Published: November 19, 2024 Last Updated: December 2, 2024
Have you ever wonder, how to grow an apple tree from seed or if you plant an apple seed will it sprout and grow into an apple tree? I had the same idea when eating an apple and decided to try planting some of the seeds from my store bought apples. A few weeks later and I had successfully sprouted apple and pear seeds too! So now that I know that the method I use WORKS! I’m gonna share with you my 3 part process on how to germinate apple seeds.
THESE ARE MY APPLE TREE IN THE PICTURE BELOW!
Table of Contents
How To Grow An Apple Tree From Seed: Part 1
Part one is cold stratification.
What Is Cold Stratification?
Cold stratification is the process of taking our seeds, and before we plant them we want to give them some exposure to the cold to like it would get in nature. The cold stratification tricks the seed into thinking it’s been through winter and that it’s spring and so it’s time to grow.
Cold stratification helps increase the germination rate of the apple seeds you plant, so MORE of the seeds germinate.
How To Cold Stratify Apple Seeds
You’ll want to start by removing the apple seeds from the core of the apple, and you want to be careful to not damage the seeds, as any seeds that get damage can’t be used and should be discarded. The damage seeds will start to rot, and it will begin to spread to others.
Then, after you’ve got some seeds, take some paper towel to place the seeds on. I like to double up my sheets.
Then next take a spray bottle and mist the paper towel down till it’s moist. If I don’t have a spray bottle on hand, I’ll also just run my paper towel under a tap and then squeeze all the water out of it that I can, and that leaves me with a slightly wet paper towel to use.
Next, is to take the seeds and put them in your paper towel, and then fold it up.
After using a Ziploc bag, put the seeds inside neatly.
Then place your bag with apple seeds into the fridge (NOT THE FREEZER AS IT CAN DAMAGE THE SEEDS) and the seeds needs to stay in the fridge for at least 2 to 4 weeks for this to work. You can even go up to 6 weeks as well for the apple seeds.
I also like to write a label on my Ziploc bag with the date, that way I know when the seeds are ready to come out the fridge.
How To Grow An Apple Tree From Seed: Part 2
Now it’s part two, which is seed germination.
After the 3 to 4 weeks cold stratification time period, you can take your apple seeds out from the fridge.
Then you’ll want to place it in a slightly warm area.
I’ve noticed from starting apples seeds in the past that, sometimes the seeds will already be starting to sprout, and you’ll be able to see a small root, when you go to take your apple seeds out from the fridge.
It can take a few days to a few weeks from the time you take your apple seeds out of the fridge for all the apple seeds you have to sprout.
How To Grow An Apple Tree From Seed: Part 3
Part three is planting the apple seeds.
When you see a root starting to grow and pop out, you’ll need to put it into its own pot to grow into a sapling (a young tree) before you can plant it out in your yard.
From my experience, you don’t want to let the root grow to an inch before you plant it in its pot, because if you do, you could break the taproot and that’s no good for a tree.
The best time to pot it is when you see it just sprouting, cause then you know that the seed have germinated, but you break its root.
Tips For Growing Apple Tree From Seed
1. Pot Size
I like to use a 4-inch pot to start them off in, or you can also use some old cans. Just if you’re going to use metal cans you have to drill drainage holes in the bottom of it, so any excess water will drain, and your apple tree roots don’t rot.
As the apple plant grows, you can transfer it into a large pot like a 1 gallon or 3 gallon pot to give it room to continue growing.
2. Nutrition
You want to make sure that the soil mix that you’re using has good nutrition in it and for my soil mix I like to make mine with 1 part compost 1 part peat moss and 1 part perlite.
Every two weeks or so, you could use water-soluble fertilizer like the one I like to use. It says root booster on it, but it doesn’t really mean that, because you can also use it for seedlings too.
I’ll use about 1 teaspoon of the fertilizer per small watering can.
3. Light
For the first few weeks if you’re starting them off indoors, and it’s still winter outside, you’ll need a grow light for them. You don’t have to buy special lights, because a shop light works the same for the plants and is what I use for apple trees and all of my seedlings that I start in the spring.
If it’s consistently warm outside, you could also just grow them outside without any indoors lighting setup.
4. Bringing Them Outdoors
Before you could take them outdoors, you have to harden off your apple trees to avoid burning the soft leaves in the sun. Hardening off is basically adjusting them to the outdoors.
So for the first week you place them in full shade so they get no sunlight on their leaves.
On week two, you slowly give them more and more sunlight; until they can stay in the sun fully.
Here’s a chart on how I acclimatize my seedling and harden them off.
Planting Your Apple Tree In Ground
Once your seedling grows into an apple tree at least 3ft in height or after a year or two, you can plant it into your yard. If you want to know the way we’d recommend for planting a fruit tree, you can read more in this article or click the article below.
