Hey, i know this is probably a simple question, but i planted some apple seeds the other day (itching to garden and it's winter!) and was wondering how long it'll take them to become fruit bearing trees. Five years? Just curious. I am patient. We just bought a house and i'm anxious to make start growing my own food now that we're out of the renting world.
Thanks in advance!
Dafalax:
Five to ten years is a good guess. The bad news is that the apples most likely will be sour duds, as apples do not grow true to seed, and one in 10,000 seedling apple trees are any good.
But hey, you may like those odds. Most of the greatest apples in the world were sprouted from a seed in a ditch or pomace pile by accident. But if you're not a risk taker, all is not lost. Let the tree grow a year and then graft a known variety onto it.
Dafalax,
Check out some of the discussion in this thread about growing apples from seeds:
viewtopic.php?p=1126
You will have more success if you do the following:
1. Soak apple seeds in water for 24 hours.
2. Make a 10% solution of bleach and soak seeds in it for 10 minutes.
3. Rinse seeds thoroughly so there is no bleach left.
4. Moisten some peat moss and place it in a Ziploc and place the seeds in it. Make sure that peat is kept moist but not soaked.
5. Place Ziploc with peat and seeds in your refrigerator till seeds start to sprout (4 months at least).
6. Plant it outside.
This is called stratitfication ...
Good luck!
Marc Camargo
fruit-tree.com nursery
Visit us at http://www.fruit-tree.com
our motto: "Preservation by dissemination"
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