Uploaded August 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Starting 2015, I often will grow various fruits from seeds, you never really ever get seeds that grow true to what you think you are going to get but sometimes you get lucky. I spent a fortune planting over 88 fruit trees purchased from a nursery on my homestead (77 still alive) at pre-pandemic prices of around $40 a tree (now I see the same trees selling for $100 or more). From seeds, I have planted various apples, peaches, plums, cherries, pawpaws and none of them ever turn into being anything edible (yet) because some have never even bloomed. The exception to this is pawpaw trees. Every pawpaw seed I have planted that came up has turned into a productive pawpaw tree, maybe not the variety I planted because they were all hybrids but they do turn into edible fruits so far. You learn a lot by planting fruit trees from seeds and the most important thing is keeping them alive for two years before planting outside. I have found two years is the best controlled growth time period. By the time they are two years old, they are usually large enough to sustain wind and heavy rains, but then the culprit ends up being predators like deer and rabbits and groundhogs or moles/voles. Pawpaw being the exception to predators also as everything leaves them alone due to toxins in the roots and leaves. Another interesting thing about pawpaws is that they grow roots underground for quiet a while forming symbiotic relationships with neighboring plants before they emerge above ground (interesting fact).
So anywho, whenever I see a fruit that I think is interesting, I always try to get some of the mature fruit that falls to the ground in order to get the seeds so I can plant them and see what comes up. You have to wait until the fruit falls because if you pick on the tree they might not have developed seeds yet. What comes up might not be this exact crab apple but it will likely be some sort of crab apple and the long showy spring blooms will hopefully be a trait it keeps. The small to large crab apples it produces I believe would all be larger if the thousands of fruits were thinned and the tree was properly maintained against pests. These crab apples don't look that great but the tree itself was absolutely stunning in its spring flowering, bright red with shades of pink and white blooms that lasted weeks longer than others I saw (I immediately knew it was an apple of some sort, I just wasn't sure if it was a true apple or a crab apple and turns out its a medium to larger crab apple, maybe even a adirondack crab apple variety -- important to know because that one is toxic to dogs, cats, and horses but is super beautiful and showy for a crab apple tree and even an award winner in looks - look it up). Adirondack is really the only crabapple I know of that produces those shades of colors but even if it sprouts and comes up, may not be what I end up with. I reached out to the owner to ask about the tree (didn't know variety, tree came with house when purchased). The owner loves the showy blooms but absolutely hates picking up the fruit. So I asked if I could pick up some of the fruit when they started falling & of course they said absolutely and to help myself, it was less they had to pick up. I told them I didn't need a lot and they said that was fine too, even one less they had to pick up was worth it to them lol
Now there are two other crab apples I have spotted that I plan to do a similar asking once I can meet the owners. One produces a very small pea sized crab apple, not good for eating or canning or anything for humans but great for wildlife, especially birds. It also was uber showy in its blooms and I honestly think it is a profusion variety which is mostly light pink blooms.
The other crab apple I have spotted had all white blooms and its fruit is about quarter to half dollar sized today and solid green so far but man does it have an abundant of fruit and each one is almost an identical clone of the others, very consistent which makes me think its a hybrid of some sort .... this one has me stumped on what variety it could be ... I was thinking maybe the fruit hasn't matured yet and it was a granny smith apple and not a crab apple because granny smith has mostly white blooms with hints of very light pink scattered about but I don't recall seeing any light pink on this tree the entire few weeks it was in bloom. I have planted many sprouts from granny smith fruits and although they sprout easily they are kind of hard to keep alive for some reason (I have 6 growing now in pots but only in their first few months of growth)
One thing I have also done in the past is find fruits that I like, usually apple, and in the fall ask if I can have or buy a few cuttings from the tree. These can be grafted onto another apple tree in late fall or early winter. Grafting sounds complicated but its really very easy and no chance of damaging your full sized tree as long as you graft onto a lower stub branch.
