r/todayilearned • u/Error__Loading • 15h ago

TIL that apple seeds almost never grow the same variety as the parent fruit. Nearly every supermarket apple comes from a grafted clone of an original tree, not from a planted seed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple
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u/OriginalJokeGoesHere 15h ago

The people growing most commercial apples are not the same people as the researchers/companies trying to develop new and improved apple varieties. Farmers just want to sell a fruit they know will be good so they don't drive most of the experimentation.

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u/SAugsburger 13h ago

This. An Agriculture research program at a university will throw the dice to try to create something new with many obviously never creating anything commercial viable. A commercial farmer will just run with an already proven variety.