Apple seeds are easy to grow at home with the proper preparation, and seedlings are often more vigorous than their grafted nursery counterparts. Give an apple tree seedling 3-4 years and it’ll catch up to and pass a potted transplant in size. From there, you have a tree that may bear for centuries.
The main reason apples aren’t grown from seed is that they don’t “come true to seed.” Just like humans, the offspring may have some resemblance to their parents, but with their own flavor and habits. Humans tend to want predictability, and for that reason, apple trees are cloned by grafting rather than starting from seed.
The thing is…all the tastiest apple varieties were a seedling at some point in history. Planting an apple from seed is like playing the lottery, and since you’re likely going to compost that apple core anyway, you’ve got nothing to lose.
A few hundred years ago settlers carried with them apple seeds and started seedling orchards all over the Northeast, and those same orchards became the parents of many of the heirloom varieties I now treasure. Those that were less tasty eaten out of hand went into hard cider, which requires a certain percentage of high tannin or high acid apples to brew properly.
One year we bought more than 30 apple varieties from a local heirloom apple orchard and did a big apple taste test. Since all the trees were in an heirloom orchard, there’s no telling who the second parent tree was…but it’s less likely that the father tree was a wild crab apple and more likely that it was another tasty heirloom. This improves the chances that any given seed will bear offspring with good characteristics.
Since a seedling tree will have some of the characteristics of its parents, we chose the seeds from our very favorite varieties to plant. There’s a good chance many of them will be best suited for hard cider or to please the deer as windfalls, but even then they’ll still feed the bees with abundant blossoms and nectar in the spring. And at the very least they’ll help pollinate our other tastier trees, so it’s a win either way.
Preparing Apple Seeds for Planting
Apple seeds need cold stratification to break dormancy. The seeds need to be kept under moist refrigeration for at least 6 weeks before they’re planted. Place apple seeds in a moist paper towel, and then put that paper towel inside a plastic bag, leaving it open just a crack for air exchange. Store it in the back of the refrigerator, checking on the towel every week or so to make sure it’s moist.
At the end of 6 weeks, some of the seeds may have started to sprout already. That’s a good thing since apple seeds have a very low germination rate. Some sources say as low as 30%, though I’d guess ours were more like 60% at least, so clearly, it’s variable.
If you buy local apples late in the season, months after harvest, they’ve already been kept under refrigeration for many months. It’s a good idea to cold stratify those seeds in a moist paper towel too because extra stratification won’t hurt them, but not enough cold hours means no apple seedlings. When you cut long stored local apples open, there’s a chance that some of the seeds may have already started to germinate inside the apple…
An apple seed that had already started to germinate inside an apple from cold storage.
How to Plant Apple Seeds
After a minimum of 6 weeks in a moist paper towel in the refrigerator, you can plant apple seeds just as you would any other seed. They can be direct seeded outdoors if it’s after last spring frost and the soil can be worked. Since germination rates are low, and predation from squirrels, mice, and voles can be an issue early on, we generally sprout them in pots.
I place about a dozen seeds in a recycled one-gallon nursery pot along with a bit of seed starting potting mix. Keep the soil warm and moist, as you would any other spring planted seed start (ie. tomatoes).
How Long Do Apple Seeds Take to Germinate?
After 6 weeks of cold stratification, apple seeds actually germinate fairly quickly. Many of the seeds will already be germinating on the paper towel in your refrigerator, and those will emerge from the soil quickest after planting. Assuming soil temperatures are fairly warm (about 75 degrees F) the seeds should emerge from the soil in 1-2 weeks.
From there, we tend the apple seedlings in pots until the young trees are at least 4-6 inches tall. That means we’re less likely to lose them where they’re planted, but staking them is also a great idea because one casual step can mean the end of a young tree at this stage.
Transplanting Apple Seedlings
If you’d like to get them into the ground sooner rather than later, just wait until nighttime temperatures are consistently above 50 degrees in the spring (or early summer here in the north country).
Once the apple seedlings are in the ground, they’ll begin the work of growing into a full-sized tree. Since they’re not grafted on dwarfing rootstock that handicaps them and limits their nutrients, seedling apples will grow strong and healthy, but also large. Good pruning can keep apple trees smaller, but full-sized apples should still be planted at least 20 feet apart.
How Long Does It Take Apple Seedlings to Bear Fruit?
