Is it possible to grow an apple tree from a seed?

You bought an apple in the market or in a store, and you liked its taste so much that you wanted to plant a similar variety of tree in your garden. What to do? Indeed, in this case, you only have a bone, since the apple variety is not always known. And a natural question arises - is it possible to grow an apple tree from a seed?

Growing an apple tree from seed

Experienced gardeners argue that, subject to certain rules and conditions, it is quite possible to grow a full-fledged tree from a seed, which will give a good harvest.

But planting a bone so that a full-fledged tree grows from it is by no means easy, as it might seem at first glance. This carries a lot of risk, as the result may be unexpected. Ultimately, you may end up with a different flavor than the original apple.

Also, this business is very laborious and requires a lot of both physical and time costs. After all, here you cannot do with the banal burying of seeds in the ground. Of course, it is in this way that an apple tree propagates in nature, but in this case, the percentage that a whole tree will grow from this one particular seed is extremely small. In the natural environment, this method is effective, since at the same time a large number of seeds fall into the ground and some will certainly germinate.

In order for your work to be not in vain, you must follow certain rules for planting seeds, create optimal conditions for their growth, and also do not lose sight of useful tips.

However, it is important to know that there is no one hundred percent guarantee that even if all the above conditions are met, the seed will germinate and give rise to a fruit tree.

It should be remembered that a grown annual tree can be twisted as a rootstock to an already mature tree (grafted) and in the future you can get a harvest of apples.

Optimal growing conditions

To achieve a good result, it is necessary to adhere to the optimal conditions that are necessary for the germination of the seed.

For this, a stratification process is used, which significantly increases the chance of seed germination. This process by itself implies the creation and imitation of optimal conditions, which are similar to natural conditions in the autumn-winter period, for the germination of apple seeds.

Stratification begins with placing the apple seed in a humid environment. Under these conditions, at a slightly positive temperature, it is necessary to keep the seed for six days. The optimum temperature for the seed ranges from 0 ° to + 5-7 ° C. Do not forget that all these six days the seed must have access to air. Creating an enabling environment includes ensuring proper gas exchange. For this, several different substrates are used (sand, peat, sawdust, moss).

This stage of stratification can be carried out in various ways:

• the traditional and oldest method is mixing seeds with peat and wet sand. The calculation is carried out in such a way that three parts of peat or sand come out on one part of the seeds. Then you should mix everything thoroughly and moisten this mixture with a ruler. It is necessary to moisten until the water begins to protrude onto the surface of the mixture. These procedures will help create the most optimal conditions for the bone. Within six days, the seeds will swell;
• the mixture can be made by mixing moss and sawdust.It is believed that it is precisely such a substrate that promotes better gas exchange;
• instead of sand and peat, you can also mix wet sand and sawdust. Crushed activated carbon should be added to this mixture. It will help prevent mold growth.

After six days, the resulting mixture should be placed in the refrigerator (on the lower shelf or door) for two months.

After the seeds have sprouted, they must be planted in a wide pot or box. Before transferring seeds, drainage must be placed at the bottom. From above, the seeds are covered with a nutritious soil for seedlings. The strongest shoots are selected for planting.

Sometimes germinated seeds are planted in a garden bed, while maintaining a distance of 20 cm from other seeds. Planting depth is 2 cm.

An apple tree grown from a seed need to transplant three times in the first four years:

• 1st time - from the nursery to the pot. This is done for the development of a taped central root;
• 2nd time - after a year that the sprouted apple tree has spent in a pot, it needs to be planted in a larger pot. It should be remembered that during this transplant it is necessary to cut off the central root (or simply bend it at a right angle);
• 3rd time - they are transplanted to a permanent place in the garden.

The transplant is done so that the tree begins to bear fruit as early as possible. Otherwise, you will receive the first fruits only after 15 years.

Instructions

Before you start germinating seeds, you must have the following items:

• the actual bone;
• material for stratification;
• it is necessary to determine in advance the place in the garden where it is planned to plant the sprouted apple tree.

Apple Seed Growing Guide:

• pick up planting material. The apple variety should be appropriate for the climate zone of your residence. The seed must be removed from the apple and placed in a container of water. Leave the seed in this form for a couple of days in a not very warm place;
• use soil from the place where the apple tree will grow in the future. If the sprouted stems are strong enough, then they can be planted immediately in the ground. Apples that have been grown in this way have a higher winter hardiness;
• with not very fertile soil of the future planting site or weak sprouts, at first it is better to place the sprouted seedling in a pot, and only then transplant it to a permanent place of growth.

Useful Tips

In order for the process of growing an apple tree from seeds to be correct, and its result to be positive, you need to know the following tips, which can be very useful:

• after separating the seed from the apple, it must be thoroughly rinsed in water (preferably in running water);
• you need to change the water in which the soaked bone is located every day;
• on the last day of soaking the seeds, you can add a stimulant to the water;
• it is best to carry out the stratification process (creating optimal conditions for seed germination);
• for stratification, it is necessary to take freshly harvested and wet seeds;
• it is best to use a mixture of moss and sawdust as a substrate.

Video "Growing an apple tree from a seed"

Some of the subtleties of growing and stratification of seeds will be revealed in the following video.

As you can see, it is quite possible to grow an apple tree from seeds. Subject to all the rules and optimal conditions, you will get a full-fledged fruit tree that can fully recoup the efforts spent on it.