Scott

I planted 3 different types:
- open pollinated Golden Russet (from a orchard)
- open pollinated Goldrush (from my tree)
- hand pollinated Goldrush x Hudson's Golden Gem

I also hand pollinated Goldrush x Pitmaston Pineapple, but tossed the seeds when I found that the PP wasn't actually a PP (red fruit in late Aug...). I planted the replacement PP this spring, so maybe I'll get another shot at its pollen next year.

This spring, I hand pollinated Goldrush pollen into Ashmead's Kernel and Court Pendu Plat. I didn't have great set overall, but I currently have 1 hand-pollinated apple from each of the trees (I pollinated 3-5 clusters on each). I marked the clusters with twisters, so I've been able to keep track.

I'm thinking about grafting each of my seedings onto a more mature tree, as I haven't had the best luck raising fruit in pots (I occasionally remember to water...). I can probably fit them all onto one tree, then prune off the losers...

Even further into the "just for fun" category are my Lychee and Longan seedlings. These are real longshots, as I can't plant them in-ground, since they can't take temperatures below about 30 degrees.

May I ask how you got 2' tall saplings from seed in a single growing season??

I have been planting seed from fruit trees for years and have yet to see a single one grow from a seed to be two feet high in a year.

I take apple, cherry, plum, peach, paw paws etc and plant many in wooden planter boxes in the fall and sometimes it is two years before they start to sprout. Once they reach 6 to 12" I take them out and plant them in the wild (along dirt roads, edges of old farm fields etc or in the woods). Three years ago I planted over 100 Paw Paw seeds and just this year was able to replant 73 10 to 12" saplings back into the wild.

Going tomorrow to pick up a bucket full of Cherries to plant in a planter. Hopefully in a year or two I will be able to plant a bunch of cherry saplings around the area.

I'm not sure I can graft them in their current state (too thin). I'm thinking about bringing a few of them inside in a few weeks when it starts getting colder to extend the growing season even more. They started early, right around New Years (I checked my records) and I re-potted them in June, moving them outside.

When they were inside, I took relatively good care of them (regular waterings, WS fertilizer, etc), but once they were outside, I kind of forgot about them. When I first put them outside, I had them in morning sun only. I meant to move them into full sun after a week or so of adjustment to the higher light levels. Almost 3 months later, I finally moved them yesterday, just before seeing this thread.

I used to grow seeds from store bought apples but seldom got anything more than root stock that was poor quality so I learned wild apples contain a lot more genetic diversity for whatever reasons and I grow those now.

I never thought about this before. I've always grown seedlings in the past from store bought or orchard market bought apples. I can see where a wild apples genetic diversity would be more expansive. I am wondering however whether a selected cultivar that was open to wild apple pollination may be better yet. Think about those old trees you see growing that were once part of a homestead that is long since gone. Now they stand in what is basically wilderness. The selected cultivar would already have a good genetic background because that's why it was selected in the first place. Being without others of it's kind and being exposed to open pollination by wild apples would allow it's seed's genetic background to expand. Possibly introducing beneficial DNA such as (as you mentioned) disease resistance.
If someone was to find a 100% disease resistant apple they would be sitting on a winning lottery ticket...or at least half of one. It would be kinda like knowing half of the winning powerball numbers every week.

Clark, I had some older red Christmas bulbs in the attic, they had started flaking a bit. I got one of those and then purchased a pack of those fly strips. I wrapped the fly paper on the bulb, then pulled it off...repeated this several times until the bulb was sticky as could be. Messy, messy job. I hung it up in the tree and the only thing I caught were gnats and house flies. I seem to remember reading that apple maggots were attracted to yellow, but maybe I'm getting that confused with something else.

I don't really find this unusual at all. I suppose this grew a bit better than most, but a larger pot would have resulted in better growth still.

PM me off-list to discuss particulars, if you're willing.
Thanks.

Scott

Apricots I have found to be quite "true from seed". Or to put it another way, seedling apricots produce delicious fruit just as often as named cultivars. Size and appearance seem to be the main differences between the two, but I really believe that getting tasty apricots has mostly to do with growing conditions.

Peach trees are supposed to be similar to apricots in this way, but probably much less so, given some of your comments above. I know one of the peaches I'm trying to graft onto has horrible fruit, and is probably a rootstock propagated from seed.