My son planted an apple seed when he was aged 7 yrs - the tree is now 10
years old and has never flowered. It is growing in a 12 in pot, quite
happily, having been regularly potted on. Will it ever flower or can they
grow without flowering?

Chris S

Chris S wrote:
My son planted an apple seed when he was aged 7 yrs - the tree is now
10 years old and has never flowered. It is growing in a 12 in pot,
quite happily, having been regularly potted on. Will it ever flower
or can they grow without flowering?

Chris S

It would be very rare rotten luck for the lad's seed to throw a
non-flowering variety, and ten years from seed isn't necessarily a long
time. It's very much pot luck (boom-boom!) whether it'll produce apples
worth having when it finally does come into flower, though. On the other
hand, think of Bramley and Granny Smith, which arose by chance, and he
could have won the plant-breeding lottery. If possible, I'd move it into
the open ground: as it's container-grown, you can do it now if you're
kind to the roots. 12" pot at that age sounds very small for what is
likely to want to make a full-sized standard tree.

--
Mike.

[quote=Mike Lyle]Chris S wrote:
My son planted an apple seed when he was aged 7 yrs - the tree is now
10 years old and has never flowered. It is growing in a 12 in pot,
quite happily, having been regularly potted on. Will it ever flower
or can they grow without flowering?

Chris S

Like Mike says;

If possible, I'd move it into the open ground: as it's container-grown, you can do it now if you're kind to the roots. 12" pot at that age sounds very small for what is likely to want to make a full-sized standard tree.

Do a bit of root pruning as well and this might induce flowering.

I have written a bit about Apple culture here;

http://www.thegardenersalmanac.co.uk/Data/Apples.htm

Chris S wrote:
My son planted an apple seed when he was aged 7 yrs - the tree is now 10
years old and has never flowered. It is growing in a 12 in pot, quite
happily, having been regularly potted on. Will it ever flower or can they
grow without flowering?

On a gardening programme many moons ago, 25 years was one figure given.


Richard.

--
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