When you eat an apple, you'll find quite some seeds inside the core. Have you ever thought of planting one of those seeds?
Well, it's not as easy as it sounds, hear me out.
Let's be clear about something: When you plant a seed that you found in an apple, the tree that sprouts out of it will not bear the same apples as the apple your seed came from. If you want the same apple, you have to graft, not plant.
But here, we are going to talk about planting an apple seed. It can be done.
First, dry the seed. I usually dry my apple seeds on a piece of paper towel or a napkin.
After a few days, put the dried seeds in the freezer and freeze them for at least a week.
Next, remove the seeds from the freezer, put them on a piece of moist paper towel, and then put the paper towel with the seeds in a plastic ziploc bag.
Put this in the fridge for a week.
You might see that some of the seeds are starting to sprout after a week.
Now you are ready to plant them. I usually plant them in a small pot first, like really small. Once the seeds sprout, I transplant them to a bigger pot.
I keep the pots in my greenhouse until the middle of summer (I start planting seeds in wintertime).
Once the plants are well established - they grow fast- I plant them outdoors.
They grow up to 2 feet the first year.
I protect the plants from deer because they'd eat them in a hurry.
They say it takes about 10 years to get apples after planting a seed. My largest apple tree is now 10 years old, but so far I've not seen blossoms or apples :)
Also, plant in well drained soil in a sunny location, preferably close to other apple trees.