Surprisingly, not really any longer than an expensive grafted nursery tree. Nursery bought apple trees generally bear about 8 years after planting. They may have been in the pot for some time, which caused them to become a bit root-bound and stunted. Even in the best of cases, large 6” tall nursery trees don’t take transplanting well and it takes them some time to recover and begin to grow vigorously again.
After three years in the dirt, our apple seedlings are now actually taller than our grafted nursery trees. We’re expecting them to come to bare alongside our other standard apple varieties in about 5 more years, but time will tell.
brandy hutto
Thanks for the advice Ashly,just put my apple seeds in the moist paperwork,in a ziplock in the bottom drawer in the fridge,I’m excited this will be my first attempt…wish my seeds luck!
Ashley Adamant
Good luck!
Jackson Taylor
How’s the tree going so far? 🙂
Michelle
Thank you so much for these instructions! The apple tree my husband’s grandmother planted in the yard of her farmhouse, which is now our farmhouse is starting to die. I’ve set aside several of the best apples from this year’s crop and was trying to figure out the best way to grow a few trees that can replace the original tree and be given to her great grandchildren for their yards. Not knowing if the tree will make it through another winter, I want to give those seeds the very best opportunity to survive!!
ROGER NOLTE
Using a seed from the tree will NOT give you the same apple variety. If you want the SAME apple, you must cut a scion (a one year old new shoot, or the new growth from last year) and graft that scion onto another rootstock. IT IS VERY EASY TO DO!!! You can often fin a “County Extension Service” that teaches grafting classes each spring, OR the expert there–working for the county–will show you how for free. There are lots of YouTube videos also that show “bench grafting,” or “whip-and-tongue” grafting, & etc. Again, IT’S EASY, as long as you have a good sharp knife and know how to use it safely. You need to take the scion from the tree you want to duplicate while the tree is still dormant and the buds have not begun to swell. Put that scion in a ziplock baggie and keep in the fridge that does not have any apples in it. It will last a couple months. And to find a “rootstock,” I would suggest Raintree Nursery (online), for buying an “Antonovka” full sized, long lived tree, or a Bud 118 rootstock for faster growing, almost full-sized tree. Order soon, before there all gone for the year! I would recommend getting at least two, in case one doesn’t take or you have some unforeseen difficulty. You will want to practice making the cuts and grafting with pieces of willow or other scions from the tree before making the actual grafts with those more perfect scion pieces. Here is a link for grafting a “modified whip-and-tongue,” in case your scion and the rootstock are different sizes. https://youtu.be/eTD33aGqjhA GOOD LUCK!!
Charlesetta
Thanks for the information, my name is Charlesetta and my grandson want to try and Apple plant.
Auther Ray
I have a couple of apple trees that came up volunteer from seed from store bought apples so I have no idea what kind they might be. Is it true that large orchards use Crab apples to pollinate their trees? I wouldn’t care if they were 1/2 Crab apple as I believe they make good cooking apples and make the best jelly.
Ashley Adamant
Sometimes large orchards interplant a small number of crabapples to help with pollination, but really there’s no telling where the bee went. It could be any tree in the orchard, and some varieties are even self-fertile. Even still, you never know how the genes will all shake out in the end. I hope they’re delicious and good luck with them!
Heather D Hollingsworth
My son brought home a little brown cup that started growing his apple tree we have had it a bout a month or so and its growing like crazy. Its winter in VA, USA and I dont know anything about moving plants out of the cup into the ground..can anyone help I dont want to kill the apple tree
Ashley Adamant
Keep it indoors and wait until spring, around when you plant your tomatoes. It’ll need to be hardened off, which means gradually introducing it to the outdoors. Natural conditions, even just full sunlight when it’s used to indoor light can burn the leaves. Start by putting it out a few hours a day in a protected area, then gradually longer. More specifics here: https://www.burpee.com/gardenadvicecenter/areas-of-interest/seed-starting/hardening-off-your-seedlings/article10355.html
Brenda
How do you prevent mold from starting while cold stratifying? We tried that with peach pits in the fridge and changed the damp towel out regularly but it still kept trying to mold.
Ashley Adamant
Kept just barely damp, and with the top of the bag open a bit, I haven’t had a problem with mold. I know some people use a solution of water and hydrogen peroxide to wet the paper towels when mold is a problem, but I haven’t used that technique myself. I’m sure a quick search would help you find the right concentration.
M
Best way I found is to crack the peach pit open and get the seed inside and place that in a damp paper towel and put in a ziplock bag or Tupperware container and into the fridge until roots appear.
