apple tree from pip

u751904

about five years about I threw out an apple into my back garden. I now have an apple tree. Ironically I bought some of those mini fruit trees for a nice sum. I now have a fruit tree outside my back door which is laden with apples. Great except I have a tiny garden. The tree is carefully pruned now to keep it in check. Poor think originally I didn't realise it was an apple tree and in fact hacked into it thinking it was something else. So it is a sort of hedge. I spoke to a grower and he didn't believe me that I managed to grow a tree which bears edible fruit from a pip. Apparently they normally revert to the species ie crab apple. I am quite fond of my tree. It will be a problem I guess on day as it isn't dawfed by root stock etc. It is literally in a brick planter which is a foot away from my back door. I get loads of apples especially this year. sort of golden delicious but a bit sharper. Big apples.

Anyone have any suggestions on what to do. Continue trying to train it into a hedge? thanks

peter_the_piper

Can't think why an apple grown from a pip should revert to a crab, you would have to start again each time when you cross pollinated to get a new variety.
We also have one growing on a waste bit of land we have, likely from a core thrown for the foxes/birds.

u751904

Peter, I have to say I was a little surprised with regards to what the grower said. ........... If it really comes to it I won't feel so bad if I have to find it a new home then.

Farway

Just remember Cox's Orange Pippin, and Granny Smith's, plus countless others came from pips

Is it really a lovely apple? Maybe contact a real fruit nursery, such as Ken Muir, Blackmoor, or even Thompson & Morgan, you may just have your retirement sorted out :j

a1cat

I play 'spot the fruit tree' with my kids on a bike ride we do on a popular track. Quite a few apples, some pears and one peach! Which had fruit this year!

Mojisola

u751904 wrote: »

about five years about I threw out an apple into my back garden. I now have an apple tree. Ironically I bought some of those mini fruit trees for a nice sum. I now have a fruit tree outside my back door which is laden with apples. Great except I have a tiny garden. The tree is carefully pruned now to keep it in check. Poor think originally I didn't realise it was an apple tree and in fact hacked into it thinking it was something else. So it is a sort of hedge. I spoke to a grower and he didn't believe me that I managed to grow a tree which bears edible fruit from a pip. Apparently they normally revert to the species ie crab apple. I am quite fond of my tree. It will be a problem I guess on day as it isn't dawfed by root stock etc. It is literally in a brick planter which is a foot away from my back door. I get loads of apples especially this year. sort of golden delicious but a bit sharper. Big apples.

Anyone have any suggestions on what to do. Continue trying to train it into a hedge? thanks

He wasn't much of a grower if he really believes that! Where does he think that new varieties of apple come from?

Contact these people - https://www.brogdale.org/
They may be interested themselves or should be able to put you in touch with a local expert. If it was my tree, I would be grafting some of the new tree onto specialist rootstocks - https://www.ashridgetrees.co.uk/Apple-Rootstock-Pear-Rootstock

If you didn't want to try yourself, see if Brogdale can recommend someone to do it for you.

ixwood

Commercially produced fruit is often pollinated by crab apples, which would affect trees grown from the pips.

Patchwork_Quilt

Well done for managing to grow a new apple tree! I would let it get as big as possible, and there's nothing wrong with an apple hedge. We have two stumps in our garden that are regrowing and I'm going to have a couple of apple bushes soon but who says they've got to look like everyone else's?

Mojisola

u751904 wrote: »

about five years about I threw out an apple into my back garden. I now have an apple tree.

I spoke to a grower and he didn't believe me that I managed to grow a tree which bears edible fruit from a pip. Apparently they normally revert to the species ie crab apple.

ixwood wrote: »

Commercially produced fruit is often pollinated by crab apples, which would affect trees grown from the pips.

So are a lot of garden apple trees which is why growing from seed more often results in a tree with poor fruit but, if you're lucky, you can get a gem. To refuse to believe this is possible is a very strange position to take.

u751904 - if you do take it further, let us know how you get on.

peter_the_piper

This might be useful info http://www.hedging.co.uk/acatalog/Pollination_Guide_Apples.html

http://www.homeorchardsociety.org/article/30/

There is a good chance of a garden apple (in an urban area)being pollinated by one of these, less so a commercial one. However most commercial growers have more than one variety so a cross with another than a crab is quite high.