How to grow an apple tree from a seed at home

Undoubtedly, growing a tree from a seed is not so easy. There are many risks, however, if you grow an apple tree in this way, the taste of its fruits will be no different from other apples. Before you grow an apple tree seedling from a seed, you need to understand that this process is quite lengthy, requiring effort and time. It will not be possible to get by with the usual burying of a seed in the ground; this is how only natural reproduction occurs, when a few seeds sprout from a large number of seeds.

To ensure that your efforts are not in vain, you must follow the rules for planting seeds and create the necessary conditions for germination.

Pros and cons of such an activity

Growing fruit trees from seeds is painstaking work, so you need to weigh the pros and cons of this activity. The undeniable advantages of such a landing:

• low or zero cost of seeds (they can be collected from any apples you like);
• apple tree sprouts, sprouted from seeds, are well adapted to the climate and soil of the area where they are grown;
• the gardener has complete control over the progress of cultivation;
• seed sowing produces a lot of planting material, the surplus of which can be sold.

A gardener's dream is a bountiful harvest.

There are also disadvantages that force some summer residents to abandon this idea:

• long waiting period from sowing to harvest;
• an apple tree from a seed may not reproduce the parent form based on varietal characteristics.

If a gardener has plenty of free time and a large plot of land at his dacha, seed propagation of apple trees will save money and grow a good orchard.

Will the crop bear fruit?

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Trees obtained from seeds will definitely bear fruit. But the harvest time depends on the genetics of a particular seedling, and can range from 7 to 15 years from sowing. It is impossible to predict in advance the beginning of fruiting because the seed contains the signs of not only the maternal, but also the paternal form of the plant.

Important! To get an apple harvest as early as possible, gardeners graft branches from trees they like onto the seedlings.

The apple tree tolerates grafting well

Tools and materials

Generally speaking, for grafting you will need a sharp knife and pruning shears, as well as materials for fixing and isolating the grafting site.

Beginners will need tips in choosing the right tools and materials:

1. Secateur blades must be made of high quality steel. It is also extremely important to sharpen the pruning shears thoroughly so that all cuts are perfectly straight.
2. A regular grafting knife will not work. For this purpose, you will have to purchase a special budding, copulating or grafting knife at a gardening store.
3. To disinfect surfaces you will need alcohol and cotton pads. To coat the cuts, you will have to prepare a garden varnish.

Ordinary food or special garden film is usually used as a fixing material. You can also use electrical tape, but when using it, remember that the electrical tape is wound with the sticky layer on the outside.

Which seeds are suitable and how to choose them

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Only fully ripened fruits, without signs of disease and not damaged by pests, are suitable for collecting seed material. It is better to take apples from trees growing in your neighbors' orchards. Then the plants will be better adapted to the local climate.

Important! Apple seeds suitable for sowing are dark brown, full-bodied and hard. A greenish dot should be visible on the sharp tip.

When choosing varieties of apple trees, you should give preference to those that most fully transmit their qualities to their offspring through seeds. These are well-known, old varieties:

• Antonovka vulgare;
• Muscat;
• Honey;
• Chinese;
• Pineapple white.

Modern hybrids will produce offspring with a large number of varietal characteristics.

On a note! It is better to plant the seed extracted from the fruit immediately, then the germination rate will be high. If this is not possible, the seed is thoroughly dried, poured into fabric or paper bags and stored in a dry, dark and cool place for no more than 1 year.

Seed selection

Important! You should choose a variety that is adapted to your region, as the tree should grow well where you live. It is better if the selected variety is frost-resistant. The seeds should be dense, undamaged and uniformly brown in color.

The choice of seed begins with the choice of fruit.
In order to select seeds, you first need to select the best fruits. If the apples are underdeveloped, then so are the seeds. Full-fledged seeds are formed in apples growing on the periphery of the crown, since in this place there are better conditions for fertilization of flowers and better illumination.

