One year we bought more than 30 apple varieties from a local heirloom apple orchard and did a big apple taste test. Those that were less tasty eaten out of hand went into hard cider, which requires a certain percentage of high tannin or high acid apples to brew properly. Planting an apple from seed is like playing the lottery, and since you’re likely going to compost that apple core anyway, you’ve got nothing to lose.Ī few hundred years ago settlers carried with them apple seeds and started seedling orchards all over the Northeast, and those same orchards became the parents of many of the heirloom varieties I now treasure. The thing is…all the tastiest apple varieties were a seedling at some point in history. Humans tend to want predictability, and for that reason, apple trees are cloned by grafting rather than starting from seed. The main reason apples aren’t grown from seed is that they don’t “come true to seed.” Just like humans, the offspring may have some resemblance to their parents, but with their own flavor and habits. From there, you have a tree that may bear for centuries. Give an apple tree seedling 3-4 years and it’ll catch up to and pass a potted transplant in size. Apple seeds are easy to grow at home with the proper preparation, and seedlings are often more vigorous than their grafted nursery counterparts.
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