Any apple tree growers in here? Answer a couple questions for me if you can.

[fbodlovr]

My wife gets Granny Smith apples every week from Kroger, and I looked at the core after she was done and noticed that there were a bunch of seeds in it. I took them all out, and wrapped them up in a wet paper towel. A couple weeks later and one of them had grown about an inch and a half and its root was shooting threw the papertowel. lol There was one more that you could tell the shell was popped open and a root was going to try to come threw.

Another couple weeks goes by and I check up on them, and the bigger one is doing good and is a few inches now. The other is popped open more with a little bud pointing out like maybe a root going to start. I went ahead a got some planting soil and put it in a class with the seedlings. The one that is doing good has three leaves/or whatever they are spreading open with what looks like a real leaf coming out of the middle.

NOW, my question is. I have been researching Granny Smith apple trees, and they say that they need to be pollinated by another tree later when it gets bigger(years down the road.) I was wondering, will be the only one if it does keep going, and can I just try to grow another type of apple tree, and years down the road, graft a few branches from each of them onto the other one, and then they would esentially just be pollinated by the same tree, while still having two types of apples on one tree??????

Another question. I have read that when you get the seeds from an apple like this and try to grow it and pollinate it that the apples wont be big and taste the same for some reason. Is this true, or is there any reason why this would/would'nt be true?

LAST question. I have your standard flowering pear tree out back(doesnt actually grow pears you can eat or anything.) But, would this kind of tree be able to pollinate a Granny Smith apple tree? The flowering pear does have white flowers on it at the beginning of the summer. Just curious.

 

[wfoondirt]

I'm no expert but I do have several fruit trees.

You're probably better off just buying a tree from a reputable grower. The seed you collected from the apple may end up being some odd cross breed if the tree that the apple cam from was pollinated by a different type of tree. Basically you're going to have to wait 4-5 years to find out what kind of apples its going to produce.

You can buy a 2-3 ft tree for between $20-$30 and you know what you're going to get. Plus you will get apples much sooner. I have had a lot of success with trees from Stark Brothers.

If I remember correctly granny smiths are typically pollinated by either red or yellow delicious trees. There may be more but those two are the most common. The flowering pear won't pollinate an apple tree.

As far as grafting different trees together. Well I don't know for sure. I know the trees I bought had branches grafted onto the root system. They do make trees that produce 2 different types of apples. How they accomplish that, I don't know.

 

[scot w.]

Not an expert on fruit trees but I do know how to grow these! LOL



Scot W.

 

[fbodlovr]

hahaha, screw the apple tree. Where did you get the seeds for that tree!!!!

 

[fbodlovr]

I thought that if you had a seed out of a particular apple(Granny Smith in this case) it just needed to be pollinated. I didnt think it made a new type of apple based on what pollinates it. Like a granny smith and a red delicious.

 

[DavzGN]

wfoondirt is correct. Your apple tree will be a cross of granny smith and whatever apple variety pollenated it. All granny smith trees are created by grafting a shoot from a granny smith tree onto a host root. You may or may not get a good apple from your tree.

David
87gn

 

[fbodlovr]

Yeah, I just read up and found that he was correct. As to the GS tree. When they graft a shoot onto a bareroot, do they just stick one stem on there? Is it just like a twig when you first get it or will there be multiple limbs as it gets older? How long do you think it would take to get froot from one that you would probably buy from someone?

Also, you would still have to have another tree pollinate it, right? To get a decent amount, and good quality apples off of it? And, if you did buy one from someone, could you get another one of a different variety, and graft THAT one onto the granny smith so that essentially one tree could pollinate itselft since that one tree would have two different type of apples on it?

 

[salvageV6]

My father grafted a golden russett twig (one) onto a small delicious or McIntosh tree 40 years ago, it's all he gets now on that tree.

You get multiple limbs from it I guess as it grows up.

I was young so I don't know exactly where he grafted it, but the host tree was small and the limb he grafted it on was about 1" around. It may have been the main trunk at the top standing about 4-5 feet too. I think he cut back most of the other branches also.

He lives accross the street from a State experimental farm so they have plenty of apples and bees/birds/bugs to pollinate from, he only has that one tree.

Plenty of apples now from it when sprayed, you gotta spray a lot, flowers, early fruit, later before ripe, and then they are good.

I will ask him for more grafting details, check with your State aggie dept. they will probably send you to someone who could talk you through the whole procedure and what exactly will happen. :smile:

I would guess since my memory isn't always accurate that 5 years after the graft you could get a basket of apples a year.