Seedling is a plant grown from seed. The seed could be from the fruit of a known tree like Red Delicious. So a seedling of RD is any apple tree grown from the seed of a RD fruit. There are potentially millions of RD seedlings all a little different from each other.

A sport is as you stated, a mutation found on a RD tree where one limb produces fruit different from RD. Most are chosen for better color or different maturity date. Nearly all really red and elongated RD fruit in the store is sports of earlier RD strains.

Cultivar and variety are different terms for the same thing. There is no difference in the terms that I've seen. The words are used interchangeably.

FN...

Got it. So it is the dictionary definition.

As I was reading some references to a "seedling of....." it seemed that there were alot of "seedlings" that produced good fruit whereas I thought that the result of a seed planted tree often had very little chance of being good or anything like the parent so I thought that "seedling" in this context meant something else.

Any day you learn something new is a good day!!!
Mike

Mes, thanks for asking the question and Fruitnut thanks for the answer. I looked up the definition when I was told by member of the forum that I had a seedling peach. I described the taste (good) size medium, etc. However, I did not plant a seed, it was a purchased 'grafted' tree. Would a nursery really take the time to graft a 'not good' peach onto rootstock? That is my question. Why would they graft a no-name peach? It was supposedly a 'Belle of Georgia' and after showing pics of the flowers on the tree, there was an overwhelming consensus that it was not B of G. (A not very good peach anyway), BUT why do nurseries sell grafted trees with no-name or seedling (?) peaches? Thanks, Mrs. G

Mrs G:

Just because it wasn't BG doesn't mean it's a seedling. Very likely it's another named variety that was mislabeled.

I was really hoping for that. I will post pictures of the peaches next year! Thanks so much FN! Mrs. G

You could end up with what you thought was a Belle of Georgia tree but what turned out to make "seedling" fruit if the graft failed or died or was otherwise overtaken by the rootstock. The rootstock was likely a seedling tree.

"Cultivar" is short for "cultivated variety". "Variety" is also short for "cultivated variety".

mes111, There have been millions and millions of apple seedlings in the world. Even if the odds of any one being worth anything, in aggregate its no surprise that there are a few thousand that somebody thought worth propagating.

If one starts with a good variety and the pollen comes form another good variety, the odds are much better than when everything is left to chance.

Murky, thanks. I saw and still can see the graft union (the tree has been in the ground for five years). The peaches are yellow, medium size and sour until they are really ripe. They have very red skin. Mrs. G