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homestead - Re: [Homestead] "Old" apple trees - How to identify?

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  • From: tom <tom AT honeychrome.com>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] "Old" apple trees - How to identify?
  • Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2008 08:30:53 -0400


On Apr 10, 2008, at 12:57 AM, homestead-request AT lists.ibiblio.org wrote:

I don't know if the seed from the fruit breeds true, but I suspect it does.

Marie

If you plant the seeds from an apple you will not end up with a tree that produces that same apple- in fact each of the five seeds in an apple will produce a genetically different tree and the odds are tremendous that you won't get decent fruit (at least for eating). All of the trees of given named variety of apple basically come from cuttings/grafts from a single tree. Back in the early days of this country orchards were planted from seed, as most of the apples were destined for cider, so being in 'ideal' eating or baking apple didn't matter much, but if one of those planted trees happened to produce a particularly good eating apple it was kind of like winning a prize.

One of the four sections in Michael Pollan's "Botany of Desire" is about the apple and is really quite interesting.






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