Starting 2015, I often will grow various fruits from seeds, you never really ever get seeds that grow true to what you think you are going to get but sometimes you get lucky. I spent a fortune planting over 88 fruit trees purchased from a nursery on my homestead (77 still alive) at pre-pandemic prices of around $40 a tree (now I see the same trees selling for $100 or more). From seeds, I have planted various apples, peaches, plums, cherries, pawpaws and none of them ever turn into being anything edible (yet) because some have never even bloomed. The exception to this is pawpaw trees. Every pawpaw seed I have planted that came up has turned into a productive pawpaw tree, maybe not the variety I planted because they were all hybrids but they do turn into edible fruits so far. You learn a lot by planting fruit trees from seeds and the most important thing is keeping them alive for two years before planting outside. I have found two years is the best controlled growth time period. By the time they are two years old, they are usually large enough to sustain wind and heavy rains, but then the culprit ends up being predators like deer and rabbits and groundhogs or moles/voles. Pawpaw being the exception to predators also as everything leaves them alone due to toxins in the roots and leaves. Another interesting thing about pawpaws is that they grow roots underground for quiet a while forming symbiotic relationships with neighboring plants before they emerge above ground (interesting fact).
So anywho, whenever I see a fruit that I think is interesting, I always try to get some of the mature fruit that falls to the ground in order to get the seeds so I can plant them and see what comes up. You have to wait until the fruit falls because if you pick on the tree they might not have developed seeds yet. What comes up might not be this exact crab apple but it will likely be some sort of crab apple and the long showy spring blooms will hopefully be a trait it keeps. The small to large crab apples it produces I believe would all be larger if the thousands of fruits were thinned and the tree was properly maintained against pests. These crab apples don't look that great but the tree itself was absolutely stunning in its spring flowering, bright red with shades of pink and white blooms that lasted weeks longer than others I saw (I immediately knew it was an apple of some sort, I just wasn't sure if it was a true apple or a crab apple and turns out its a medium to larger crab apple, maybe even a adirondack crab apple variety -- important to know because that one is toxic to dogs, cats, and horses but is super beautiful and showy for a crab apple tree and even an award winner in looks - look it up). Adirondack is really the only crabapple I know of that produces those shades of colors but even if it sprouts and comes up, may not be what I end up with. I reached out to the owner to ask about the tree (didn't know variety, tree came with house when purchased). The owner loves the showy blooms but absolutely hates picking up the fruit. So I asked if I could pick up some of the fruit when they started falling & of course they said absolutely and to help myself, it was less they had to pick up. I told them I didn't need a lot and they said that was fine too, even one less they had to pick up was worth it to them lol
Now there are two other crab apples I have spotted that I plan to do a similar asking once I can meet the owners. One produces a very small pea sized crab apple, not good for eating or canning or anything for humans but great for wildlife, especially birds. It also was uber showy in its blooms and I honestly think it is a profusion variety which is mostly light pink blooms.
The other crab apple I have spotted had all white blooms and its fruit is about quarter to half dollar sized today and solid green so far but man does it have an abundant of fruit and each one is almost an identical clone of the others, very consistent which makes me think its a hybrid of some sort .... this one has me stumped on what variety it could be ... I was thinking maybe the fruit hasn't matured yet and it was a granny smith apple and not a crab apple because granny smith has mostly white blooms with hints of very light pink scattered about but I don't recall seeing any light pink on this tree the entire few weeks it was in bloom. I have planted many sprouts from granny smith fruits and although they sprout easily they are kind of hard to keep alive for some reason (I have 6 growing now in pots but only in their first few months of growth)
One thing I have also done in the past is find fruits that I like, usually apple, and in the fall ask if I can have or buy a few cuttings from the tree. These can be grafted onto another apple tree in late fall or early winter. Grafting sounds complicated but its really very easy and no chance of damaging your full sized tree as long as you graft onto a lower stub branch.
