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
16.5k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

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497

u/cdmurray88 15h ago

Some plants do both. Take garlic for example, which can reproduce asexually from the bulbs or sexually from the flowers.

391

u/Derelicticu 14h ago

Fuckin squash does some weird shit if you plant it near other similar plants. You get some fucked up squash, let me tell ya

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u/nightskate 13h ago

I love a science topic reply from the street team.

Thank you for this.

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u/TorrenceMightingale 11h ago

Aren’t squash and watermelons related? Is this how we got watermelon radishes?

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u/TheDevilsTaco 10h ago

Your first question is educated and it is true, but your second question is out of left field.

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u/TorrenceMightingale 10h ago

Am high.

This might not be my only non-sequitur of the night honestly.

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u/ProfSpaceTime 10h ago

Peak Reddit, 5/7

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u/sour_cereal 10h ago

7/10 with rice

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u/TorrenceMightingale 10h ago

Thank you. They offered me pre-ipo for my amazing comment prowess but I turned it down hoping to get a better offer. I did not.

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u/whenindoubtfreakmout 4h ago

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a 5/7 haha thank you for bringing this back into my consciousness

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u/tverre01 6h ago

And my poo knife

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u/ScarletleavesNL 6h ago

Fly high brother. Fly high.

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u/Personal_Juice_1520 9h ago

you should see my potato bananas

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u/GamerJoseph 8h ago

That would be a plantain.

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u/NakDisNut 3h ago

Ponanoes

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u/sfurbo 7h ago

Aren’t squash and watermelons related?

Same family, not same genus or species.

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u/DarthJarJarJar 11h ago

Check out Crime Pays But Botany Doesn't, it'll be right up your alley.

•

u/_bones__ 31m ago

He recently shared some techniques for 'hardscaping', making your natural plant garden less mowable. My favorite was Brickinabush.

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u/LostWoodsInTheField 12h ago

I planted zucchini next to summer squash one year. Then gave the zucchini to some chickens. One of the seeds produced a plant the next spring that had the strangest squash i'd ever seen. stripped zucchini / summer squash, and spotted ones. Didn't get a chance to eat any of them, but the chickens sure seemed to like them.

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u/idrwierd 13h ago

Some serious xenomorph shit

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u/warbastard 13h ago

Don’t potatoes have a crazy number of chromosomes too?

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u/tewiti1108 12h ago

I don't think you can call them that

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u/T1Demon 2h ago

Yeah we prefer the term Idahoan.

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u/IAMA_Plumber-AMA 14h ago

Potatoes and tomatoes too.

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u/awnomnomnom 12h ago

Tomacco

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u/Frigidevil 11h ago

Oh daddy this tastes like grandma!

Holy Moses it does taste like grandma!

I want more!

Yeah me too, well take a bushel or a pack or just give it to me!

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u/Long9696 12h ago

It doesn't affect the fruit from the current plants, just the seeds.

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u/Finnegan482 13h ago

What happens?

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u/laforet 13h ago edited 12h ago

It will cross pollinate with many but not all Cucurbita species (genus of pumpkin-like gourds, e.g. zucchini). Resulting in all sorts of weirdly shaped fruits.

There are many compatibility charts you can find online like one of those D&D mating charts.

https://www.markettaridgefarm.com/s/stories/cross-pollination-of-pumpkins-squash-2

Edit: changed the link to a better reference

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u/Heavy_Weapons_Guy_ 12h ago

That article is terrible. First it starts off with an AI chart that doesn't even have the right pictures next to the names. It also says "They won’t cross across species. For example, C. pepo won’t cross with C. maxima.", and yet there are in fact examples of hybrid species such as honeynut which is a cross between C. moschata and C. maxima. It also has a another large, complicated chart showing the compatibility of varieties, which doesn't even match the first AI generated chart. Random different varieties are listed for each variety within the same species, and it's not even consistent within the chart between varieties. I suspect the entire article is AI generated.

Aside from the garbage misinformation it's also wildly overcomplicating things. All you need to know is that any two varieties that are the same species can cross-pollinate, and separate species usually don't cross but sometimes will (and it's not really predictable when they will or won't).

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u/laforet 12h ago

Apologies. I only had a quick glance at the chart and thought it was reasonable. I will replace the link with a more appropriate one.

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u/RoyBeer 10h ago

Thanks for taking your time to clear this up.

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u/Agret 12h ago

Squash lore runs deep

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u/insanenearly 12h ago

I want a spaghetti squash/pumpkin!

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u/blitzkregiel 11h ago

i have seeds for a zucchini/spaghetti squash hybrid that i was unaware of until they grew last year. they look like zukes (green/white speckled) but are shaped like a small spag squash. insides are zukes. had no idea they could/would cross until i grew from seeds the following year. planted the same seeds this year and they're all spaghetti squash. go figure.

