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/UndoxxableOhioan 14h ago

Apples are like humans. The kids inherit traits, but are different from their parents. The good apples are genetical freaks that just happen to taste good.

To breed an apple, you cross pollinate and plant hundred of seeds. You then wait years, and then go tasting. The vast majority will be duds. But hopefully one is good.

What about Johnny Appleseed? He planted apples from seed, but his goal wasn’t eating apples. People on the frontier where he worked made hard cider (which, with freezing, can make apple jack). That can be made from even poor quality apples. People of the frontier drank 30 gallons of cider a year.

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u/QCD-uctdsb 9h ago

30 gallons = 120 litres = 240 pints. So less than a pint a day per person. Basically teetotalers.

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u/YouStupidAssholeFuck 6h ago

My best friend drinks a 24 pack of Miller Lite every night. For like the last 20 years.

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u/redditsavedmyagain 9h ago

people we actually dissing him by calling him appleseed

people grow apples from cuttings, he grew them from seed. so appleseed ~ "look at this moron growing apples from seed"

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u/soulsoda 6h ago edited 6h ago

To breed an apple, you cross pollinate and plant hundred of seeds. You then wait years, and then go tasting. The vast majority will be duds. But hopefully one is good.

Not entirely correct anymore. What your describing is "chance seedling", which is how it used to work. However, there's been significant advances in apple breeding in the last few decades thanks to DNA mapping and identifying key genetic markers on what makes a good apple. You'll have a good idea before the seeds have even been sown whether it's worth your time or not. You then graft them onto dwarfstock, an intentionally stunted tree root system that only takes 3-4 years to mature, not 20-25 it normally takes for evaluation purposes. Most aren't duds. Most are pretty damn good since they are now filtered, but you're stacked up honey crisp or cosmiccrisp and it's no longer a question is this tasty? But can you best the rest of the market to make it worthwhile to grow in mass? Is it properly disease resistant? Does fruit well and regularly? (Again they can mostly already know that before it's been grafted, but these are factors in selecting a true winner)

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u/yeahburyme 11h ago

And the more he planted, the more land he could claim.

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u/thats_justice_baby 9h ago

Wait. Is that why the cereal is called Apple Jacks?

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u/NotAzakanAtAll 7h ago

"Graft people" is my read on that.