Growing An Apple Tree From Seed

Happy Easter

A few months ago I started growing lemon seeds after reading about growing a lemon tree from seeds on Pinterest. My lemon tree seedling are doing fantastic. So I got to wondering if I could do the same with some organic apple seeds I had on hand. I thought why not give it a try I had nothing to loose.
I started out with five little seeds from a nice organic apple of which I do not know the type. I was using the seeds from one of my grandsons apples he had from his home. First I washed the seeds gently. Running warm water over them while rubbing between the palms of my hands. I placed them in a bowl of room temperature water and let them soak for about five days. I them planted them in potting soil. I kept the soil moist but not overly wet. It only took two weeks for the seedlings to poke their little heads through the soil. Now I thought how nice and easy that was.

Then I decided to look up instruction on how to care for my seedlings. The funny thing is there is so much information on line and each has a different point of view. Many articles say you can't grow apple trees from seeds. The idea is you need to graft your seedling onto root stock of another apple tree. The root stock is usually a stronger, hardier tree type such as a crab-apple tree. Now folks I do not claim this information is correct it is just some of what I have read.
I know for a fact that apple trees can be grow from seed with out grafting. Growing from seed is how it was originally done back a long time ago. The reason commercially grown apples are a product of engineered grafting is because everyone wants to know what taste to expect from a certain apple. The taste of fruit from apple trees grown from a seedling is not predictable.
As for the care of my seedlings. I will be potting them in individual pots that I can keep on my patio the first year. I will do this to prevent a mowing accident or a critter from munching on them. On their second year I will plant them in a protected area away from the deer who like to munch on my garden.
apple trees that are grown from seeds should be able to produce fruit on or around their sixth year of growth. If I am still in the blogging world at the time they produce fruit I will happily blog about their progress.