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Apple Tree From Seed
Couldn't you just surreptitiously swap the seeds for known, 'quality'
cultivar seeds? Doesn't quite work that way -- apples have some interesting genetic instabilities that make even grafting known cultivars less than a sure bet. And seed of any open pollinated, sexually reproduced seed (as opposed to apomictically produced seeds, as dandelions often do) is going to produce offspring different from their parents. (Just like human kids, while they resemble their parents, aren't exact duplicates. And one sibling is not identical to another.) It's only with some fairly intensive breeding techniques (e.g. linebreeding, back-crosses) that we've been able to produce the uniform fields of plants currently in favor with mechanized agriculture. John Chapman certainly wasn't toting around bags of grafted apple trees when he decided to spread apple seeds around on his journeys. Some of the seedlings that came up produced very nice apples. Some didn't. It's the same result I'd expect of the OP's little experiment... they may get some nicely flavored apples from the seedlings, and then again, they might get spitters. But whatever they get, it'll be interesting for the kids if the parents help them interpret what they're seeing and experiencing. someone earlier claimed that the OP would get "crab apples" from the seedlings... this is pretty unlikely, as most of the eating apples are diploids, and most of the crabapples are polyploid (have several sets of chromosomes, rather than simple pairs.) At any rate, I think kids (and grownups, too, from the sounds of things here!) should try things like growing seeds of an open-pollinated, sexually reproducing crop, just to see some of the hidden genetic variation uncovered... it's really pretty amazing. I also wish I could get more people involved in such activities as comparison tastings of fruits -- or as my husband said after I got him to try about 50 cultivars of apple in a day, "Gee, I wish I'd known before now that there were more apples than Delicious and Jonathan." (He has now found he also likes tomatoes, pears, sweet corn and I'm working on getting him off iceberg lettuce. g) Save some seed of something or other... tomatoes, dwarf marigolds, impatiens, lettuce... grow 'em out and see what you get. It's fun. Kay |
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