Apple Seedlings - to prune or not?

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AYankeeCat Fairfield County, CT(Zone 6b) Jul 08, 2007

I am growing 3 apple seedlings that I bought on eBay. They are about 12" - 14" tall at this point. They have leaves all the way to the ground. My question is should I take off the bottom leaves so that they look more like a tree - or leave them alone until they get bigger?

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Resin Northumberland, United Kingdom(Zone 9a) Jul 08, 2007

Best to leave them alone until they get much bigger.

Note that they are unlikely to produce worthwhile apples for eating!

Resin

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frans530 Rankin, IL(Zone 5a) Jul 08, 2007

Resin,
Just out of pure curiosity, why do you say they won't produce worthwhile of eating?
I have a volunteer seedling that is about 3 years old and was happily waiting for it to produce apples, while I know it will not be a clone of the maternial tree, I have plenty of other potentially guilty paternials that I would be proud to eat their offspring....

Or so I thought?

Fran

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Len123 Adrian, MO(Zone 6a) Jul 08, 2007

did you but them from resin??lol

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escambiaguy Atmore, AL(Zone 8b) Jul 08, 2007

They will most likely turn out to be like crabapples.

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Resin Northumberland, United Kingdom(Zone 9a) Jul 08, 2007

Fruit sweetness in apples is not a very stable character, most seedlings revert back part or all of the way towards the sour wild-type. When growers want to develop new apple cultivars for the market, they sow thousands of seeds for every one that they end up keeping as worthwhile.

Resin

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AYankeeCat Fairfield County, CT(Zone 6b) Jul 09, 2007

Oh well - the point really was contributing to genetic diversity anyway. I'm sure some critter will eat the apples. :)

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David_Vermont Orwell, VT Jul 09, 2007

Very good point about the apples being good for wildlife. You might also try to graft onto the seedlings once they are large enough. I have had great luck with grafting, lots of information on the web as to the "how to do".

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AYankeeCat Fairfield County, CT(Zone 6b) Jul 09, 2007

I'll keep that grafting idea in mind. But it will be years before I have to think about it - they are just seedlings.

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