Free pear and apple trees from seed

Hey guys, I am temporarily in Oklahoma for a new job and to kill time have been sprouting apple and pear seeds. I thought I might take them home with me to seattle to plant but i am still in oklahoma for a month and they are growing like crazy. If you are interested and are in the oklahoma city area feel free to pm me. I would love to see these guys get planted.

matt beckman

If you don't get any takers, it's still good karma to go plant them in public places for future generations to enjoy.


Who was it who said we should make decisions by asking ourselves, "Are we being good ancestors?"?

You ever get to Denver Colorado? Would love to get a few from ya. keith

Ooh, I'm interested! OKC is a couple hours of driving for me but we get down there from time to time. If you find somebody nearer the city who wants them, that would be a lot more eco than me burning the gas for a special trip though. We don't have a trip planned at the moment, so let's see what other takers you get that might be closer, and PM me if nobody turns up?

I have been planting nursery trees (3 apples, a pear, a fig, two cherries, a peach) and transplanting free roadside volunteer trees (crab apples and different plums) and sprouting seeds that aren't ready to plant yet (a few store apples and pears, a couple persimmons I managed to germinate). I also just took a bunch more saved supermarket fruit seeds out of cold stratification and got them into soil just in the past few days. But I've been clearing and thinning brush and thorns (ash saplings, Osage Orange, Honey Locust, various thorny vines I haven't managed to ID) so we've got a ton more tree planting space than I have trees. Most will have to rough it without regular irrigation, but hopefully some will thrive on fortuitous rains and my nascent effort at small earthworks.

I just recently joined the site, but I have been reading for a few weeks now. I've seen several folks talk about sprouting seeds for fruit trees, but is the grafting of a known variety just assumed? The odds of getting a "good" apple from a seed is fairly low (i.e. 1:1000) if all the literature I have read is to be trusted. Is grafting assumed or is there some other permaculture concept here that I am missing?

John Adkins wrote:I just recently joined the site, but I have been reading for a few weeks now. I've seen several folks talk about sprouting seeds for fruit trees, but is the grafting of a known variety just assumed? The odds of getting a "good" apple from a seed is fairly low (i.e. 1:1000) if all the literature I have read is to be trusted. Is grafting assumed or is there some other permaculture concept here that I am missing?

i plant just about every seed i get from the fruit i eat.
grafting is not assumed, its not something i am interested in, though i can see a circumstance which could come up where i might get interested in it and try it out.

heres a discussion we had recently about this :
https://permies.com/t/33683/forest-garden/Super-cheap-perennial-fruit-plants

though theres a number of different threads i have seen, where many people are experimenting with growing fruit trees from seeds.

where apples may have a lot of genetic variability, stone fruits, citrus, many not commonly cultivated fruits outside of commercial production, can be grown from seed and produce quality fruit- "true to type" or at least very close....

in my personal opinion, the literature you read is not to be totally trusted, but there is some reasons why they say what they say. but it only applies to certain kinds of fruit, like apples and pears...and even with this i think the chances of getting a fairly good fruit is much greater than is commonly believed. outside of apples and pears, most other fruit varieties have a good chance of producing true to type or close, or interesting crosses and reliably. these are just my ideas, i know that most people do not think this is true.

Please contact me ASAP regarding acquiring apple trees. Email me at KennMcSperitt@gmail.com. thanks!

Dan Boone wrote:Ooh, I'm interested! OKC is a couple hours of driving for me but we get down there from time to time. If you find somebody nearer the city who wants them, that would be a lot more eco than me burning the gas for a special trip though. We don't have a trip planned at the moment, so let's see what other takers you get that might be closer, and PM me if nobody turns up?

I have been planting nursery trees (3 apples, a pear, a fig, two cherries, a peach) and transplanting free roadside volunteer trees (crab apples and different plums) and sprouting seeds that aren't ready to plant yet (a few store apples and pears, a couple persimmons I managed to germinate). I also just took a bunch more saved supermarket fruit seeds out of cold stratification and got them into soil just in the past few days. But I've been clearing and thinning brush and thorns (ash saplings, Osage Orange, Honey Locust, various thorny vines I haven't managed to ID) so we've got a ton more tree planting space than I have trees. Most will have to rough it without regular irrigation, but hopefully some will thrive on fortuitous rains and my nascent effort at small earthworks.

You might want to reconsider killing off the honey locust trees. The green pods can be harvested and dried for feed-including humans.

If you want decent apples, you will have to graft. Growing from seed is wasted effort. Because it certainly wont be the same variety of apple the seed came out of. There are a few places where you can get heritage varieties of young trees, and advice on the best ones for your area. Sorry, I can't remember the one, but google heritage heirloom apple trees and you should find them. They have a paper catalogue they mail out, mine is currently buried under stuff.

Jacki Perry wrote:If you want decent apples, you will have to graft. Growing from seed is wasted effort. Because it certainly wont be the same variety of apple the seed came out of. There are a few places where you can get heritage varieties of young trees, and advice on the best ones for your area. Sorry, I can't remember the one, but google heritage heirloom apple trees and you should find them. They have a paper catalogue they mail out, mine is currently buried under stuff.

respectfully disagree. i have personally seen apple trees that were grown from seed that had excellent apples.
to be true i have seen some unintentional apple seedling trees that made small hard apples that werent that great too, but i still don't think its a wasted effort.

at my last place i had a good apple tree that was planted by (presumably) birds, or who knows what other creature because no human animal associated with the place had planted it. as there were lots of birds around and there were many really excellent very mature heirloom apples around the neighborhood, we assumed it was the part of the birds gardening project. not only that but i really enjoyed the tree, as i used to sit under it a lot and just enjoy it for its beauty.

and anyway how much effort does it really take? preparing the seed, throwing it in the fridge or a pot, and preparing the area, once or twice a year giving it some attention...maybe a few hours total spread over years?

for the birds gardening project it took them only a minute or less, and their apple tree turned out great =)

most people have space concerns though, or they want to prioritize their available space for growing what they like best, thats understandable. but the just plant it and spend little time on it way of super easy tree maintainance can work out ok

Jacki Perry wrote:You might want to reconsider killing off the honey locust trees. The green pods can be harvested and dried for feed-including humans.