Julie
Interesting. I ate an apple 1bout 6 days ago. I put the seeds in a small container with a small amount f water. 8 out of 10 seeds have already sprouted!!
Ashley Adamant
This time of year (mid-winter) the apples themselves have been in cold storage for months. They’re already stratified for you in storage at the apple warehouse, so they’re ready to sprout!
Elizabeth
I’m really looking forward to starting apples from seed, but I live in the southern hemisphere, so it is the end of summer here now. Should I keep the seeds in the refrigerator until early next spring or store them until the middle of winter and then put them in the refrigerator? They are seeds from an heirloom apple.
Thank you
Ashley Adamant
I’d put them in the refrigerator until seed starting time in your area. Pull them out and pot them up whenever you’d normally start tomatoes indoors.
Sidney
I’m not sure if I have space for apple trees, but this sounds like fun. I saved some seeds from really tasty apples I ate this past Fall, so let’s see what happens, right? I also think I’ll try Ann Ralph’s method of growing little trees. Any future trees and I are going to be much happier if I don’t have to climb up and down ladders to prune and harvest.
Ginger
Have 10 so far with about 4 to 6 sets of leaves, Thanks for the tips
Juliane
I planted a seed a couple of years ago. It lost its leaves this past fall and looks like it is regrowing them in time with the other trees outside. I think it’s about 3 years old (sieve brain!) so I suppose it’s ready to harden off and plant outside? Soil? Sun? Moisture levels? Thank you! (Also have 1.5yr grapefruit, 1 yr. lemon seedlings, and a bunch of 4311 apples sprouts (generic pink apple code?))
Ashley Adamant
Yup, time to harden off (slowly) and plant it outdoors. Full sun ideally (unless you’re in somewhere absurdly hot like the Mojave). They like moderate amounts of water, and won’t tolerate swampy/wet spots. Our soil is clay with a high water table, so we have to work pretty hard to find a well-drained spot for apple trees. Poorly drained soil is the one thing that really kills them, so watch out for that. Best of luck!
Claire
My daughter took 5 seeds from an ambrosia apple that had been sitting in a basket on the counter, she ate the apple and directly planted them in a small soil pot, this was just before xmas. Just after New Year’s day she had 5 sprouts. They’re growing rather nicely in partial sun. I came looking for a reasonable estimate of when she’ll see a fruiting tree because honestly I didn’t expect a single sprout.
Ashley Adamant
With good care, she’s about 3 years away from the potted trees they sell at the nursery. For fruit though, likely 5-10 years. Some varieties bear fruit earlier than others, but about 8 years is a good average.
susan thomas
Could you do this same method with pears?
Ashley Adamant
Yup, works just fine with pears too.
Shamsudeen Gwarzo
Hi,I lives in Nigeria and really likes apple fruit.We have a hot tempreture and don’t know if apple tree can grow here
Ashley Adamant
My mom has the same problem in California in the Desert. There are some varieties that are called “low chill” apples and can grow in very hot climates without a winter freeze. It may still be too hot there for apples, but I don’t know too much about the climate in Nigeria. This article may be helpful to you: https://ucanr.edu/sites/urbanhort/files/80158.pdf
Goody
Hi, I also lives in Nigeria
I started the growing of apple tree since 2018 here in Nigeria which was successful I now have 4 stands of fully grown apple tree
Sharon Wizner
I just read this and didn’t know that you needed to put them in fridge. first. I started min in plastic container in my green house window over my kitchen sink. They are about 3 inches tall now and in pots with potting soil. After they get bigger how do we prune them so they go tall and straight. do we remove the bottom leaves and when? Thank you.
Ashley Adamant
If they’re growing, no need to remove anything at all. Allow them to grow out in pots until they’re big enough that you feel comfortable transplanting them. Some of ours were plenty big by the fall of their first year, others grew a lot slower.
Jackson
I recently started growing a few of my own apple trees! When do you think pruning should start though?
Ashley Adamant
Early on they just need to be trained, perhaps trimmed to encourage the shape and growth form you want. They don’t need to be meaningfully prunes until they’re 5-8 years old.
Valerie N Avella
So question…we tested a bunch of seeds. We put some in the refrigerator a week ago and some in a wet papertowel/bag left in the garage. In both cases, about half of the seeds have started to germinate. The ones from the garage, we potted in soil and are growing. Can we plant the germinating ones from the refrigerator too? Or should we continue to leave them in the refrigerator for 5 more weeks? Will seeds do better overall in either case, or once they start germinating, does it not matter?
