If you plant an apple seed any type of apple could grow…

[Hatetagsinclothes]

Just gone down the wormhole of apples whilst trying to read about Granny Smith.

So an apple seed does not grow the same variety of the one it came from.

It is a genetic lottery and you could get any type of apple. A new amazing variety or a hard sour apple.

So how do they keep making Granny Smiths? Well it’s a clone of the first ever Granny Smith tree. They use clippings and attach that to another tree. So there is no actual Granny Smith tree!

It’s really fascinating when you search how all these apples were discovered.

For example how Pink Lady got trademarked and How you have to be part of a club to grow the Jazz Apple.

I only discovered this over the summer - I'd told a friend I'd brought home pips from a variety of apple I'd had on hols to try and grow the tree, and he told me about this. I was fascinated!

He said it's like people - the offspring is not a replica of either of the parents.

Well yes. To get a true variety that was from a breeder you need the original plant material.

Yes grafted plants will be bought in bulk and planted in large orchards to supply supermarkets. These will be grafted and grown by trade horticulturists.

And yes one variety can be subject to wipe out by disease. Take the Cavendish Banana, which was originally bred at Chatsworth in Derbyshire and which is the originator of the commercial banana across the planet. It is now suffering from a disease which could wipe the whole worldwide banana crop out and they have been looking for new replacements for about a decade.

Searching online it seem La that Morrisons sell Macintosh apples when they are in season between September and October but for a short period.

That’s so romantic. I love that variety. Had it in my childhood home.

DC have grown apples trees from pips. They are very tall so far and growing well. No idea if they will survive the winter or what we are growing….

It really is fascinating stuff and I love that you can grow multiple types of apples on one tree too. I have one in my garden that produces 3 types! Grafting is incredibly easy so they grow a type which has a really solid healthy root stock and then graft fancier but weaker/less stable types onto that. The roots help them to thrive and produce at their best. Really interesting and listening to petite down the allotment I’ve learned SO much stuff.

I'm really interested to try Macintosh apples now after reading this thread. Never heard of them before.

Well now I’ve got a weird image of the Fast Show jazz club guy biting into apples….. 🎵 🍎 “Nice, mmmm”

Just wait until you discover that most commercial bananas are clones (because the plant is sterile) of a variety known as Cavendish, first cultivated under glass at Chatsworth (Cavendish =family name of the Duke of Devonshire, even odder Chatsworth is in Derbyshire not Devon). The variety replaced the Gros Michel banana that was almost wiped out by a virus, unfortunately the Cavendish is now under threat because the virus has mutated.

Have you figured out that they not only need to do this for the top ‘ie the granny apple producing part’; but also the bottom.

So say for example you are using an m25 rootstock. (Very popular Apple root). Then you need to vegetatively clone these too.

So that’s a lot of work going on there to get one ‘Apple tree’.

When you are over the excitement of your apples Google mangoes and the polyembryonic varieties. These mothers figured out how to get around your apple problem.

So many worm holes to go down. I don’t think I truly appreciated the work that is going into food that we see as basic.

Another fun fact

If you soak a potato in warm warm before you plant it you'll get crinkle cut or 'ridged' crisps. It's something to do with like when you stay too long in the bath and your fingers go wrinkley it's the same principle

I knew about the grafting but I didn't know about the cyanide. Oh dear, I think I've swallowed a few in my time! Still here though, obviously.

you Need to watch ‘this is a gardening show’ on Netflix

@Shedmistress this is fascinating, I had zero knowledge about this.
Can we deduce that Adam & Eve spent some time in the geographical area of Kazakhstan? Where did their apple come from?!

I've never heard of McIntosh apples but have just found out they are how Steve Jobs got the name for Apple Macs!

Anyway, knew about grafting and not getting the same fruit as the one the seeds came from.
My favourite apple is a russet. So perfumed, crisp and just delicious

C
la l

Mistyped. Just following.

This thread has brought back lots of happy memories for me, my Dad was a fruit farmer and we lived on a farm with lots of varieties. We had a James Grieve tree on the corner of our house kept just for my Mum to pick and use as they were great for cooking, also the huge Howgate Wonder apples that you only needed one of to make a pie! In the 1960s Beauty of Bath, Miller Seedling were very popular early harvest eaters with Worcester and Coxes ripening later, Grenadier and Bramley were the main cooking apples we grew. I’ve not eaten a Macintosh but will try to find some to try!

This is all just fascinating, I had no idea.

Loved the comment about Mac reds being the smell/taste of Halloween...so true!

Many happy West of Scotland memories of dooking for them then 🙂

This must be down to the fact that you can't control which variety is the pollinator in the open air.

There’s a short segment on last weeks Gardener’s World with a guy who does just this. I volunteer at a place with a heritage orchard so I already knew a bit but it’s fascinating.
Russets are my favourite.

I had no idea! Is this why older generations have about particular apple tree?

Limes have to be grafted, too, as they don't have pips. Citrus trees are usually grafted anyway for the same reasons as apples and other tree fruit, but lemons and oranges and grapefruit usually have pips.

This recent Radio 4 programme was about someone trying to find out why a heritage variety got its name, and talks a lot about apple breeding. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00331sc

I thought your title was nonsense but this is fascinating. I want to start planting all my apple seeds!!

I did know this but I'm still totally amazed you can buy an apple tree with several different varieties grafted on to it. I was so confused every year when my Mum would give me apples from her tree and they looked so different 😆.

And, the same variety of apples can be on huge trees or small trees depending on the root stock its grafted on to.

(Still mourning Mackintosh reds, favourite ever apple and doesn't seem to leave Canada these days 🙄).