How to plant seeds from store bought apples. That’s coming up on This Land of Ours.
It’s a long term project, but you actually can grow a new tree from a store bought apple. All you need are a few supplies and plenty of patience.
To begin, take an apple of your choice and remove the seeds within the core, being careful not to nick or cut them. Clean the seeds off so that they don’t have any fruit juice or apple bits on them, and place each seed into a small pot filled with potting mix.
Because apples come from temperate climates, the seeds need to be stratified (kept cool and moist) for a couple of months before they’ll germinate. Cover the pots with a plastic bag to hold in moisture and set them in an unheated garage or even a refrigerator.
It can take up to a decade from the time you planted your seeds to when the resulting trees will be mature enough to produce their first fruits. And remember when they do, those fruits will likely be very different from the variety of apple the seeds came from. Still, tasting your first apples, unique to the world, is worth all the effort and waiting over the years.
Listen to Cathy Isom’s This Land of Ours program here.