Growing apple trees from seed is both satisfying and easy. There are many unexplored species of apple found around the world. The full genetic potential of the apple tree is unknown.

Seedling apple trees live longer than grafts, make excellent wildlife trees and often produce good fruit for fresh eating, sauce, or hard cider. Crabapples generally come true to type from seed while wild and domestic apples will display more variabitlity.

While much has been made about the futility of growing good apples from seed, we have found the inverse to be true. It seems probable that virtually all the claims about growing apples from seed have been made by people who have never done so.

Varieties

Sargent Crabapple (Malus Sargentii)- Small red fruits the size of blueberry. Fruits hang on deep into winter providing excellent food for wildlife. Sargent crabapple tastes good eaten fresh but can also be made into sauces and hard cider. Brilliant red color throughout winter. Often planted for their profuse pink blossoms.

Dolgo Crabapple- Awesome crab with delicious fruit. Originally from Russia, Dolgos are bright red 2” fruits that taste very good fresh and make a beautiful colorful applesauce. They are heavy bloomers with striking white flowers grown for their ornamental qualities as well as for pollination in orchards

Twisted Tree Wild Apple- Our valley is home to thousands of wild apple trees that thrive in heavy clay soils with temperatures dropping to -20F and receive zero care. These are very tough trees producing an incredibly diverse array of fruit ranging from terrible to excellent. Seedlings will exhibit a wide variety of traits, virtually all of them will be resilient and durable growers. In our experiences, about 70% of trees will have fruit good enough for fresh eating, 95% are good enough for sauce, cider, or drying, and 5% are best left for wildlife. Expect the unexpected. We have found quite a few treasures here.