Apple Seed Help.
twingremlins
Posts: 3
Hi everyone.
I am very new to gardening and was hoping some one could offer some advice.
Last May my sons came home with some apple seeds they kept from there lunch from school. They wanted to plant them. I did some reading and popped them in the fridge where they grew. I have now moved them into plant pots into the garden. everything I have read suggest they would need grafting in the future to ensure some sort of apples. My Questions are what do I do now? Do i bring them in in the winter? or do i make a permanent home for them in the garden now? Two have reached about half a metre and the other two are about 35 cm high. My children did get very lucky and are so excited and I really don't want to let them down. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Shab One confused mum 
Posts
They really need to be planted permanently in the garden but you can keep them in large (50cm+) pots for a few years. They will eventually blossom and produce apples but they might not be very big or nice to eat although the blackbirds will love them when they fall.
Bear in mind that they will grow into large trees, likely much bigger than a standard grafted tree. You could try grafting scions (twigs) from an eating apple tree onto them and cut off the rest of the tree if those take. However, grafting is an art and you would need to read up on it before trying that. 'Bud grafting' is the least difficult.
Agree with everything Bob has said.
Having had children, one of who grew into a gardener
can I suggest that you build on their initial enthusiasm and get them growing seeds that will give them tangible results a bit sooner while they wait for their apple trees to mature ............ my daughter's first triumph was a bed of nasturtiums which later on played host to a crop of caterpillars , or as she called it ... A Butterfly Farm
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I agree with Bob. It would be far better to grow them in pots so you have some control over the trees. Even if they do eventually produce apples, they won't be the same as the ones from which you took the pips. They will all be completely new varieties and its unlikely you will end up with anything edible.You shouldn't need to bring the plants indoors over winter though you might want to protect them from the worst of the freezing weather while they are small. The hot and dry atmosphere of a centrally heated house wouldn't do the plants any favours.
I hope your children never grow out of the habit of planting random seeds just to find out what grows. Half of my mixed hedge came about that way and I have the most beautiful rose in the world due to plucking a black rosehip outside a supermarket.
Hi
Thanks Bob the Gardener for getting back to me. I have now decided to keep them in very large pots and eventually make a permanent home for them in the garden. I will have to do some serious reading on grafting. and probably be back on this website again.
Thank you Dove from above. One of my boys has really taken a like into gardening who knows might be a future Gardener like yours. Since his apple seeds he has planted peas, beans,sunflowers, Daffodils. What ever they can find they are planting.
Thanks Ceres you are right this has become a really lovely hobby of ours as a family. living in London our garden with all the buildings built up around them has finally become really lovely to look and live in They have even started talking to their plants which is so lovely to see and you are right I hope they never grow out of this habit.
Thanks a million