I have a few questions involving fruite trees....
Apples:
If I buy an apple from the store can I use the seeds that are inside?
How can I get them to germanate?
I heard I can put them in the fridge but how do I tell when they're ready?
Kiwies:
If I buy one from the supermarket can I use the seeds inside?
how would I get these to gernamate?
do I just plant them in a pot?
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the collecter
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Gnome
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Collector,
I am not sure where you are gong with this but regarding apples, they won't "come true" from seed. If you want fruit you have to buy a named variety, usually grafted. If you want this for bonsai, full sized fruit will produce full sized trees. This does not preclude you from using them as bonsai but the fruit will be out of scale for bonsai.
Why not try collecting fruit from a flowering crab if you know where one is located. I started some last year and this year as well. Leave the seeds in the fruit and store them in a baggie in your fridge until spring, this is known as stratification. If you try with the full sized fruit you can of course eat the apples first. Either way you should wait until spring to start them. This will be a long term project so be prepared to spend years before any styling can begin.
Can't help with the kiwi.
Norm
I am not sure where you are gong with this but regarding apples, they won't "come true" from seed. If you want fruit you have to buy a named variety, usually grafted. If you want this for bonsai, full sized fruit will produce full sized trees. This does not preclude you from using them as bonsai but the fruit will be out of scale for bonsai.
Why not try collecting fruit from a flowering crab if you know where one is located. I started some last year and this year as well. Leave the seeds in the fruit and store them in a baggie in your fridge until spring, this is known as stratification. If you try with the full sized fruit you can of course eat the apples first. Either way you should wait until spring to start them. This will be a long term project so be prepared to spend years before any styling can begin.
Can't help with the kiwi.
Norm
Hi Collector,
I won't repeat the info on apples since Gnome already covered that, but here's a link with info on growing fruit trees from seed.
https://hortweb.cas.psu.edu/extension/treefruit/images/growing_tree_fruit.pdf
Here's info on kiwi. Scroll down about half way for propagation.
https://toptropicals.com/html/toptropicals/articles/vines/actinidia_deliciosa.htm
Newt
I won't repeat the info on apples since Gnome already covered that, but here's a link with info on growing fruit trees from seed.
https://hortweb.cas.psu.edu/extension/treefruit/images/growing_tree_fruit.pdf
Here's info on kiwi. Scroll down about half way for propagation.
https://toptropicals.com/html/toptropicals/articles/vines/actinidia_deliciosa.htm
Newt
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opabinia51
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Nothing much else to add to that. Just that bonsai usually are trees that are collected from the wild that tend to grow to full height but, in the pot they are constricted by the size of their root balls and therefore do not achieve full height.
If you do grow a tree from seed, the fruit will not come true but, the tree could have some benefits to a grafted tree in that it's genome will have additional recombinant DNA that could help fight off infections or possibly make the tree more resistant to drought. These are just possibilities. Of course, with recombinant DNA the tree may have some problems as well. Anyway, for Bonsai, this idea could work....
If you do grow a tree from seed, the fruit will not come true but, the tree could have some benefits to a grafted tree in that it's genome will have additional recombinant DNA that could help fight off infections or possibly make the tree more resistant to drought. These are just possibilities. Of course, with recombinant DNA the tree may have some problems as well. Anyway, for Bonsai, this idea could work....