"Jette Randlov" wrote:

Have anybody tried it? I am wondering if you save seeds from apples grown in
a normal garden, the seeds will likely be cross pollinated and the offspring
F1 - so theoretically the offspring should give fairly healthy, large
apples. The taste cannot be guessed.

I keep hearing people saying that the new tree is highly unlikely to produce
good/eatable/normal apples. Is that really true?

I have 4 apple trees that my father started from Empire Apple seeds
18-20 years ago. They have suffered from poor soil-- poor
location- north side of house- and my 20 yr ago thought of an
apple-espalier fence followed by 17yrs or so of no pruning.

Only one of the 4 has ever borne fruit. It has had one apple twice
in its life & they were both excellent tasting, though small. [even
for Empires]

Would it be worth trying just as a fun experiment? If the offspring is
interesting one could graft it on some existing tree.

'One of these days' I'll give some branches from the fruit bearing one
to someone who will graft them onto a tree they will care for.
Between pruning and spraying, I'm not really a fruit farmer.

Jim