Yes Steve,
Sounds like he is trying to propagate apple trees from seeds. He must
be a gambling man. I personally would not spend a lot of time raising
an
apple tree from a seed. Even if the tree were self-fertile, the outcome
would be questionable, yet alone hoping that no bee flew a few miles
from
some other tree to pollinate your tree.
There is a thing called recessive genes, which come more into play
when
growing from seeds (more so in apples than say peaches). When people
fool
around with developing new varieties, they plan a large quantity of
these seeds,
and maybe if they are lucky, something improved will come out.
In your case, you may not even get an equivalent apple.
Just learn to do grafting, not exactly rocket science, and you can be
sure
of the outcome of your new tree.

Sherwin Dubren

Steve wrote:

Look around for yards with a few apple trees that don't have a crab
apple real near by. You could spot these in the spring when they
bloom. If you explain what you are doing, I'm sure the owner would
at least let you have some damaged fruit to save seeds from.
By the way, what ARE you doing? Are you hoping to get good apples
from seed? I can't think of any other reason why you would care if
they were pollinated by a crab apple or not.

Steve

Mihai Cartoaje wrote:

Is there a place where I can find apples which have not grown near
crab apple trees, for planting seedlings?

I heard that phyto-hormones make seed sterile. If it is true, I would
avoid that also.