A few more

If you can get them to root, and grow, and there’s a source of pollen, they should produce identical apples.

Nearly all apple trees have been grafted to a specialized rootstock. Not only will that rootstock limit the size of the tree above, rootstocks have also been selected for their ability to withstand varying soil conditions and diseases. As is, your trees will have no limit as to their eventual size (beyond pruning) or any resistance to soil-born diseases.

I inherited a homestead on which my Great-uncle had grafted two ‘seedling’ apple tree shoots with a known productive variety. Both trees flourished for about 25 years, then slowly died from their roots up. Until that experience I’d suggested people ‘make’ their own trees using a cutting and a seedling. Not any more. It was a devastating waste to witness the demise of those trees, pruned to perfection and with no other problems. My suspicion is that oak root-rot fungus did them in…

My suggestion is to place your desired variety on a known rootstock. If you could purchase a rootstock ‘now,’ it would likely be easiest to Bud Graft your variety to it in a couple of months. …but I don’t know where you’d find that stock. You can also slip a ‘bud’ under the bark of a young existing tree on your place. Or you might order some rootstock from a ‘mail order nursery’ and graft some dormant wood to it next Spring…

Otherwise, if any of your cuttings take you will have a viable source of wood for the near future. But if you want manageable sized trees that can live a couple hundred years… you’ll need to graft them. I’m not sure where you’re located, but if you live around the Portland, Oregon area – you’re in luck – so do we and each year put on a Spring program in which you could purchase rootstock and have your variety grafted to it for a nominal fee.

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