Our Mission:

Our Mission: To enable individuals and communities to take an active part in the cultivation of systems that provide the highest quality fruits, vegetables, herbs and other yields, in a way that benefits themselves, cares for the land and environment, and provides a surplus to use, share and reinvest into the system.

Monday, February 27, 2017

How-to Start Fruit Trees and Rootstocks from Seed

Last week I brought you a video of how to do a Whip & Tongue graft to make your own selected varieties of apple, pear and more.

This week has a video showing you how to make your own rootstocks for grafting, or let them grow into your own variety of fruit trees.

One thing you often hear is that apples from seed grown trees will be terrible.  While it is true they have a tremendous amount of genetic diversity and only about One in Ten-Thousand will be tasty enough, resistant to disease or another marketable attribute to make it a commercially viable product, and they won't be exactly like the parent fruit, the chances of having something decent aren't too bad.

I've heard the more likely results will be about 20% "spitters" that is bad enough you won't want to eat them.  On the opposite side, also about 20% will be pretty good.  The other 60% will just be a fairly decent apple.  They will for sure be good enough for pastured pigs and wildlife, especially deer.

Pears have less genetic variation, therefore you are more likely to get a decent tasting pear from seed when the parent fruit was good.

Next time you enjoy a piece of fruit consider saving those seeds and giving this a try!



Here's a link to the "Cone-tainer" if you would like to order some.
https://www.groworganic.com/conetainer-super-cell-recycled.html

If you would like to make a Seed Growing Rack try this video I made!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abibZgEGtr8

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