Lame Cherry: The Wee Baby Apple Seedlings

As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.

Richard and Stephanie wrote a nice letter this past week and mentioned about starting seedlings...........

I seem to recall in February mentioning I need to start tomatoe seedlings and time slipped by a bit, so am thankful for the reminder as they described their forest of beans.

I know that I have written on this before, but am repeating this as the price of apple trees is 30 to 50 dollars and that is completely ridiculous, when anyone can grow more apple trees than they ever dreamed for the price of those 1.79 a pound apples in your store.

Before I get some asstard saying apples do not breed true to seed, I will mention about GET OFF MY SITE. If you want to question people, go talk to your radio as none of those millionaires give a damn about what you are saying, so stop wasting my time in "helping" people and incurring God's wrath.

I believe that apple trees in the past generations were less prone to throwing like apples, and the Red Delicious seems to be an apple that does not throw consistently good fruiting trees. The trees though God has planted for me, have produced apples which were superior than their parents and better than most grocery fruit.

The above photo are my own seedlings, taken from Honeycrisp seeds. I started them in January and here is the process:

Remove the seeds.

Wet a paper towel thoroughly with hydrogen peroxide

Place seeds on towel and fold paper towel over to cover. I do a three fold.

Place in sealable plastic bag, quart size.

Place in the butter compartment on the side of your fridge door and in a few weeks to six weeks you should get some apples to sprout.

When I checked these at 3 weeks I had like 4 fruit, and then it got cold outside again, and then I forgot about them, as it warmed up and got cold again, and I cringed in wondering what I would find.

As you can see except for a little root burn, they are doing well.

What I like doing is waiting for it to warm enough as I have a cold house, to put the seedlings with the roots covered, and the leaves sticking out, cover in a plastic container to keep warm, and where I place my young tomatoe seedlings in the window where the sun will not cook them, as the sun on a container turns it into an oven, the wee baby apple seedlings will usually take off like wildfire.

I uncover them and let them adjust to the drier house, and keep them watered, and they will grow like weeds.

Once frost is over, you can transplant them in wire cages to protect them, and in around 5 years you will have apples on your tree.

If the tree sucks, just graft some buds in a T bud graft (I covered this too) around August and you can make your tree productive.

If you live in a nice Zone 5 region, you really do not have to pay attention to the apples, as long as they taste good when you are eating them, but in colder regions, you will have to plant the hardier varieties like Honeycrisp, or whatever else is coming out of Minnesota now.

What you will have though is a tree which is a natural cross in the mother, the pollinator, and whatever throws back in the genes.
I have a Wealthy x MacIntosh cross, the Mac was the mother, and it is about 2 weeks later than the Mac, but far fruitier and sweeter. Another tree is a Chestnut Crab and a parent unknown, and the apples are large, fruity and hang on the tree for most of the winter. This tree produces every year with very good apples.
Both are superior to a Wealthy I have and am disappointed in, in the 30 dollars spent on it.

Honeycrisps are out of a Minnesota U tree which was broken off from winter damage, but was kept by the breeder for another year instead of cut down. It is why they tend to be more brittle and have other problems at times in stress. My seedlings though are crossed with God knows what, and that is the beauty of this natural hybrid, as it will have good qualities from both parents and be less prone to snapping in ice storms.

I like these projects and hope when we have our land, to dig out the apple seeds I have and plant hundreds of trees like this. The nice part is the apples you buy in stores, have already had their cold period the seeds need to sprout, and in time you get the same results I have in that plus 40 degree range.

That is all there is to it. I have two seeds which were sprouted last year.........no two years ago out of Red Delicious sitting in the window that will be planted this year, as I can not wait any longer for God in I almost lost these trees a few times already due to Mom care that was forgotten care.
I do not know if they will survive here, but I will learn and in a few more years I will hopefully have some apples off of these bushes, as one is a literal bush.

Oh saved some Ambrosia seeds. Too cold here, but am trying them.......remind me of fairy pee with sugar mixed in. I think the Australians call that a Sugar Tit. Now that would be a great name for one of my apples, the Sugar Tit.......