Growing Apple Trees from Seed in Canada
An apple seed will grow, but not into the apple it came from. What to expect, how to give seeds their winter, how many years to wait, and how grafting gets you fruit sooner.
Growing apple trees from seed in Canada is easy to start and slow to finish. The seeds sprout readily once they have had a winter, and the seedlings grow into strong, hardy trees. The catch is the fruit: it will not match the apple you saved the seed from, and you may wait close to a decade to taste it.
This guide covers what a seedling apple really is, how to give the seeds the cold they need, realistic years to fruit, and the grafting basics that let you use a seedling as a hardy rootstock or see its fruit much sooner.
Apple trees from seed, in short: seeds need about two to three months cold and moist (or a winter outdoors) before they sprout. The tree will not give the same apple as its parent, and a seedling on its own roots commonly takes 6 to 10 years to fruit. Grafting onto a dwarf rootstock can cut that to about 3 to 5. For a known apple in 2 to 3 years, plant a grafted tree.
Why a Seed Does Not Give You the Same Apple
Every apple seed is a cross between the tree it grew on and whatever pollinated that flower, usually a different variety or a crabapple carried in by a bee. Apples are highly mixed genetically, so the seedling is a new variety that has never existed before. That is why every named apple you can buy, from McIntosh to Honeycrisp, is propagated by grafting rather than from seed.
Most seedlings give smaller, sourer or plainer fruit than the parent; a few are good; occasionally one is excellent. Several famous varieties began as chance seedlings, including McIntosh, found as a seedling on a farm in Upper Canada. The odds are low, but the tree you get will be fully hardy on its own roots and genuinely yours.
How Long Until a Seedling Bears Fruit
| Tree | Years to first fruit | Mature height |
|---|---|---|
| Seedling on its own roots | Commonly 6 to 10 years, sometimes more | Full size, 6 m (20 ft) or more |
| Seedling wood grafted onto a dwarf rootstock | Often 3 to 5 years after grafting | 2.5 to 4.5 m (8 to 15 ft) |
| A named variety from a nursery, on dwarf rootstock | 2 to 3 years after planting | 2.5 to 4.5 m (8 to 15 ft) |
| A named variety on standard rootstock | Up to 8 years | 6 m (20 ft) or more |
The last two rows come from the University of Minnesota Extension. The seedling ranges are what growers commonly report rather than a measured figure, because they vary so much from one seedling to the next. If you want fruit soon, plant a grafted tree; grow from seed for the experiment, or to raise your own rootstock.
Growing Apple Trees from Seed, Step by Step
- Collect seeds in fall from fully ripe apples, ideally from a local tree rather than imported fruit, since a parent that survives your winter gives better odds of a hardy seedling. Rinse off any flesh and let them dry for a day.
- Give them a winter. Apple seeds will not sprout until they have been cold and moist for a period, the way they would be under snow. A common method is two to three months in a closed bag of barely damp peat or paper towel in the refrigerator, checked every few weeks. The simpler Canadian option is to sow them outdoors in a pot or a marked spot in late fall and let winter do the work.
- Sow when roots appear, or in early spring for outdoor-sown seed, about 1 cm deep in seed-starting mix.
- Grow them on in full sun. Seedlings started indoors need strong light or they stretch; harden them off before planting out after your last frost.
- Plant out at the end of the first or second summer, in full sun and well-drained soil, with room for a full-size tree, or keep the best one in a large pot for grafting.
Apple seeds that come out of the fridge in February or March sprout weeks before there is enough daylight on a Canadian windowsill, and the seedlings stretch thin and fall over. A clip-on light about 15 to 20 cm above them for 12 to 16 hours a day keeps them short and sturdy until they can go outside.
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Grafting Basics: Getting Fruit Sooner
Grafting joins a short piece of one tree (the scion, which decides the fruit) onto the root of another (the rootstock, which decides the size and much of the hardiness). It is how you turn a seedling into a fruiting tree faster, or how you put a known variety onto your own seedling roots.
- Collect scion wood while the tree is dormant, in late winter. Penn State Extension describes pencil-thick, one-year-old shoots, kept unfrozen and moist in damp sphagnum in a refrigerator just above freezing, with no apples stored nearby, since ripening fruit gives off gas that can harm the buds.
- Graft in early spring, when the rootstock is just waking up. Penn State and the RHS both describe late March to early April; in most of Canada that means April or early May, before the buds open.
- Use a whip-and-tongue graft when scion and rootstock are about the same thickness: matching slanted cuts with a second interlocking cut, so the green layers under the bark line up on at least one side. Leave two or three buds on the scion.
- Wrap and seal the union with grafting tape so it cannot dry out, and remove the tape once the graft has grown together, before it cuts into the bark.
- Keep the union above the soil, about 10 cm, so the scion does not root and undo the rootstock's size control.
For a seedling, there are two useful directions: graft wood from your best seedling onto a dwarf rootstock to see its fruit within a few years, or use your seedlings as hardy rootstock and graft a known variety onto them. Seedling rootstock gives a large, long-lived, very hardy tree, the classic choice for zone 3, as the apple tree care guide explains.
A whip-and-tongue graft needs one long, clean, flat cut on each piece, which a dull kitchen knife cannot make. Look for a single-bevel grafting knife and a roll of stretchy grafting tape; the tape matters as much as the knife, because it holds the cut faces together and keeps them from drying out.
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Hardiness and Pollination
A seedling's hardiness is unknown until it has been through a few winters. Seeds from a tree already growing in your area are the safer bet; seeds from an imported supermarket apple bred for a warm climate may give a seedling that struggles in zone 3 or 4. Once it flowers, a seedling still needs a different apple or crabapple flowering nearby to set fruit, like any apple tree.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you grow an apple tree from a seed?
Yes. Apple seeds sprout readily after a cold, moist period, and the seedling grows into a full-size tree. It will not give the same apple as the parent, because every seed is a cross between two trees.
Will an apple seed grow the same apple?
No. Each seed carries genes from the tree it grew on and from the pollen parent, so the seedling is a new variety. That is why named apples are grafted, not grown from seed.
How long does an apple tree from seed take to bear fruit?
Commonly 6 to 10 years on its own roots, sometimes longer. Grafting wood from the seedling onto a dwarf rootstock can bring fruit in about 3 to 5 years.
Do apple seeds need to be cold before planting?
Yes. A common method is two to three months in barely damp peat or paper towel in the refrigerator. In Canada you can also sow seeds outdoors in late fall and let winter provide the cold.
Can I grow an apple tree from a store-bought apple?
You can, but the seedling's fruit is unpredictable and its hardiness unknown, especially from fruit grown in a warmer region. Seeds from a local tree that survives your winters give better odds.
When is the best time to graft apple trees?
In early spring, as the rootstock starts to wake, using scion wood collected while the tree was dormant and stored cold and moist. In most of Canada that is April to early May, before the buds open.
What is a whip-and-tongue graft?
A graft for a scion and rootstock of similar thickness: matching slanted cuts, each with a second cut that lets the two pieces lock together, then wrapped with grafting tape. It is the standard bench graft for apples.
Is it worth growing apples from seed?
As an experiment, or to raise hardy rootstock, yes. For fruit you know you will like within a few years, buy a grafted tree of a variety rated for your zone.
Sources
- University of Minnesota Extension, Growing apples in the home garden
- Penn State Extension, Fruit tree propagation: bench grafting
- Royal Horticultural Society, Grafting fruit and ornamental trees