As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
This is a fruity fruit update in million dollar knowledge.
I was most pleased in last night the first apple seedling I planted, but left the leaves out of the soil, which may sound normal, but I will get to that later, grew 1/2 inch after two days.
So the tap root must have drawn down and is now sending the tree up.
The reason for my angst was in tomatoe seedlings, there was sometimes like chicks which do not come out of eggs, a sprout that just laid there after sprouting and would die. I am hoping that this now is the norm in the apple seeds, as I watch the second one, and contemplate the others with tap roots coming out.
The accident of slicing the apple and exposing the white nutmeat on the large end, actually increased the speed of the sprout and did not hinder a thing. That surprised me as much as the seed shell was very hard, as I was prying it open with my fingernails to release the sprout of the second seedling.
That is an operation of things break easy and there is no repair.
I am convinced now the Inspiration from God was absolutely the best way in this. I had some throw away food containers from a Chinese take out which I used to sprout these seeds. They are a rectangle of about 6 by 9 inches by 2 inches high, with a snap on clear plastic lid, and black container.
I put in a brown paper napkin from another cafe I had been to named Panera, which is a sort of a Starbucks with biscuit.
In their throw aways for soda, they have a quart clear plastic cup I think it is, with the snap on lid for a straw, I simply use the pointed blade of my knife, and rotate it carefully to bore a quarter inch hole for drainage.
For my other venture in orange limes, I utilized a take out flat with soil for sprouting on top of a water heater, and placed them into a Dairy Queen, plastic shake container. They come with a plastic top which is open and like a dome. I just put some clear plastic wrap on them for transplants, and they are nice in creating a mini open greenhouse which protects and warms the plant without scalding it.
I have had absolutely no problem with an east exposure even on hot days and shade in afternoon with this Dairy Queen container.
All of these plastics are quite stout in being heavy duty which with care should provide a number of seaons of work. The Dairy Queen is heavier of the two though.
Currently I am looking at a Chinese take out half paper bag almost full of Sugar Maple Seeds I collected for hopefully another seedling project when the big donation comes in and we have land to plant them on.
Maples are nice, but their roots are on top of the soil mostly which deters grass growing under them, so they do better in wet locations, but are lovely hardwood dual use trees for shade, sugar if you care to bother and beauty.
I have been flustered in years of this starting seeds in temperature and lack of effective equipment. I like these containers in my trials, and as they are throw away or if one buys the product, they are the best part of the purchase in being absolutely tenon to fit into this sprouting mortise.
I would imagine if one was friendly and asked a manager of some food outlet in telling them that one wanted them for gardening, they would probably sell some to you. I would test them first though to see if they are what you would prefer.
They just happen to be what is working for me, as I am most pleased with the baby apple seedling turning into a tree. As I did not keep track of this group, it is either a Honeycrisp or a Braeburn. Nothing breeds true to the parent in apples, so we will see what this amounts to.
I have two others in some tasty odd apples TL picked up, but only had one seed in them. One of them is sprouting so we will see in 5 years what comes of them.
Johnny Appleseed became sort of a joke in America, like George Washington, in all the virtue they had. His work faultered in the American West was a place where apple seeds rarely sprout. I would though with the Youtube videos on how to do things, that everyone who has land at least give this a go.
These will be full sized trees like a shade tree. Granted one has worms if you do not spray or place a plastic gallon soda container in the tree with sugar, banana peel etc... to draw in the moths which cause the worms, but in that the two trees God planted for me, have had absolutely no problem with scab or any other diseases, so they seem healthier than the millions of clones in America.
It is my intent to keep doing this and plant a pile of trees the Lord willing. This delights me in a long term experiment. I fully know that some trees do not produce fruit, some produce horrid fruit, some produce ok fruit and sometimes you get a fruit better the parent.
The two God gave me, one is a MacIntosh and Wealthy cross, which is about a September 10th apple and it is large, crisper than MacIntosh, but not as crisp as a Wealthy. It is at least as good in flavor as a Braeburn without being quite as sour or acidic. The tree is upright with many branches and is standard size.
The other is a seedling from a Chestnut crab, that produces a large apple, which is red, fruity and the fruit hangs onto the tree. This tree fruits about September 3rd. The tree is a dwarf with allot of branching like a bush.
Both apples are sweet and I could not be more pleased as they are superior to the MacIntosh, Haralson, Jonathan apples which were standard a generation ago, and while not as sickly sweet as the Minnesota lines of Fireside, Connel Red and Honeyscrisp, they are in their class superior to the Spy class, which are a watery cleansing apple.
You will notice in time a situation like my brother in one autumn we bought a box of Fireside apples and consumed them. We found after that, that the Spy apples we next bought were welcome in being bland apples, as we had enough of the high sugar content.
I know the Honeycrisp is the standard now, but it has a slight tartness to it, while the old Fireside was a sugar apple. The Connel Red is a red sport of Fireside, and it will get pithy without a constant supply of moisture.
I know that Cornel in New York has done wonderful work and has a fine group of people, but the best advancement of agriculture in America is coming out of the University of Minnesota as that is where Fireside came from a generation ago when everyone was suffering under Delicious apples, and now their program has changed America with Honeyscrisp which first surfaced in the 1990's.
I first read of this as a youngster in a Readers Digest article on apples from seeds, and tried it and failed. I was moved to attempt it again, after God planted two trees for me. One tree was discarded apples into a pile where snow and leaves piled up, and the other was my flower bed, where on going for a walk, I would grab an apple off the Chestnut, eat it, and toss the core into the bed. From that came my tree God sprouted.
I have though now the same joy the Digest writer had in a unique apple which a person loves as it is their apple and like none other in the world. I am not going to be disappointed if it is mule being sterile as it still is a tree, and if it is a sour apple, the animals can eat it, and if it is a good apple, then I can study it.....and the Holy Ghost just said, I can graft apples onto a mule too, to make it produce, so it is all win win in this.
It is just a grand adventure that hopefully some child and grandchild will enjoy the stories over and try it themselves. America for survival sake really should be a nation of 300 million more apple trees. That is all my poor Grandpa lived on one winter was apples from one tree. I know I repeat myself in this, but some people always come along and need to be informed of things.
As my brother said, "You always did enjoy pissing with things." I do enjoy contact with plants and animals, and it is just in me to enjoy producing something living or bettering things, as there is so much decay around all the time.
That is the further update in Cherry Apple Sprouts.
Further Update, as of day one the second little baby apple sprout is now reaching for sky and not earth.
agtG
