards just "pollen nuke" them by planting a crab apple daddy, since as long as its pollinated an apple tree will produce the same kinds of apples, it's just the seeds that have DNA in that's different.

But that's a basic explanation, as with most things scientific I'm sure someone will come along and point out all the places I'm wrong

[Guest]

If you want to get into it in any depth it is worth reading this thread http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ers_72209.html one of the grapes has linked their site towards the end of the thread which makes for an eye opener.

[lookbettertomorow]

A man and a woman (species) marry, The Smith's (genus) have a child (variety)
The varieties will always be same species and of the same genus but slightly different though similar. Never the same unless grafted,divided or a cutting is taken.
Lesson 2 is twins and F1 F2 but on a need to know basis. Basically, I don't know! ish... :-)

[Alison]

You definitely can do it, my brother and sister in law grew these from seeds a few years ago. Didn't take very long for them to harvest and the trees have stayed a perfectly manageable size, grown on a bank at the back of their garden.

[scarey55]

Same with the tree my Granddad planted, I guess he might have just been lucky but it's a lovely reminder of him and they taste pretty good too

[skeggijon]

My mum grew lots of apple trees from seed at the family home. They did all mature and produce fruit, but they were quite small and definitely cookers. Were fine to use in jams though.

[BUFFS]

I have not crossed any apples but I lifted a seedling cross from my Victoria plum and greengage, it has grown into a standard with a 4ft stem, approx, and it gives loads of sweet fruit, the size of a really large damson and is quite happy in a good sized tub, it was pure luck as if I had been busy I would have pulled it and dumped it onto the compost bin and missed out on my own plum....

[Kirk]

The result is a mix as they get half the genetic code from the 2 parent apples, it also depends on which aspect in the genetic coding is dominent.

If you read through the many hundreds of apple varieties you will often see that a variety is termed from a known parent on one side but open pollinated on the other.

So something like a Cox gets pollinated by a bee and the chance result is good but they have no idea what the pollen the bee was carrying was from. Others they have no idea what either apple was an the tree is termed "Chance seedling". Generally means someone ate an apple, threw the core into the hedge and at least one pip grew.

Not sure where many around here came from but many of the slip roads on to and off of the A1 and also the older roundabouts have apple trees growing on them. Suspect a few are from discarded cores that someone has lobbed out of a window.

One big A1 roundabout has a big bush always with lots of apples. They just about all go to waste as no one can easily/safely get to them.

Eat an apple, save the pips and plant a few at the next layby you use. I have done it a few times heading down to the South West on a sunny day. Stop, have a break, munch apple and poke the pips in the verge. If you really want and you are down in the South West some time try lemon pips . That will confuse people .

[FB.]

Triploid apples tend not to produce as many pips - sometimes very few pips - and most of the pips they produce tend to be mis-shapen and often don't germinate or grow well.

So don't go buying bags of Bramley apples hoping to grow lots of seedlings from the pips.

[KittyColdNose]

This is interesting! I bought a braeburn yesterday to eat in the car and two of the seeds were sprouting so I saved them. Think I will plant them to see what happens