Well, not me; I seem to be quite desperately allergic to them. And I don't have any animals. But I'm not actually killing off all my honey locust trees; I'm limited to hand tools, and it's a lot of painful bloody work to remove even one honey locust tree with loppers and a battery chainsaw. What I'm doing is removing saplings and seedlings, and pruning back the honey locust to remove all of their astonishing long parallel-to-the-ground low branches that make walking through my woods so hazardous. Basically I'm thinning clusters of young trees leaving one vertical stalk, and I'm pruning young and old trees alike to remove low branches. A honey locust I can walk under without danger is actually a rather lovely tree.

Jacki Perry wrote:If you want decent apples, you will have to graft. Growing from seed is wasted effort. Because it certainly wont be the same variety of apple the seed came out of. There are a few places where you can get heritage varieties of young trees, and advice on the best ones for your area. Sorry, I can't remember the one, but google heritage heirloom apple trees and you should find them. They have a paper catalogue they mail out, mine is currently buried under stuff.

Some of the world's great apple varieties started as random sprouts. Others though have been painstaking bred. The truth is it's a lot like gambling. Every body has a story about the time they won some money in Vegas, but a surprising number have forgotten how much money they lost in Vegas. That I think is a truism with people.

Another factor to take into consideration is the breeders are taking other factors into consideration besides just taste. They also look at storability, shipability, and attractiveness. You can bet for sure that no commercial grower is ever going to plant something that doesen't ship well, because how is he or she ever going to get it out of his field? In reality, when growers are talking about a 1 in a thousand (or 1 in ten thousand) chance, they mean a one in a thousand chance of getting an apple "better in every way" than what already available.

The way I do it though I think is the best of both worlds. I sprout my own apple rootstock from store-bought fruit. When I graft though I try to leave one branch of the grafted seedling as wildtype, with the hope that it will bear something of qualtiy. If after twenty years it turns out to be a bust, I've only sacrified one branch, and it's easy to accept that and move on.

Does anyone know if montgomery cherry would grow true from pits?

gary reif wrote:Does anyone know if montgomery cherry would grow true from pits?

I read a reference talking specifically how close to type different fruits are from seed, and I remember them mentioning that cherries then to be truer. Bing for example was a random seedling found by a Chinese orchard worker (named Bing) in Oregon generations ago. Most likely you'll get something worthwhile with the Montgomery. Do you actually have seedlings? Cherry is the one fruit I've been unsuccessful in sprouting.

The funny thing is years ago I had a Chinese roommate named Bing, and in my ignorant youth I stated "oh you're named after a cherry"!

No seedlings, but I have 2 cherries already so I have pits

I am trying to learn about planting from seed and dealing with very young plants. Can anyone help?

https://permies.com/t/39143/trees/Seeding-care#304904

Hey Matthew - if you still have any of the trees left, we will drive up there and pick up as many as we can get. We are just over an hour South of OKC. We have ten acres we are just starting to bring together as a permaculture homestead.

Thanks,

Homestead Kids

Oh = oops! I see this is an old thread. Sorry. Anyone else near OKC with trees to give away or sell inexpensively?
Thanks

Please remember that pear trees grown from seeds will likely grow into enormous trees, like 50 to 60 feet. They will likely take a decade or more to produce fruit. Pears falling from that height are dangerous, and will not likely be really edible upon landing, since pears rot from the inside out, and should be picked before they are soft. For pears, I would graft them onto a rootstock like Old Home x Farmington or quince. Apples are usually a more manageable tree, but still on average way larger than you'd probably want and with quality of fruit not likely to be desired by a human. If you have pigs or horses, it might be worth it, but for yourself, I highly doubt it. When fruit trees aren't grafted, they take many years longer to grow fruit and will usually be very large. So to me the question is, if for livestock and you've got a lot of space and you want the shade anyway, good deal. If they're for you, and you have a limited suburban or urban yard, almost surely not worth it.
johnS
PDX OR

John Saltveit wrote:Please remember that pear trees grown from seeds will likely grow into enormous trees, like 50 to 60 feet. They will likely take a decade or more to produce fruit. Pears falling from that height are dangerous, and will not likely be really edible upon landing, since pears rot from the inside out, and should be picked before they are soft. For pears, I would graft them onto a rootstock like Old Home x Farmington or quince. Apples are usually a more manageable tree, but still on average way larger than you'd probably want and with quality of fruit not likely to be desired by a human. If you have pigs or horses, it might be worth it, but for yourself, I highly doubt it. When fruit trees aren't grafted, they take many years longer to grow fruit and will usually be very large. So to me the question is, if for livestock and you've got a lot of space and you want the shade anyway, good deal. If they're for you, and you have a limited suburban or urban yard, almost surely not worth it.
johnS
PDX OR

Hi John - this is great information that I did not know. It helps a lot too. We have 10 acres and few shade trees so I would not be opposed to some trees grown from seed. I would guess it would take many years for a tree to reach the full size you mention here. We will be planting some bare root stock also of chosen varieties, but at the same time, want to plant a living hedge around the entire 10 acres, so trees grown from seed would most likely be the only affordable way to do that. I am always open to other suggestions also!

Thanks,

Tim