Hello All,
Does anybody know what percentage of apple seeds i germinated, would stay true to their parent plant's variety? I suppose it must vary from variety to variety. Would all of the seed become new types of apple in some cases? I wonder if there is abook anywhere that goes into detail the whol subject of species mutation and whatnot, even maybe listing apples tha will change their type and ones that won't Cheers, Danie
-- dantheman50_98
Quite simple: An apple variety is a clone. Seeds will *never* germinate into clones of their parents.
Generally varieties of plants that are vegetatively reproduced are clones. Varieties of plants that are reproduced by seed are highly inbred and stay true to variety unless cross polinated.
You might try reading this:
zero percent
In all cases. Apples are clones. This means that all apples of a given variety, for example Honey Crisp, come from the same original seed, one seed. Every apple seed has this potential to become it's own distinct variety. So, if you start from seed every seed will have this potential.
It takes about 50 years for a proper grow out, evaluation, and propagation to develop a new variety. Thousands of seedlings must be grown out in order to find and develop the one special seedling that will become a new variety. Almost all apple breeding is done at universities where they have the land and the patience for apple breeding.
If you want a named variety it must be purchased as a small tree. This clone will be descended from one original seed or tree which was determined in the grow out to have what it takes to be a new variety. Then that seedling has to be propogated and reproduced. So, all Honey Crisp apples all come from one original mother tree and have been cloned and re-cloned and grafted onto a different root stock. All commercial apple varieties are grafted as are most fruit trees. You would not grow Honey Crisp or any other named variety on it's own roots. You graft them onto the roots of another type of apple, like a crab apple, which has better frost and disease resistance.
On a hobby level, you can certainly plant your seed as an experiment. You will get an apple tree, for sure. What you will not get is a named variety, not ever. There is no way of knowing exactly what you will get. So if you just want to have a little fun, then go ahead. But, if you want a named variety you have to buy a tree. You cannot plant a seed to get a named apple variety unless you plan to grow out thousands and can wait 50 years.
Lawrence
Thank you for the very detailed replies. Do you reckon it would b
possible to grow a seed and name the young tree as a new variety befor the fruit has even developed, no matter how disease-prone or disgustin the fruit may turn out to be? Judging by your answers, it looks like no though
-- dantheman50_98
Of course you can name it; it's your tree! And it's an original. Registering the name might be a different matter. (Wouldn't it be embarrassing to register a new variety and have it be small, bitter, and disease prone?
Best regards, Bob
First of all, I agree with all the comments about difficulties in trying to clone an apple from it's seed. However, there is such a thing as a 'chance seedling', which is a good tasting apple that was found on a tree that was not grown from a grafted scion (the only sure way of cloning an apple). A few of our best tasting apples were discovered this way, some dating back many years. However, not to get your hopes up, the probability of this happening is very small, so don't use this fact to encourage yourself to try experimenting and generally wasting your time.
Sherw> Hello All,
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