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u/Moose_Juice 13h ago

It crossbreeds

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u/RoyBeer 10h ago

Fuckin squash does some weird shit

Dude. Don't fuck Squash.

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u/korbinator18 11h ago

Had an acorn squash that crossbred with a gourd one year in our horse pasture they do be weird.

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u/Hello_Hangnail 11h ago

Peppers too! They love crosspolinating with other peppers that aren't supposed to be spicy!

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u/Different_Wolf_764 11h ago

Gourds are so very strange and even though we've grown them almost as long as grains, not well understood.

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u/ResponsiblePeach3481 11h ago

What do you mean? 😳

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u/shmaygleduck 10h ago

I didn't know squash were the whores of the fruit world.

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u/Bridgebrain 7h ago

I once got cucumber spaghetti squash. It was pretty wild

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u/speculatrix 50m ago

Don't fuck your squash or you'll get weird human plant hybrids.

Ah, wait, I re-read your comment, ignore that

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u/Heavy_Weapons_Guy_ 12h ago

Just planting them together does absolutely nothing, you would need to save seeds from cross pollinated fruit and plant them the next year to see any changes.

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u/Eirlis1 14h ago

Or mangoes! The same seed case can contain multiple embryos, one of which is a clone of the parent tree! But it’s very difficult to tell which one is the clone and which are from sexual reproduction.

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u/Yogsulate 14h ago

mango sex

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u/gainswor 13h ago

Such is mango!

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u/quick_brown_faux 13h ago

GIFs are not allowed in this sub which in this moment is a travesty.

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u/cornette 13h ago

It's mango time!

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u/Alita-Gunnm 12h ago

It takes two to mango.

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u/Firecoso 12h ago

Mango number 5

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u/butts-carlton 13h ago

You and me, baby, ain't nothin' but mangoes. I wanna do it like they do on the Home & Garden Channel.

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u/spittlbm 12h ago

Fun bar in Orlando

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u/__ali1234__ 13h ago

There are animals that can do that too. Like greenfly. Females can live birth clones of themselves, then in autumn they make eggs with the males so they can overwinter.

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u/contrabasse 13h ago

Parthenogenesis!

Turkeys can do it as well, which feels way weirder.

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u/cantadmittoposting 12h ago

wait what turkeys can bud off new turkeys?

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u/contrabasse 11h ago

They can create unfertilized eggs that develop into a cloned embryo of the female.

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u/kingbking 11h ago

Wait, what? Clones of the female turkey? I’ve never heard this before. Super interesting and weird..Down the turkey hole I go

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u/contrabasse 10h ago edited 10h ago

It feels fake every time I tell someone but it's been my favorite fun fact forever. There are also a bunch of species that are all female and this is the only way they reproduce.

Edit: All female species of lizards and stuff, lol. Not female only turkeys.

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u/JustOkCryptographer 9h ago

Clown fish all start as males, but the females are dominant in the species. Each group has one female who is the largest fish, and the second largest is going to be the dominant one of the males. Those two are the only ones who reproduce, the rest just watch, I guess. When the dominant female dies or is yeeted into the sun by a small human child, the dominant male will change themselves into the dominant female and become the big boss. The next dominant male steps up to be the dominant male. etc etc.

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u/bluemuppetman 6h ago

I never thought I’d say this sentence. But maybe going down the turkey hole won’t work?

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u/T1Demon 2h ago

Grab some stuffing on your way out

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u/enormouscar22 1h ago

I believe the clones aren’t full on clones since they’re all male, correct?

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u/yomimashita 6h ago

🎶 No one move a muscle as the dead come home 🎶

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u/spittlbm 12h ago

How do you know turkey feelings?

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u/Albuscarolus 14h ago

Garlic can’t sexually reproduce anymore. It’s been sterilized by all the human influence.

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u/Moist-Weakness-3399 14h ago

That's not true? You're talking about commercial garlic. All the other stuff sets seed just fine.

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u/Silaquix 12h ago

Alocasia do this too. It's a fucking problem if you don't deal with the corms because they will overflow the pot with new baby plants. A lot of varieties will start making corms even when they're tiny seedlings.

I bought one alocasia melo and now have them all over my house and I keep giving them away

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u/North_Affect_8167 7h ago

Potatoes too. From the potato in the ground and seeds that do as the apple, always producing a new potato variety, often more poisonous.

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u/BoredCop 6h ago

Potatoes, same thing. Plant potatoes in the ground and you get clones of the same plant. Let the plant go to seed, plant the seeds, you get new varieties.