Optimal planting dates

Most experienced gardeners sow apple tree seeds before winter to carry out natural stratification (cold treatment). This allows you to increase germination by 40% and get strong shoots. Depending on the climate of the region, sowing begins in October - November.

On a note! The seeds are immersed in the ground when the daytime air temperature drops to +5 degrees, and frosts occur at night.

How to grow an apple tree from a seed at home if winter sowing is not available? A regular refrigerator comes to the rescue. Seeds wrapped in a damp cloth are kept for at least a month at a temperature of +5 degrees. In March, sowing is carried out at home, in pots or seedling boxes.

Scion storage

The scion is tied into bundles and labeled if it was collected from different varieties of apple trees. The amount of material is always prepared with a reserve, in case some of it disappears during storage. Cuttings can be stored outside in the ground. To do this, dig a trench about 30 cm deep in the ground. Spruce branches are laid at the bottom, scion is folded, covered with spruce paws, covered with earth or dry sawdust. After snow falls, they additionally cover the soil.

Another option for outdoor storage is in sawdust. A layer of dry sawdust is poured onto the soil, the cuttings are stacked, and a layer of wet sawdust is covered on top. After the first frost, the top layer will freeze, after which it is covered with another layer of dry sawdust 25-30 cm thick. The top is additionally covered with a plastic bag. The easiest way to preserve the scion is to put it in the refrigerator. To do this, wrap it in a wet cloth, put it in a plastic bag, and place it on the middle shelf, but not in the freezer.

The grafting material can be stored in the cellar in pots or boxes. The containers are covered with a plastic bag with holes and half filled with dry sawdust or sand. Insert the cuttings with the cuts down and sprinkle with wet sawdust or sand. To prevent them from becoming moldy, it is necessary to maintain temperature and humidity conditions. Temperature from 0° to +1°С, humidity from 60 to 70%.

Important!

In winter, mice can grow in the sawdust and ruin the scion, so it is better to moisten the sawdust not with water, but with carbolic acid, the smell of which repels rodents.

Preparing optimal soil and planting seeds

Apple trees like to grow in loose, fertile, neutral or slightly acidified soil. Seedling substrate is prepared from ingredients such as:

• crumbly forest soil taken from under an oak or linden tree;
• humus (rotted cow manure or 3-year-old compost);
• coarse sand or perlite;
• non-acidic peat or sphagnum moss.

All components are taken in equal shares; there is no need to add fertilizers at the sowing stage.

The sowing bed is placed on a flat area, in an open sunny place. The place should not be located in the spring where melt water accumulates. The soil is dug up, removing weed roots and adding the necessary components.

Apple seeds are sown in furrows

Step-by-step sowing of an apple tree before winter:

1. Furrows 2-2.5 cm deep are made on the leveled soil surface. Their bottom is sprinkled with dry sand mixed with wood ash. This will protect the crops from rot.
2. The seeds are placed at a distance of 3 cm from each other.
3. Sprinkle the grooves with sand or soil.

If the winter turns out to be little snow, the bed must be insulated with fallen leaves, sawdust or straw. The cover is removed in the spring.

Important! The volume of seeds must be taken with a reserve, since germination will be 60-70%.

Instructions for sowing an apple tree in the spring at home:

1. Before stratification, the seeds must be kept in water with the addition of Epin for 24 hours. This will increase germination.
2. In the refrigerator, the seed is kept in damp sand or sawdust and a damp cloth for a month to a month and a half.
3. In March, the seeds are immersed in prepared soil to a depth of 2 cm. The height of the pot should be 8-10 cm, and drainage holes are required.

Seedling containers are kept in a bright and warm room until sprouts appear. From time to time the soil is moistened with a sprayer.

Preparation

Selected planting material requires step-by-step preparation, much similar to growing seedlings of other fruit and vegetable crops.

Washing

It is better to remove the bones immediately before the procedure (in the fall or at the end of winter). They need to be washed immediately to remove natural inhibitors from the surface - chemical substances contained in the pulp that prevent germination. To do this, place the seeds in a container with warm water and gently stir with a wooden stick for 3-5 minutes. Then they are strained from the liquid through gauze.

