On Thu, 16 Nov 2006 00:38:12 -0600, sherwindu wrote:
Why put all this effort into an apple tree that will produce lousy tasting
apples. I mean, isn't growing

You're sure about that? cv Delicious was a chance seedling (and they're
very nice apples when they haven't been subjected to storage!) Likewise,
most of the heirloom apples are chance seedlings, and I'll take a Cox's
Orange Pippin or an Arkansas Black over a Fuji any day.

Kids enjoy having their own plants... or at least I sure did. Kay's
Pear, while it never produced world-class commercial fruits, produced
acceptable home fruit, and it was *mine*. And I've gotten some
very good no-name apples out of local roadsides, probably planted by birds.

Sometimes, especially when you're a kid, it's nice to go against the
flow of uniformity and find out what happens in an uncontrolled
experiment.

Kay