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You bought an apple in the market or in a store, and you liked its taste so much that you wanted to plant a similar kind of tree in your garden. What to do? Indeed, in this case, you only have a seed, since the apple variety is not always known. And a natural question arises – is it possible to grow an apple tree from a seed?
Growing an apple tree from seed
Experienced gardeners say that from a seed, subject to certain rules and conditions, it is quite possible to grow a full-fledged tree that will produce a good harvest.
But planting a seed so that a full-fledged tree grows out of it is by no means easy, as it might seem at first glance. This carries a lot of risk, as the result may be unexpected. In the end, you can get fruits that do not have the same taste characteristics as that of the original apple.
Also, this business is very laborious and requires a lot of both physical and time costs. After all, here you can’t do with the banal burying of seeds in the ground. Of course, it is in this way that an apple tree reproduces in nature, but in this case, the percentage that a whole tree will grow from this one, specific seed is extremely small. In the natural environment, this method is effective, since at the same time a large number of seeds fall into the ground and some will certainly germinate.
In order for your work to be in vain, you need to follow certain rules for planting seeds, create optimal conditions for their growth, and also not lose sight of useful tips.
However, it is important to know that there is no XNUMX% guarantee that even if all of the above conditions are met, the seed will germinate and give rise to a fruit tree.
It should be remembered that a grown annual tree can be rooted as a rootstock to an already mature tree (grafted) and in the future you can get an apple crop.
Optimal growing conditions
To achieve a good result, it is necessary to adhere to the optimal conditions that are needed for seed germination.
For this, a stratification process is used, which significantly increases the chance of bone germination. This process by itself implies the creation and imitation of optimal conditions, which are similar to natural conditions in the autumn-winter period, for the germination of an apple seed.
Stratification begins with placing the apple seed in a humid environment. Under these conditions, at a slightly positive temperature, it is necessary to keep the seed for six days. The optimal temperature for the seed ranges from 0 ° to + 5-7 ° C. Do not forget that all these six days the seed must have access to air. Creating favorable conditions includes ensuring proper gas exchange. For this, several different substrates are used (sand, peat, sawdust, moss).
This stage of stratification can be carried out in various ways:
- The traditional and oldest method is to mix seeds with peat and wet sand. The calculation is carried out in such a way that three parts of peat or sand come out for one part of the seeds. Then you should mix everything thoroughly and moisten this mixture with a ruler. It is necessary to moisten until the moment when water begins to appear on the surface of the mixture. These procedures will help create the most optimal conditions for the bone. Within six days, the seeds will swell;
- a mixture can be made by mixing moss and sawdust. It is believed that just such a substrate contributes to better gas exchange;
- instead of sand and peat, wet sand and sawdust can also be mixed. Powdered activated charcoal should be added to this mixture. It will help prevent mold growth.
After six days, the resulting mixture should be placed in the refrigerator (on the bottom shelf or door) for two months.
After the seeds have germinated, they must be planted in a wide pot or box. Before transferring the seeds, drainage must be placed at the bottom. From above, the seeds are covered with nutrient soil for seedlings. The strongest sprouts are selected for planting.
Sometimes germinated seeds are planted in a garden bed, while maintaining a distance of 20 cm from other seeds. Planting depth is 2 cm.
An apple tree grown from seed must be replanted three times during the first four years:
- 1st time – from the nursery to the pot. This is done to develop a tapped central root;
- 2nd time – after a year that the sprouted apple tree has spent in a pot, it needs to be planted in a larger pot. It should be remembered that during this transplant it is necessary to cut off the central root (or simply bend it at a right angle);
- 3rd time – transplanted to a permanent place in the garden.
A transplant is done so that the tree begins to bear fruit as early as possible. Otherwise, you will receive the first fruits only in 15 years.
Instructions
Before you start germinating seeds, you must have the following items:
- actual bone;
- material for stratification;
- it is necessary to determine in advance the place in the garden where it is planned to plant a sprouted apple tree.
Guide to Growing an Apple Tree from Seed:
- pick up planting material. The variety of apple should correspond to the climatic zone of your residence. The seed must be removed from the apple and placed in a container of water. Leave the seed in this form for a couple of days in a not very warm place;
- use the soil from the place where the apple tree will grow in the future. If the sprouted stems are strong enough, then they can be planted immediately in the ground. Apples that have been grown in this way have a higher winter hardiness;
- with not very fertile soil of the future planting site or weak sprouts, at first it is still better to place the sprouted seedling in a pot, and only then transplant it to a permanent place of growth.
Useful Tips
In order for the process of growing apple trees from seeds to be correct, and its result to be positive, you need to know the following tips, which can be very useful:
- after separating the seed from the apple, it must be thoroughly washed in water (preferably in running water);
- you need to change the water in which the soaked bone is located every day;
- on the last day of soaking the seeds, you can add a stimulant to the water;
- it is best to carry out the process of stratification (creation of optimal conditions for seed germination);
- for stratification, it is necessary to take freshly harvested and wet seeds;
- as a substrate, it is best to use a mixture of moss and sawdust.
Video “Growing an apple tree from a seed”
Some of the subtleties of growing and stratifying seeds will be revealed by the following video.
As you can see, it is quite possible to grow an apple tree from a seed. Subject to all the rules and optimal conditions, you will get a full-fledged fruit tree that can fully recoup the efforts spent on it.