Apple seeds sown

Just from an eating apple in the Spring.
It has grown to be 18 inches high.
Will it grow into an apple tree.
And should I just leave her in pot outdoors in winter or give some type of protection.

 

According to the kim wilde book 'gardening with children' it will grow to be an apple tree, but because it is not on grafted stock it could grow to be a monster size!!
Be careful (unless you have a big enough garden to take it?)

I don't know about protection, but if concerned I would bung it in the greenhouse over winter.

 

Hi SK, I agree with badsal, as the tree has not been grafted you don't know how big or small the tree will grow, wether it will be a cooker or eater, early or late. as for leaving it in the pot it depends on the size. If it's small enough for the roots to get frosted,then put it in a frost free place.

 

The experts reckon that Malus domesticus is the plant most capable of variation from seed. It has been crossed and back crossed so many times from prehistory to modern times and has all that history in its genes, that it can produce any of its ancestors or a new variety from every seed in one apple. The chances are you will get a large tree producing small crab apples, but in 8 years or so you may find you have a new variety, who knows?

 

Would make a lovely bonsai .

 

seed grown trees for apples are unreliable and will not grow true to type you could buy a root stock and then graft your tree onto it, but that seems like a lot of bother for something that may not produce anything edible.

 

Scotcat, I really admire this enthusiasm that you have both in growing plants from seed and making scarves...I am very much the same!

 

Well I think the Granny Smith or Bramley started as a chance seedling, so you never know. My parents had an apple grown from a seedling. It was a fair sized tree and was a self pollinater. The best i can say is that it was edible.
This place used to sell rootstocks for grafting. You could get the whole kit, grafts, the stuff you bound them with and it was not difficult. I once did it with some of their root stocks and if clumsy old me can do it.
http://www.deaconsnurseryfruits.co.uk/home/

 

I have a book about growing frruit and veg from seed and im sure it says ten years from planting the seed uintill you get a crop of apples, not usre how much truth there is in that but that i havent tried to plant one

 

Hi all and Happy New Year, just to jump on the apple wagon! I'd like to plant two apple trees at the bottom of my garden against a wall. My vegetable garden will be directly in front so I don't want a monster variety, can anyone suggest something that I can train to grow against a wall that is small enough not to over shadow the vegetables?

 

Look at the link on my previous post. The size of the tree will be largely determined by the rootstock.
In such a position you could get two espalier trees that you train along wires on the wall.
You could easily fit more than two if you used cordons and plant them at an angle. Espaliers and cordons are easy to train and prune. Get a book such as " the Fruit Garden Displayed" for techniques. I persume that it is a sunny wall.
Trained trees would not extend out over the vegetable patch because they are tied against the wall. Espaliers would be more expensive because they will have been grown for several years to develop the tiers of branches but cordons can be bought quite young and quite cheaply. In the old walled kitchen gardens it was the classic way of utilising the walls.