From seed to fruit

[Mahindra3016]

An apple tree that i started from seed 4 or 5 years ago is going to have some blossoms this year, much sooner than i was expecting! This is one of two seedling trees that i have let grow, all others have been topworked.

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[BlueSpruceOutfitters]

That's awesome! What kind of seeds if you don't mind me asking! I just started Granny Smith, honey crisp and red delicious, along with a "wild Montana" variety, I'll be planting them out this year.

 

[BenAllgood]

Looks great. Can you give details on your process? I've got some I started from seed a few months ago, and I'd love to get those results.

 

[BuckSnort]

This is great. I just grafted onto 20 trees that were started from seed, the root systems were quite impressive when I dug them up for bench grafting. I grafted them all though so I knew what I would have, it will be interesting to see what sort of apple / crab you get for fruit.

 

[Mahindra3016]

Thank you, my process was that i stratified the seeds in the refrigerator in wet sawdust, then grew the tree in a small pot for one season, the next spring i planted the tree and used a tube for one year before switching to a cage. The seeds were from a local roadside apple tree, greyphase and i have both grafted trees from the same tree, but i wanted to start one from seed just to see what i got.

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[sandbur]

One of my seedlings from a wild crab.

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[sandbur]

I dug my three seedlings from the garden today. I had to dig two feet down to get the roots. They emerged about 11.5 months ago.

The open pollinated Kinderkrisp had nice roots.


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[sandbur]

I had two Crabby Crisp seedlings. One of those I selected for red leaves. It has red wood and great roots, also. It might be a flowering crab or a red fleshed crab

I did save scion from both of these.

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[sandbur]

Crabby Crisp roots.

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[Chainsaw]

Thank you, my process was that i stratified the seeds in the refrigerator in wet sawdust, then grew the tree in a small pot for one season, the next spring i planted the tree and used a tube for one year before switching to a cage. The seeds were from a local roadside apple tree, greyphase and i have both grafted trees from the same tree, but i wanted to start one from seed just to see what i got.

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That is an awesome tree grown from a seed. The combination of genes that tree has must contain an aggressive growing habit. And no doubt your growing program was key to capitalizing on it. Could it be that with just a single seedling you may be discovering a potentially great rootstock? It must be tempting to plant a bunch of seeds from that tree and see what other genes show up. Looking forward to reading about its disease resistance and fruiting habits. Good luck with it.

You did not mention fertilizer, was fertilizing involved in raising that seedling.

 

[Mahindra3016]

Thank you!, No fertilizer other than if there was some in the potting mix, and no fertilizer since planting, the tree is planted in a ladino clover plot converted to an orchard, that might have something to do with the fast growth.

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