AusBonsai

I had the opportunity to "harvest" some crab apples from a friends tree, question is now to get them from mini apples into seedlings.
Can I just plant the whole apple? Or do I have to painstakingly get the seeds out of each one?
Any advice welcome.


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You can just plant the apples and cross fingers. If they germinate you will probably get a bunch of seedlings at each spot because there are 5 or 10 seeds in each fruit but you can separate the seedlings a when you prick them out.
If you want to sow more neatly you will need to get the seeds out. To remove the seeds try rotting the fruit. Put them in a little bit of water and leave them in a warm place to ferment. When the fruit is soft put it all in a sieve and wash under a tap. The soft, rotted fruit should break up and wash through the sieve leaving the seeds. Dry the seeds or sow straight away.

Stratification is usually recommended for apple seed. If you get cold nights then natural stratification is better than the fridge. Just sow seed as normal in a seed pot or tray and leave it outside all winter. Seedlings will sprout in spring. If you don't get frost then maybe try stratifying in the fridge or freezer then sow in spring.
Note that I have found that fresh maple seed will germinate without stratification even though most advice says to subject maple seed to cold for best results. May also be true for apple seed so maybe try some with and some without cold treatment and let us know the result?

shibui wrote: Note that I have found that fresh maple seed will germinate without stratification even though most advice says to subject maple seed to cold for best results. May also be true for apple seed so maybe try some with and some without cold treatment and let us know the result?

Last year I sowed half my crabapple seeds straight out the packet and the other half went into the fridge. Had exactly the same germination rate from both lots and we only had occasional frosts where I was in SA, I wouldn't call it a "cold" climate

Thanks for all of the advice. I was hoping I could be lazy and just plant them whole!
I have enough to run a side by side test. I'll plant some whole, some fresh and some stratified and see what the results are!
Shibui I like the method of letting them go soft, it beats my idea of cutting them open with a knife and probably losing half a fingertip in the process!


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