Question about "wild" seedlings

[Prof.Kent]

If I were to take seeds from an apple tree that's been growing for 60+ years in proximity to other OLD trees, as well as close to newer apples and crabs - what could be expected from any of those seedlings ?? God knows what kind of cross-pollination has occurred in all those years. The only thing I can say is those trees have been around for years and they still seem relatively healthy and produce nice crops of apples. Not pretty apples, but taste pretty good - tart.

I've never really researched growing apple trees from seed, and I've only raised 2 or 3 seedlings - no fruit from them. Is it a total crap shoot, or might something good come from all the cross-pollination ?

Every seed from the old tree if planted and it survives to adulthood would produce and apple different from its parents. Some may be similar, some may be very different. The problem is even if you produce a great new apple, the seedling's rootstock may be susceptible to cold, root diseases, etc and may not survive. Best to graft all seedlings to safe/healthy rootstocks. At least then you remove half your problems. It only costs money!

 

[chickenlittle]

Personally, I wouldn't waste time and money grafting unknown seedlings onto clonal rootstocks. Even if I was interested in fruit quality, just plant the seedlings and wait. You could easily raise dozens or hundreds or thousands of seedlings. You can't get hung up on whether any given one will be a good or great apple. Every seed in every Honeycrisp could have been the next great apple and only a tiny fraction of those seeds have ever had the chance to germinate. Better and cheaper to be patient and ruthless. If a seedling dies, so what. It wasn't meant to be. If it grows too slowly, pull it up and toss it. If it shows disease problems, pull it up and toss.

 

[Prof.Kent]

Personally, I wouldn't waste time and money grafting unknown seedlings onto clonal rootstocks. Even if I was interested in fruit quality, just plant the seedlings and wait. You could easily raise dozens or hundreds or thousands of seedlings. You can't get hung up on whether any given one will be a good or great apple. Every seed in every Honeycrisp could have been the next great apple and only a tiny fraction of those seeds have ever had the chance to germinate. Better and cheaper to be patient and ruthless. If a seedling dies, so what. It wasn't meant to be. If it grows too slowly, pull it up and toss it. If it shows disease problems, pull it up and toss.

Agreed. I don't have a long enough life for a project like that. I'd rather have a project that gives a better return on my time.

 

[cavey]

I always thought it would be cool to grow some apple or crabs from seed but I'm going around the whole planting the seed thing myself; I don't have the time for that wait either. As an experiment I decided to let mother nature do all the hard work... I'm grafting a number of field proven (Seedling) trees already out growing in the wild... then grafting them onto hardy root stock. I just figured why not go out and see what is still hanging for late season fruit (Im looking for late hanging fruit for an added winter food source). You would be surprised at just how many wild trees are actually out there to pick from. Ask around, everybody seems to know of a wild seedling tree or two out there that bears heavy or hangs late or tastes great.

This a pretty good option for those that don't want to wait but still want to find the "new" unnamed tree

 

[Prof.Kent]

Last Spring when apple trees were in blossom I walked our family's 80 acres and found about 6 wild apple trees (probably flowering crabs) that were in the brush and none larger than 2" diameter. I tagged them and came back with scions from my own apple trees. I grafted them over to late-hanging, good eating apple tree varieties like Rome, Golden Delicious, Golden Russet. Then cut the brush down around them to let the light in.
We have a saying about top working wild apple trees: "They're working for us now."

 

[yoderjac]

Based on some suggestions in another thread, I just ordered some Bud9. I am taking scions from my seedlings and grafting them over to known varieties. I graft those seedling scions to the Bud9 and grow them out in my 3 gal RB2s on my deck until they fruit. Anything of deer quality will become a scion source for clonal rootstock. The rest will be regrafted with more seedling scions for evaluation.

My objective is a combination of apples with known characteristics along with genetic diversity.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Bowsnbucks]

No grafting of seedlings for me. My only attempt at growing from seed turned out a couple non-growers ( as I mentioned earlier ). If I start any from seed again, I'd only nurse the vigorous grower(s). The couple non-growers are getting yanked for 3 known DR trees, Goldrush, Priscilla and Chestnut crab.

 

[yoderjac]

No grafting of seedlings for me. My only attempt at growing from seed turned out a couple non-growers ( as I mentioned earlier ). If I start any from seed again, I'd only nurse the vigorous grower(s). The couple non-growers are getting yanked for 3 known DR trees, Goldrush, Priscilla and Chestnut crab.

Yes, I tried seeds from a number of different varieties. I'd say Wickson gave me more strong growers than the others. Winesap did better than expected. There was and continues to be lots of culling involved.

Thanks,

Jack