Ashley Adamant
As soon as they start germinating they should go into soil. The cold period is just to get them to break dormancy, as soon as that happens they’ll be happier in soil. Looks like all your seeds were already in cold storage inside the apple, which is normal this time of year since apples are refrigerated all winter for spring sales.
Joe S
I pulled a seed out of an apple I had just eaten. Stuck it into a pot. About 2 weeks later it was sprouting!
Alan
Hi folks,
Just seen my 8 Apple seeds which have spent 6 weeks in the fridge, of which 5 have got some roots, all of 2mm, lol, bless!
Now all I got to do is plant in pots today and see what happens. Funny, I recall in my teens planting three in roughly the same way, great fun I thought till my niece visited us one weekend at my parents house, pulled all the flipping leaves of….Grrrrrrrrr I could have pulled her hair out, ooops!!
Anyway, here I am 65 & doing the same thing again…lol, see what happens…lol
Kathy Mallette
Well I started some in February just by putting them in potting soil. I didnt do any refrigeration. Store bought apples. I have 10 trees growing in my house. Lol. I am going to plant them outside next year.
Sereima
Thank you so much for sharing this apple germinating process. I would love to try.
Neamh Kaila
I have successfully germinated 3 apple seeds in the fridge, and was wondering what size should they be before I pot them? Also how often I should water them?
Thank you.
Ashley Adamant
As soon as they germinate they should go into soil. Water to keep the soil just barely moist, but not saturated.
Alan R.
Hi, thank you for the apple seed planting instructions.
After I plant a dozen or so seeds in a pot after refrigeration, as the young trees sprouts and grows up do you keep all the young trees and eventually plant them all in their permanent locations or do you weed out the lesser young trees? Planting just the best grower or are the all transplantable from pot to ground?
Thank you very much!
Ashley Adamant
I plant them all out in the yard. If several trees look weaker, I plant them together in a group and then at least one survives.
Emiko
I purchased some 20th Century Asian pears because my tree is not fruiting yet. It has born fruit for the past few years. My question is weather or not germinating the seed will work for grafting to the main fruiting tree. Someone said that this might encourage the new “tree” to fruit faster. My original tree was a gift from my father-in-law, and its fruit is wonderful. Is there a risk to either the new and/or existing tree to be contemplating this?
Ashley Adamant
I don’t think it’ll encourage the tree to fruit faster, but I’m not an expert in pushing trees to fruit.
Abioye
Can we plant apple in Africa?
Ashley Adamant
Possibly, but most varieties require a certain number of frost hours to bare fruit. I’d look up apple varieties recommended for California or Florida, as there are a few specially bred to fruit in hot climates. This article might be helpful for you: https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/MG/MG36800.pdf
Lupana
I just started some in June so am assuming they’ll be too small to go out this Fall. How would I over winter them? I assume the house will be too warm. Is an unheated shed ok or the basement? Both are not terribly light – would they need a grow light?
Thanks!
Ashley Adamant
In the winter they go dormant completely (assuming you’re in a temperate climate not the desert), so a shed would be fine. They should lose their leaves and not need light. They will need light when things warm up in spring though and they begin budding.
Aisyah
So do ALL apples need stratification? I just accidentally grew an apple seedling and I live in the tropics. I have no idea where the little champ has been but when I plopped it on the ground it just… grows!
I don’t believe the apple it’s from is refrigerated cool enough for any stratification to happen, since we don’t really do that here and just eat it straight away :v.
But now this little plant got me hooked on gardening and I was wondering if I just got lucky or something else is going on.
I’m planning to grow more in the future!
Ashley Adamant
If you’re in the tropics I’d guess it made it there on a refrigerated ship/plane/etc and spent some time in cold storage before it got there. That said, there are “low chill” varieties of apples that thrive in hot areas. Perhaps their seed doesn’t require the same stratification? Every apple tree is different genetically, so it’s possible that a mutation would allow them to just grow without stratification, so maybe you got lucky. Either way, good luck with your seedling!
Bonnie E Bailey
Great blog, very useful information. I have two Apple trees grown from seed. I planted them together and they have joined. They are now about 4 yrs old and very healthy in the garden. I did not realize it will take another 4 yrs to produce fruit. I’ll be patient.