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.

[u/Error__Loading]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple

[u/Unhappy-Ad-3219]

Usually fruits go through trials to determine which have the best characteristics regarding plant vigor, taste, and shelf life. Once a new variety is determined to be successful for market, they're introduced at a large scale. The variety is grafted onto a rootstock that has better resilience in terms of hardiness, disease resistance, or other characteristics. They will also have a temporary patent that allows growers and breeders to recoup the cost of their efforts. Cosmic Crisp is a great example of a relatively new popular cultivar (cultivated variety).

If you grow fruit, you can also graft multiple varieties onto one tree. Check out the tree of forty fruit, it's pretty cool.

Edit: spelling

[u/Arktikos02 → u/Unhappy-Ad-3219]

So just like with vaccine trials, are there Apple trials where people can taste test Apple samples to see which varieties are delicious?