Soak

The purpose of this stage is to check and improve germination, as well as ensure disease prevention.

Seeds are immersed in a small container of clean water.

The soaked seeds are left at room temperature for 3-4 days. The liquid must be changed daily to prevent mold from appearing in it. When the seed is sufficiently swollen, a growth stimulator (for example, Epin or Sodium Humate) is added to the water at the rate of 2 drops of the drug per 100 ml of liquid.

Stratification

If you plan to propagate winter varieties, you can get grains from apples in late February - early March. In fact, they are already stratified during the cold storage of fruits. During summer-autumn sowing, this procedure is intended to harden and increase the chances of seedlings taking root. Its essence is to imitate the natural winter conditions through which the embryo must go in order to escape.

First you need to prepare the mixture using one of the suggested recipes:

1. Cool the sand calcined in a frying pan for half an hour, add sawdust to it in a 1:1 ratio. To reduce the risk of mold, powdered activated carbon tablets (2 pieces) are poured into the mixture and mixed thoroughly;
2. Peat and/or wet sand, which must first be sifted from small particles and washed;
3. A mixture based on sawdust and moss, taken in equal parts.

The prepared substrate is transferred to a sealed plastic container, the seeds are placed in it, evenly distributed, and filled with water until moisture appears on the surface.

For hardening, the crops are placed in the refrigerator and kept for 70-100 days.

The container with the mixture should stand for 5-6 days at room temperature, after which it is placed on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator for 2-3 months. Once every 3-4 days you need to check the degree of moisture in the substrate and the absence of mold in it. If everything was done correctly, then after two months the shoots will begin to sprout in the container, ready for further transplantation into the soil.

Technology of growing an apple tree from seed

The apple tree sprouts within a month after sowing. It is strong, has 2 cotyledons and soon opens true pointed leaves.

For the full development of seedlings, the environment should be as follows:

• bright diffused light for 14-16 hours;
• air temperature +20… +22 degrees;
• moderate soil moisture;
• no drafts.

These conditions can be met if you place the boxes with seedlings on an east window, a glazed, insulated balcony, or in a greenhouse.

Seedlings should have enough light and warmth

What needs to be done to ensure that the seedlings survive the first winter safely

The seedlings are still weak before the first winter, so they must be protected from frost. This will help keep them from completely freezing and ensure a rich harvest next year.

During the summer, the soil around the tree must be periodically loosened, fertilized, watered and protected from pests. Never leave foliage under the trunk all winter, because pests in it will harm the tree. Even in the fall, seedlings are treated with copper sulfate to protect them from pests. In addition, all damage is covered with garden varnish, the branches and trunk are whitened with lime.

Apple trees are covered only at the moment when the movement of juice in them has already stopped.

Apple trees are covered only at the moment when the movement of juice in them has already stopped, and there is constant frost outside. Agrofibre, felt, burlap, sunflower stems and more are suitable as insulation. Having wrapped the trunk with insulation, after the snow appears, sprinkle the seedling with it.

Caring for apple seedlings

Caring for seedlings involves watering with warm and soft (rain, melt, settled) water 1-2 times a week. Excess moisture can lead to rotting of the roots.

It is recommended to plant seedlings sown in common boxes into separate cups when they have 6-8 true leaves. The root is not pinched when transplanting. Suitable container volume is at least 1 liter.

Important! When picking, you should calibrate the plants - remove the wild ones. They look smaller, have brightly colored foliage and spines on the stem.

When warm weather arrives, pots of seedlings can be taken out into the garden. To prevent tender seedlings from burning in the sun, they are placed in the shade of the tree crowns. Apple trees growing in the ground are watered and weeded without disturbing the root system until next spring.

Planting seedlings in the soil

To make the process of growing apple trees more efficient, young shoots should be planted in tall containers in late autumn to provide the right space for root growth. Exactly one year later, in the autumn, mature young trees are planted in open ground at a slope of 90°.

