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I grew a few apple seeds 4 weeks earlier in a refrigerator and the seeds have now germinated. Please see the picture. Can you please suggest when should I plant them in a pot. For now I have kept them in the fridge under 4 degrees Celsius, with a little water.

Apple Seed Sprouts

Haider Ali
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    What is the end point you wish to reach? Apples don't come true from seed, as a rule, so your 10 seeds raise the odds you'll get a useful variety to about 1 in 3000 by planting them. Of course you can plant them and then graft a more useful variety onto them if they don't win the apple lottery for you. Pots are generally a poor choice for trees, a nursery row in the ground is usually preferred. – Ecnerwal Jul 18 '17 at 13:30
  • @Ecnerwal My hubby was interested in whether or not these seeds would grow into apple producing trees so I read him your comment. He said, 'Then Johnny Appleseed did all that work for nothing'? I never even thought about how apple trees were produced. So are all apple trees clones or grafts? How do they get the original 'mothers'? Learn something brand new every dog gone day! – stormy Jul 19 '17 at 18:25
  • There are some good books on the reality of JA - Most of those trees produced some sort of apple, and while they might not have made tasty eating, they fermented nicely when turned into cider. And, of course, you could always graft on a nicer apple. All apples of a particular variety are clones. The originals are sometimes tediously bred, often in older days "discovered" (the third tree on the west edge of Johnson's field) and that still can happen. It's just quite low odds (but better than the other kind of lottery!) A few trees are reputed to throw seedlings near to type (Fameuse, for one.) – Ecnerwal Jul 19 '17 at 18:35
  • If this link works, it's a google books result with details of a large-scale seedling experiment circa 1900 - and it seems to give somewhat more hopeful odds than my default assumption, as well as a contrarian result on Fameuse seedlings, specifically: https://books.google.com/books?id=JtlGAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA14&lpg=PA14&dq=Fameuse+seedlings&source=bl&ots=XjgCiL9rWN&sig=ZKrSecSwt8W5vVyiu-3eocYGk1I&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjq7tzr_ZXVAhVBcD4KHba5AVYQ6AEILzAC#v=onepage&q=Fameuse%20seedlings&f=false – Ecnerwal Jul 19 '17 at 18:43
  • The somewhat less saccharine story of Mr. Chapman (who evidently planted seedling apples for religious reasons...) http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/real-johnny-appleseed-brought-applesand-booze-american-frontier-180953263/ – Ecnerwal Jul 19 '17 at 19:18

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Get them planted in some great seed starting soil. It will be potting soil, very fine and sterilized. No larger than a two inch diameter pot. And do this NOW. Your paper towel is a bit too wet. Wring it out and put those seeds that haven't germinated back. Put in a zip lock. Check every day. Once you see the seed casing split and/or a white root coming out, transplant into a tiny pot with potting soil. Keep moist, not soaked.

Get larger pots prepared: The next size should be 4" in diameter with sterilized potting soil. Transplant and up pot size when the roots are visible from the hole in the bottom. Add a tiny bit of fertilizer when you get to the second up potting into the 4" pots, balanced fertilizer NPK all should be equal numbers.

I have to disagree with Ecnerwal. Getting trees started in a nursery always starts in pots and potting soil. Sowing directly into the soil is not how nurseries produce trees. In my experience anyway and in the zones I have gardened.

But his advice on the ability to get a true variety is right on. But hey, why not? You are growing and learning and shoot, this is how one becomes a plant person.

stormy
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  • Thanks for such a neat answer friend. My basic aim was to plant the tree, not to get fruits out of it but lets see if I can get a few from grafting later on :) – Haider Ali Jul 19 '17 at 10:31
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    That sounds like a plan to me! If you hadn't asked this question I wouldn't have known that apple trees can't be grown from seed. They make a GMO apple now that never browns after you cut the apple open. Too weird. Send a picture of one of the little trees when they get bigger. Maybe make one into a Bonsai? – stormy Jul 19 '17 at 18:30
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    @HaiderAli, I'd recommend you to read and Watch the videos on this website : http://skillcult.com/biteme/ The guy doing these videos is an apple enthousiast and explains that you can get quite good apples from seed. He also has a lot of videos about grafting and creating your own variety of apples. – Philippe Goulet Jul 20 '17 at 17:17