Extracting apple / pear and fig seeds

Hello all, I’m saving seed from fruit trees I’ve had to say goodbye to recently. I was wondering besides waiting for apples / pears to rot, how to cut them so that I don’t damage the seeds inside. I’ve tried just slicing the tops and prising open the rest of the flesh, but it’s hard on the fingers! I also have figs that dried out and blackened while on the tree. Some of the seeds I can rub out, but would you recommend soaking them in water to loosen the rest of them which are all welded together? Many thanks! Gemma

With figs, I may be wrong but I think most do not have viable seeds.

Mk Neal wrote:With figs, I may be wrong but I think most do not have viable seeds.

Oh dear! Thanks for letting me know Mk. I can but try I suppose!

Extracting apple seeds is easy. Just eat them until you get to the core. It will now becomes like a skinny stick. Just snap it to get to the seeds.

Mike Grande wrote:Extracting apple seeds is easy. Just eat them until you get to the core. It will now becomes like a skinny stick. Just snap it to get to the seeds.

Brilliant, Mike - thank you!

If you can get your hands on cider press, you can smash & grind apples and pears in bulk to make into cider - drink it fresh or ferment into hard cider.
Cider presses have a very rough/loose grind - it very rarely damages the hard seeds.

To harvest fig seeds, acquire a fresh fig, cut it in half, scoop out the pulp and seeds, and soak them for a day or two. Potentially viable seeds will sink to the bottom of the container. The rest can be discarded. The viable seed has already absorbed moisture and will be ready to crack and germinate quickly.

Most of the fresh figs bought in stores or produced by backyard orchardists have never been pollinated and do not have viable seeds.
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remember: Seeds from fruit trees will NOT be a replica of the parent plant. They will be a mix of the parent & whatever cross-pollinated with them.

If you want a copy of your trees, you need to take cuttings & root them.

Mike Grande wrote:Extracting apple seeds is easy. Just eat them until you get to the core. It will now becomes like a skinny stick. Just snap it to get to the seeds.

I agree with the suggestion of eating up to the core.

If you don't want to eat that many apples or pears, the cut away from the core so a lot of flesh id left around the core.  Then pick out the seeds and finish cutting the flesh off.

Toko Aakster wrote:If you can get your hands on cider press, you can smash & grind apples and pears in bulk to make into cider - drink it fresh or ferment into hard cider.
Cider presses have a very rough/loose grind - it very rarely damages the hard seeds.

To harvest fig seeds, acquire a fresh fig, cut it in half, scoop out the pulp and seeds, and soak them for a day or two. Potentially viable seeds will sink to the bottom of the container. The rest can be discarded. The viable seed has already absorbed moisture and will be ready to crack and germinate quickly.

Most of the fresh figs bought in stores or produced by backyard orchardists have never been pollinated and do not have viable seeds.
--

remember: Seeds from fruit trees will NOT be a replica of the parent plant. They will be a mix of the parent & whatever cross-pollinated with them.

If you want a copy of your trees, you need to take cuttings & root them.

Toko; many thanks for this very useful information! I may invest in a cider press because I do make hard cider. Fortunately I’ve saved seeds and branch cuttings from all of my fruit trees, so can have a go at both. Fingers crossed… Best wishes, Gemma

Anne Miller wrote:

Mike Grande wrote:Extracting apple seeds is easy. Just eat them until you get to the core. It will now becomes like a skinny stick. Just snap it to get to the seeds.

I agree with the suggestion of eating up to the core.

If you don't want to eat that many apples or pears, the cut away from the core so a lot of flesh id left around the core.  Then pick out the seeds and finish cutting the flesh off.

Hi Anne, Many thanks for the tip. Funnily enough I tried your suggestion yesterday and it worked out just fine. All the best, Gemma

Thank you, all, for those really helpful suggestions. I propagated some of my fruit trees from branch cuttings for the first time the other day. Here they are.

I don't know much about pears or figs, but I've learned a couple of things about apples before.

Apples do not breed true to seed. Absolutely you can grow apple trees from seeds, but do not expect the apples from those trees to taste the same as the apple the seed came from. I've read, but cannot verify that something along the lines of 1 out of every 250 apple seeds will produce a tree that has edible fruits. The rest will either not produce fruit or will produce "crab apples". If the quality of the fruit doesn't matter to you, then it could be really fun to grow a tree from seed and in about 4 years or so, see what kind of apples you get! Maybe you'll develop a new Honeycrisp 2.0! However, if you are looking to get fruits that you want to enjoy, you best bet is to keep doing what you are doing with the branch cuttings. By rooting the branches, you should eventually get the same fruit as you did from the tree the branch came from. That is similar to how most orchards are produced. Either rooting branches or by grafting them.

Good Luck with either adventure you choose to go with! The prospect of finding the next tasty apple was always a great one for me, but I'm not sure what would happen to my mental health if I waited 4 years to get nothing edible.

Keep us updated!

Chris Michaels wrote:I don't know much about pears or figs, but I've learned a couple of things about apples before.

Apples do not breed true to seed. Absolutely you can grow apple trees from seeds, but do not expect the apples from those trees to taste the same as the apple the seed came from. I've read, but cannot verify that something along the lines of 1 out of every 250 apple seeds will produce a tree that has edible fruits. The rest will either not produce fruit or will produce "crab apples". If the quality of the fruit doesn't matter to you, then it could be really fun to grow a tree from seed and in about 4 years or so, see what kind of apples you get! Maybe you'll develop a new Honeycrisp 2.0! However, if you are looking to get fruits that you want to enjoy, you best bet is to keep doing what you are doing with the branch cuttings. By rooting the branches, you should eventually get the same fruit as you did from the tree the branch came from. That is similar to how most orchards are produced. Either rooting branches or by grafting them.

Good Luck with either adventure you choose to go with! The prospect of finding the next tasty apple was always a great one for me, but I'm not sure what would happen to my mental health if I waited 4 years to get nothing edible.

Keep us updated!

Thanks, Chris for the heads-up. Fortunately gardening has endowed me with an abundance of patience, curiosity and a willingness to experiment!