Breeding Shade-Tolerant Fruit Trees

I have a large chunk of yard that’s heavily shaded, under mature hickories.  I have several shade-tolerant species planted there, but still have some more room and want to experiment with apple seeds.  Has anyone done some mass-selection type breeding with apple seeds in shade?

Well my young plum tree grew by seed in the shade of its parent, I got it from a friend at her old location, and that was almost 2 years ago, it was 8 in. tall and now its over 5 ft. doesn't grow flowers yet but probably soon.  At my current location it was shaded by untrimmed maple trees all summer and still was quite happy, no complaints from it, and before that I had it in partial shade, morning sun.  So while I'm not sure how apple trees will do its possible that a baby Italian plum tree could be a good fit for you.

Good to know!

Not intentionally, no. We do have quite a few apple seedlings popping up as volunteers in different places in our forest from apple cores we threw out. They seem happy enough so far, but most of them are just one year old or so.

One thing I thought about that might make your situation challenging for apple trees in particular: hickories are in the walnut family, and release some amount of juglone. Plants in the rose family, including apples, are supposed to be sensitive to (large quantities of) juglone. On the other hand, I've heard that some people have successfully grown apples and walnuts close to one another, so maybe it's more like a solitary apple tree in the middle of a forest of black walnuts will die.

I'd say go for it! Apple seeds are free, so sow a lot, with the highest degree of genetic diversity you can find, and let evolution take care of it. Some will likely survive. And please tell us how it turns out! Shade tolerant apple trees would be awesome.