My wife sowed some apple seeds from a grocery store apple, which germinated
just fine. Would these things do ok in the Mid-Atlantic region? This was
more of an experiment for our young kids, but I am wondering if these things
are viable here.

Thanks.

On Sun, 3 Jun 2007 14:46:29 -0400, "Buck Turgidson"
wrote:

My wife sowed some apple seeds from a grocery store apple, which germinated
just fine. Would these things do ok in the Mid-Atlantic region? This was
more of an experiment for our young kids, but I am wondering if these things
are viable here.

Thanks.



Only way to know is to try them. They might be worthless, they might
be the next great thing. If you have the time, space, patience, then
why not let them grow?

as an aside, when I read mid-Atlantic my first thought was "Out in the
middle of the ocean?" Probably not what you had in mind.

middle of the ocean?" Probably not what you had in mind.


LOL. No dry land. Thanks.

Buck Turgidson wrote:
My wife sowed some apple seeds from a grocery store apple, which germinated
just fine. Would these things do ok in the Mid-Atlantic region? This was
more of an experiment for our young kids, but I am wondering if these things
are viable here.

Apples are grown everywhere, and they do well in the Mid-Atlantic region.

On Jun 3, 2:46 pm, "Buck Turgidson" wrote:
My wife sowed some apple seeds from a grocery store apple, which germinated
just fine. Would these things do ok in the Mid-Atlantic region? This was
more of an experiment for our young kids, but I am wondering if these things
are viable here.

Thanks.

The tree will grow but fruit depends a lot on the site. The mountains
of WV and VA are good apple producing regions. Other areas might not
be so good because of high humidity and lack of air drainage.

On Sun, 3 Jun 2007 14:46:29 -0400, "Buck Turgidson"
wrote:

My wife sowed some apple seeds from a grocery store apple, which germinated
just fine. Would these things do ok in the Mid-Atlantic region? This was
more of an experiment for our young kids, but I am wondering if these things
are viable here.

Maybe, but it is most likely that you will not be happy with the
result. Apples are grown on rootstock so that the rootstock
determines the growth habit of the tree and the variety is determined
by what is grafted to the root stock.

When you plant the seeds you get the variety of apple on that trees
rootstock which may not be suitable at all.

If you really want to grow apples I suggest that you decide which
variety you want and buy a tree from an nursery or supplier.

Be prepared for some serious pruning and pest control to get quality
apples.

My experience is that nearly everyone wants to grow their own apples
until they find out how much time and money must be invested to get
quality fruit. Then buying from a local orchard seems much more
acceptable to them.

Good luck,

John

On Sun, 03 Jun 2007 18:54:13 -0400, John Bachman
wrote:

On Sun, 3 Jun 2007 14:46:29 -0400, "Buck Turgidson"
wrote:

My wife sowed some apple seeds from a grocery store apple, which germinated
just fine. Would these things do ok in the Mid-Atlantic region? This was
more of an experiment for our young kids, but I am wondering if these things
are viable here.

Maybe, but it is most likely that you will not be happy with the
result. Apples are grown on rootstock so that the rootstock
determines the growth habit of the tree and the variety is determined
by what is grafted to the root stock.

When you plant the seeds you get the variety of apple on that trees
rootstock which may not be suitable at all.

If you really want to grow apples I suggest that you decide which
variety you want and buy a tree from an nursery or supplier.

Be prepared for some serious pruning and pest control to get quality
apples.

My experience is that nearly everyone wants to grow their own apples
until they find out how much time and money must be invested to get
quality fruit. Then buying from a local orchard seems much more
acceptable to them.

Good luck,

John


Clearly I don't know enough botany to understand this, but how does
the root stock genetics affect the new seed? I can see the pollen and
egg genes getting mixed in the new seeds, of if apples reproduce by
apomixis, then the top stock could show up in the new seeds, but I
can't figure out how the root stock would.

Waste of time and effort. The odds are that the resulting apples will be awful.

It's a genetic thing.

Sherwin D.

