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New to apple tree growing (and gardening in general)
silver96camaroUYqyPVQV
Posts: 2
in Fruit & veg
Hello!
As the title says I'm new to apple tree growing and gardening in general. I'm looking for any tips or ideas on what I should be doing to give my tree it's best chance at life and what sort of complications to expect given my situation.
A little background, I live in Waipahu Hawaii and one day around Christmas I got an urge to try and grow an apple tree from seeds. I picked up a braeburn apple from the store and gave it a go with zero research and having never planted anything in my life. I've done a little research since then. I put the seeds in a wet paper towel folded it over them. Put it in a zip lock bag and let it sit in my fridge for about 7 weeks.
I did not expect any change in the seeds but when I took them out they had cute 1 to 1.5 inch curly tails sticking out of 5 of the 6 seeds. The 6th had a tiny nubby tail. I put them in a roughly 1 gallon pot and have been keeping the soil moist for the last week. Didn't think they'd make it.
Today I noticed 3 of the seeds have sprouted and are sticking out of the dirt. Everything I've read says that everything I've done so far is wrong. Wrong type of apples, wrong climate, should have grafted instead of growing from seed, etc. From this point in the process, the things I've started researching have had conflicting information. My goal is to keep them small (like waist height to no taller than 6ft) via pruning. So being the little guys have survived my best efforts to kill them with the process so far, what's next? And what sort of issues should I be looking out for?
Thank you!!!
As the title says I'm new to apple tree growing and gardening in general. I'm looking for any tips or ideas on what I should be doing to give my tree it's best chance at life and what sort of complications to expect given my situation.
A little background, I live in Waipahu Hawaii and one day around Christmas I got an urge to try and grow an apple tree from seeds. I picked up a braeburn apple from the store and gave it a go with zero research and having never planted anything in my life. I've done a little research since then. I put the seeds in a wet paper towel folded it over them. Put it in a zip lock bag and let it sit in my fridge for about 7 weeks.
I did not expect any change in the seeds but when I took them out they had cute 1 to 1.5 inch curly tails sticking out of 5 of the 6 seeds. The 6th had a tiny nubby tail. I put them in a roughly 1 gallon pot and have been keeping the soil moist for the last week. Didn't think they'd make it.
Today I noticed 3 of the seeds have sprouted and are sticking out of the dirt. Everything I've read says that everything I've done so far is wrong. Wrong type of apples, wrong climate, should have grafted instead of growing from seed, etc. From this point in the process, the things I've started researching have had conflicting information. My goal is to keep them small (like waist height to no taller than 6ft) via pruning. So being the little guys have survived my best efforts to kill them with the process so far, what's next? And what sort of issues should I be looking out for?
Thank you!!!
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This is largely a UK based forum so I’m not sure we will be able to give a lot of useful advice on growing apples in Hawaii. The only comment I can make is that waist high to 6ft is very small for an apple tree especially grown from seed. I think you will struggle to keep them to that and get fruit. Most small apple trees are grafted into a dwarf stock
East facing, top of a hill clay-loam, cultivated for centuries (7 years by me). Birmingham