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Wed, Dec 24, 14 at 17:41
| I have an apple seedling and if I want to grow apples should I grow another seed so they can cross pollinate in the future? It's not really an issue now because the seedling is less than a foot tall, but it took a few weeks for the seed to germinate. I'd hate to have a fully grown infertile tree in the future. Also can apple and pear trees make hybrid fruits? If so can I just plant it near the pear tree to make fruit? |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| It may fruit, but the apples will be skinny. You should have a second variety nearby to make sure. Apples will not hybridize cross-species. |
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- Posted by cousinfloyd NC 7 (My Page) on Wed, Dec 24, 14 at 19:45
| I've always heard that apple seedlings are very unlikely to produce reasonably good quality fruit, so if you're more interested in fruit than long-shot breeding experiments you may want to graft your tree to a chosen cultivar sometime in the next two or three years. You could eventually graft more than one cultivar into the same tree if you wanted it to pollinate itself or even leave a branch below the graft from the seedling (i.e. for one part to pollinate the other and vice versa). Assuming you haven't done any grafting before, apples would be a good (higher beginner success rate) species with which to start, and people on this list could point you to online tutorials, give you advice, and supply you with scion wood if you need a source. Just an idea. |
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| If there are any other apple or crabapple trees within about a city block of you, you won't need to grow a second variety for pollination. Bees travel. |
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| I would grow it out a few years and let it produce apples. If the apples are inferior I would then graft it over. As far as pollination I would plant a second apple like yellow delicious that's a good pollinator if you have room. If you don't have room graft the tree with a second variety. |
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