Buck Turgidson wrote:

My wife sowed some apple seeds from a grocery store apple, which germinated
just fine. Would these things do ok in the Mid-Atlantic region? This was
more of an experiment for our young kids, but I am wondering if these things
are viable here.

Thanks.

There is no 'might' about it. About the same odds as winning the jackpot lotto.
Why encourage these people to waste their time? If they had a one in ten chance
of
a decent apple, I might say try it, but the odds against it are more like 1 in
the tens
of thousands, or worse. People are going to reply that they had good luck with
certain stone fruits, etc., but these are different species of fruit with
different genetic
characteristics. Apples do not reproduce anything genetically close, directly
from
their seed. There are no shortcuts in growing apple trees. End of story.

Sherwin D.

Charles wrote:

On Sun, 3 Jun 2007 14:46:29 -0400, "Buck Turgidson"
wrote:

My wife sowed some apple seeds from a grocery store apple, which germinated
just fine. Would these things do ok in the Mid-Atlantic region? This was
more of an experiment for our young kids, but I am wondering if these things
are viable here.

Thanks.


Only way to know is to try them. They might be worthless, they might
be the next great thing. If you have the time, space, patience, then
why not let them grow?

On Sun, 03 Jun 2007 22:56:58 -0500, sherwindu
wrote:

There is no 'might' about it. About the same odds as winning the jackpot lotto.
Why encourage these people to waste their time? If they had a one in ten chance
of
a decent apple, I might say try it, but the odds against it are more like 1 in
the tens
of thousands, or worse. People are going to reply that they had good luck with
certain stone fruits, etc., but these are different species of fruit with
different genetic
characteristics. Apples do not reproduce anything genetically close, directly
from
their seed. There are no shortcuts in growing apple trees. End of story.

Sherwin D.



The apple tree I have in my yard is "Golden Dorset" or "Dorset
Golden", a chance seedling from Bermuda.

Unfortunately the people there didn't know as much as you, or they
would have eliminated it at the first opportunity.

Things with a one in a million probability happen every day in this
world, sometimes people even win the lottery.

I like my story better than yours. While I have lived with the idea of
never trying anything that I don't know the outcome, I don't recommend
it to others.

Charles wrote:

On Sun, 03 Jun 2007 18:54:13 -0400, John Bachman
wrote:

On Sun, 3 Jun 2007 14:46:29 -0400, "Buck Turgidson"
wrote:

My wife sowed some apple seeds from a grocery store apple, which germinated
just fine. Would these things do ok in the Mid-Atlantic region? This was
more of an experiment for our young kids, but I am wondering if these things
are viable here.

Maybe, but it is most likely that you will not be happy with the
result. Apples are grown on rootstock so that the rootstock
determines the growth habit of the tree and the variety is determined
by what is grafted to the root stock.

When you plant the seeds you get the variety of apple on that trees
rootstock which may not be suitable at all.

If you really want to grow apples I suggest that you decide which
variety you want and buy a tree from an nursery or supplier.

Be prepared for some serious pruning and pest control to get quality
apples.

My experience is that nearly everyone wants to grow their own apples
until they find out how much time and money must be invested to get
quality fruit. Then buying from a local orchard seems much more
acceptable to them.

Good luck,

John

Clearly I don't know enough botany to understand this, but how does
the root stock genetics affect the new seed? I can see the pollen and
egg genes getting mixed in the new seeds, of if apples reproduce by
apomixis, then the top stock could show up in the new seeds, but I
can't figure out how the root stock would.

Charles,

There is no genetic connection between an apple rootstock and the variety
of scion (branch from the apple tree you want to propagate). The rootstock
simply acts as a base to feed the scion the nutrients it needs to grow. Apples

do not reproduce by apomixis. They require pollination either from themselves
(self-fertile), or another tree. The reason apples cannot be successfully
grown
from seed is due to regression of the genetics. Almost all apple seeds carry
the
genetic information of some 'average' of it's parents with those of the
populations
these parents came from. Because apples usually require another apple tree to
pollinate them, these recessive genes are not weeded out from generation to
generation. Grafting on the other hand, is an exact genetic copy of the
original
apple. Peaches are usually self-pollinated, so these undesirable recessive
genes
have been weeded out. That's why you would have much better luck growing
a peach tree from it's seed.

