You’ll see a lot of ads online for apple tree seeds, often marketed as “vitamin bombs” or the ultimate “bee-friendly” addition to your yard. While that sounds great, there’s a catch: it takes years for a tiny seed to grow into a mature tree, and even then, you might not get the harvest you were expecting.
Why Growing Apples from Seed Isn’t the Standard
Most seeds sold online are actually wild apple seeds. This is because apple seeds are not “true to seed.” In plain English, that means if you plant a seed from a Honeycrisp apple, you won’t get a Honeycrisp tree. Without grafting, you’ll never get fruit identical to the parent plant. While growing an apple tree from a seed is a fun experiment in propagation, it’s not how professional orchards do it. You’ll likely end up with a wild apple tree that produces small, sour, or bitter fruit—definitely not something you’d want to eat fresh off the branch!
Understanding the Germination Inhibitor
If you’ve just eaten a delicious apple and want to see if you can grow a tree from its core just for the fun of it, you need to know about stratification. Apple seeds have a built-in natural defense mechanism called a germination inhibitor. This prevents the seeds from sprouting in the fall, which would cause the young seedlings to freeze during the winter. The seed “waits” for a long cold snap—winter—before it realizes it’s safe to start growing in the spring.
How to Stratify Your Seeds
To “trick” the seeds into sprouting, you have to mimic winter through a process called stratification. It’s easy: just wrap your seeds in a damp paper towel and keep them in the refrigerator for about 2 to 3 weeks. Once they’ve had their “winter nap,” you can plant them in a seedbed with loose, healthy soil.
What Happens After Sprouting?
It takes a lot of patience to grow a sapling from a seed, but remember: those tasty apples you’re dreaming of won’t just appear on their own. To get high-quality fruit, grafting is essential. This involves joining your young tree (the rootstock) with a cutting from a known apple variety. We recommend using a “scion” (a cutting) from your favorite apple tree and grafting it onto a sturdy rootstock. Even if you’re a beginner, this is the best way to ensure your backyard tree actually produces delicious fruit!