Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Ever tried growing your own fruit tree from seed? It’s fun, free, and a great activity for kids. We highly recommend that you give it a go!



Related Articles

Growing rootstocks for grafting is actually the main reason for saving the seed from the fruit you eat.

Seed-saving is one of the interesting things we do here at the farm for our nursery business, called Carr’s Organic Fruit Tree Nursery.

Growing rootstocks is the first step of creating your own fruit tree for free as we explain in this blog about fruit tree grafting.

Pear seed ready to be planted to grow rootstock trees
Pear seed ready to be planted to grow rootstock trees

Which trees will grow from seed?

Peaches, nectarines, apples, pears, and quinces will all grow easily from seed. Even apricots will often sprout. We usually grow our own peach, plum, pear, and quince rootstocks in the nursery this way.

Unfortunately cherry seeds hardly ever sprout. Neither do plum seeds, so plum trees are best grown from cuttings rather than seed.

If you’re not sure whether a seed will sprout, just try it—you’ll soon learn if it works or not.

We’re lucky enough to be able to source plenty of seed direct from the farm. This is just as well because we kind of need industrial quantities.

In recent years we’ve been hosting the Growing Abundance juice press (which in turn is on long-term loan from the generous folk at The Little Red Apple in Harcourt). Our orchard lessees have used it to juice their apple and pear seconds at the end of the season.

Ant pressing apples for juice
Ant pressing apples for juice

Being able to juice apples and pears grown here on the farm (in those years when there’s a good enough harvest) yields enough delicious organic apple juice to share around. The seed is really just a by-product.

When Ant was looking after the orchard, he even made enough juice to turn into cider. Cider is a step further than juice-making but definitely one of those forgotten skills that’s worth reviving.

If you’d like to have a go at making your own check out the Apple Fermentation Masterclass to get started.

Lots of lovely apple juice
Lots of lovely apple juice

If you’re just growing rootstocks for yourself at home, you don’t need to go to these lengths of course. Saving the seed from a single apple may be enough.

Why seedling trees need grafting

Growing trees from seed means they don’t grow “true to type”. This means that the apples the tree grows won’t be the same as the apple the seed came from.

This is because the fruit they’re growing from was usually pollinised by a different variety. The seed is a genetic mix of both its parents (just like people!).

So you can’t grow a Pink Lady tree from a Pink Lady apple seed. But you can still use the seed to grow a tree which is called a seedling, or a rootstock.

This can then be used as a base to graft known fruit varieties onto.

Apple pulp and seeds - a by-product of the juicing process
Apple pulp and seeds – a by-product of the juicing process

When should you plant the seed?

Growing rootstocks for grafting involves a few small jobs at different times of year – just like all gardening really.

There’s a full grafting calendar in our Grow Your Own Fruit Trees for Free course, but here are a few seasonal jobs:

  • Late summer – gather peach and nectarine seeds, store them in damp sand
  • Autumn – gather seed from apples and pears, store in damp sand
  • Winter – gather scion wood from varieties you want to use for grafting in spring and store it correctly to keep it in good condition.
  • Winter – gather plum cuttings and store them in damp sand
  • Spring – plant seeds and cuttings in a pot or the ground
A box of sand for storing seed to grow rootstock trees
A box of sand for storing seed to grow rootstock trees

Does it sound complicated? It’s really not.

Grafting is an ancient method of preserving heritage fruit varieties that has been practised for hundreds of years, and continues to be passed from fruitgrower to fruitgrower today.

Newly emerged apple seedling that will be used as a rootstock for grafting when it's big enough
Newly emerged apple seedling that will be used as a rootstock for grafting when it’s big enough

We think teaching people how to grow their own fruit trees from scratch is one of the most important skills we teach (through our grafting courses).

If you can grow your own fruit trees, you’ve got true fruit security.

Related Articles

Get our FREE ebook – 10 Key Steps to Growing Great Fruit

This useful ebook will give you answers to all the topics you need to know, from pests to pruning, and it’s completely free!

You'll soon be enjoying abundant harvests.

When you download the ebook, you'll also get our free Weekly Fruit Tips newsletter to help you stay on track with the little jobs that keep your trees healthy and fruitful.

Just hit "Get my ebook!" to download your free copy.

You have Successfully Subscribed!