As you can see, when growing an apple tree from a seed, you will have to replant it three times.

The first time - from a stratified substrate into a box. The second - a year later - in a larger box. And the third is planting in an open-air garden.

Such transplants will allow the apple tree to bear fruit in a couple of years, otherwise the first fruits can be waited for more than 15 years.

Further care from germination to finished seedling

The seedling should remain in the pot until it is 3 years old. During this time, it is transferred twice into a new pot of larger diameter.

At the age of 2 years, the seedling can be grafted with any suitable variety. The “split” grafting method is more often used. This procedure is carried out at the beginning of summer (late May - early June).

Feeding of young shoots is carried out twice a year: nitrogen fertilizers are applied in the spring, and phosphorus-potassium fertilizers are applied in August. It is convenient for beginners to use ready-made complex mineral compositions: OMU, Fertika.

On a note! It is recommended to transplant apple trees growing in the ground into containers or to a permanent place no earlier than 1-2 years. A later transplant threatens to damage the root system.

The seedlings can be left in the garden over the winter, insulating them with agro-fabric and sawdust.

Transplanting a seedling

It is recommended to plant apple trees in the place chosen for further cultivation in May or August-September.

Procedure:

1. For seedlings, dig a hole 40-50 cm deep and the same width.
2. Crushed stone or expanded clay is poured onto the bottom for drainage, then fertile soil is poured up to half of the hole.
3. The seedling is placed in the center, making sure to drive 2 supports on the sides.
4. The roots are covered with soil, without filling the root collar and the grafting site, if any.
5. The tree is watered abundantly.
6. The soil is mulched with hay and wood chips.

The correct layout of the seedling

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The agricultural technology of the crop involves planting apple trees both in spring and autumn - at the end of April or in the period from the second half of September to mid-October.

On a note! It is preferable to plant a tree in the fall, because in this case the root system has time to develop well.

Step-by-step instructions for planting an apple tree seedling:

• One month in advance, it is necessary to prepare a hole 60 cm deep and 120 cm wide.
• The dug up soil is mixed with organic fertilizers, and the bottom layer is placed separately - it will later be used to form a roller around the apple tree.
• A small peg is dug in the center, protruding about 50 cm above the ground.
• The hole is filled with soil mixed with fertilizers and left untouched until planting.
• After a month, the soil will settle slightly and you need to make a hole in it for the roots of the seedling.
• The tree is carefully placed in the hole, straightening the roots and tying it to a peg with soft twine. It is necessary to ensure that the root collar is above the ground.
• The roots are sprinkled with soil and fertilizer, shaking the seedling to avoid the formation of voids between the roots. Then the soil is lightly pressed down.
• Afterwards, the apple tree must be watered abundantly, and the soil on top must be sprinkled with humus.

In the future, proper care consists of weekly watering and checking to ensure that the twine does not damage the trunk bark. An apple tree must be grown like any other fruit tree; there are no specific features. If the variety is vigorous, the peg is removed after 2 years.

Apple

What difficulties might you encounter?

When sowing an apple tree before winter, there may be low germination due to flooding of the area in the spring, freezing, and mice eating the seeds. Therefore, it is necessary to sow with a reserve.

When growing at home, seedlings often stretch out due to lack of light and excess heat. For seedlings, it is worth purchasing special phytolamps for illumination.

Additional Information. Ungrafted seedlings can begin to bear fruit only after 8-10 years. Having the necessary skills, it is better to regraft the trees.

Knowing how to grow an apple tree from a seed, a gardener can get an orchard on his plot without material costs.

How to grow a wild bird from a seed

If there is no wild game on the site, then it can be grown from a seed. This apple tree is more hardy than the mother tree. The grown tree may differ in the taste of the fruit. Apples may have a bitter-sour taste, and the tree that grows from its seed may taste like varietal apple trees. The grown wild game can be used as a rootstock after 1-2 years. Fruiting can begin in 5-10 years.