Hope I haven't confused you with the genetics.

Sherwin D.

On Mon, 04 Jun 2007 00:55:59 -0500, sherwindu
wrote:



Charles wrote:

On Sun, 03 Jun 2007 18:54:13 -0400, John Bachman
wrote:

On Sun, 3 Jun 2007 14:46:29 -0400, "Buck Turgidson"
wrote:

My wife sowed some apple seeds from a grocery store apple, which germinated
just fine. Would these things do ok in the Mid-Atlantic region? This was
more of an experiment for our young kids, but I am wondering if these things
are viable here.

Maybe, but it is most likely that you will not be happy with the
result. Apples are grown on rootstock so that the rootstock
determines the growth habit of the tree and the variety is determined
by what is grafted to the root stock.

When you plant the seeds you get the variety of apple on that trees
rootstock which may not be suitable at all.

If you really want to grow apples I suggest that you decide which
variety you want and buy a tree from an nursery or supplier.

Be prepared for some serious pruning and pest control to get quality
apples.

My experience is that nearly everyone wants to grow their own apples
until they find out how much time and money must be invested to get
quality fruit. Then buying from a local orchard seems much more
acceptable to them.

Good luck,

John

Clearly I don't know enough botany to understand this, but how does
the root stock genetics affect the new seed? I can see the pollen and
egg genes getting mixed in the new seeds, of if apples reproduce by
apomixis, then the top stock could show up in the new seeds, but I
can't figure out how the root stock would.

Charles,

There is no genetic connection between an apple rootstock and the variety
of scion (branch from the apple tree you want to propagate). The rootstock
simply acts as a base to feed the scion the nutrients it needs to grow. Apples

do not reproduce by apomixis. They require pollination either from themselves
(self-fertile), or another tree. The reason apples cannot be successfully
grown
from seed is due to regression of the genetics. Almost all apple seeds carry
the
genetic information of some 'average' of it's parents with those of the
populations
these parents came from. Because apples usually require another apple tree to
pollinate them, these recessive genes are not weeded out from generation to
generation. Grafting on the other hand, is an exact genetic copy of the
original
apple. Peaches are usually self-pollinated, so these undesirable recessive
genes
have been weeded out. That's why you would have much better luck growing
a peach tree from it's seed.

Hope I haven't confused you with the genetics.

Sherwin D.



Thanks. You have confirmed what I thought was the case. What John
posted didn't make sense to me.

I still disagree with you in that I think it might be interesting to
grow trees from random seeds as long as not too much is invested in
the outcome.

On Mon, 04 Jun 2007 06:02:58 GMT, Charles
wrote:

snip
Thanks. You have confirmed what I thought was the case. What John
posted didn't make sense to me.

Oh man.......what a great setup!

I'm off to bed.

Care,
Charlie

--
Unemployment is capitalism's way of getting you to plant a garden.
~Orson Scott Card

John Bachman expounded:

Maybe, but it is most likely that you will not be happy with the
result.

Perhaps not.

Apples are grown on rootstock so that the rootstock
determines the growth habit of the tree and the variety is determined
by what is grafted to the root stock.

Somewhat true. The rootstock determines the size of the tree
heightwise.

When you plant the seeds you get the variety of apple on that trees
rootstock which may not be suitable at all.

This is so far wrong it's incredible.

Growing apples from seeds out of an apple you've eaten is definitely
just a fun experiment. You'll probably not get as good of an apple as
what you've eaten. Do it for fun, don't do it because you want to
start an orchard.

And definitely don't get your genetics lessons from John!
--
Ann, gardening in Zone 6a
South of Boston, Massachusetts
e-mail address is not checked
******************************