Grafting

[~Obsidian~]

And consequent seed development.


So grafting is the process of putting together two different types of plant/tree, and getting them to bond and grow as one plant, utilising the characteristics of both trees (e.g. the fruit from one tree and the fast-growing ability of the other). They basically form a symbiotic relationship and live together as one plant.

So if I planted the seeds of a normal store bought apple, what would be likely to develop? A strange hybrid apple tree/a tree that mimics the one the apple tree was grafted on to/or an apple tree? Am I likely to get fruit from this seed or will I be nurturing it for a few years for no reason? :D

[Riz]

i have never grafted before..

you will get fruit on the seeds from the apple eventually but it wont be as the same quality as the mother tree...

[Kirsten]

Hmm I've heard that you take a graft of the good-apple-tasting-tree and then stick it onto a fast growing tree.

Man, I really want an apple tree. :(

[Riz]

cmon kirsten..

how expensive is a 1 year old apple tree these days in the states !?

[Riz]

found this vid.. its quiet intresting about grafting...

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=pOpuAHNdxvk&feature=related

[~Obsidian~]

:jkk: for the video, it was quite interesting.

I find it quite disturbing how common this practice is though, I'm starting to distrust the seeds of any fruit that I buy whereas before I'd chuck it into a pot without any hesitation.

[Kirsten]

cmon kirsten..

how expensive is a 1 year old apple tree these days in the states !?

Well, here's my problem... I've gone back to school so I moved out of my parents' house and I no longer have my own actual piece of yard :( I'm sharing a room with another girl and it's TINY. I ended up bringing my pineapple, my lemon tree, and a pot of swiss chard with me, and that's all. Sadly there's no room for a tree, even if it would be ok with living indoors :(

[Riz]

Well, here's my problem... I've gone back to school so I moved out of my parents' house and I no longer have my own actual piece of yard :( I'm sharing a room with another girl and it's TINY. I ended up bringing my pineapple, my lemon tree, and a pot of swiss chard with me, and that's all. Sadly there's no room for a tree, even if it would be ok with living indoors :(

you can always plant it in your parents garden, i am sure you will be seeing your parents on a regular basis anyway :)

[~Obsidian~]

Well, here's my problem... I've gone back to school so I moved out of my parents' house and I no longer have my own actual piece of yard :( I'm sharing a room with another girl and it's TINY. I ended up bringing my pineapple, my lemon tree, and a pot of swiss chard with me, and that's all. Sadly there's no room for a tree, even if it would be ok with living indoors :(

Well maybe you can just do what Riz said, plant them in your parent's garden. And maybe while you're at school you can start the trees from seed again, you can plant them there when they're too big for the room (however big you decide). You can have your own mini orchard perhaps.

Does anybody in the US sell apple trees that are pot-sized? They fruit at that small size, and I think somebody here grafted two different types of apple onto that one small plant.

[~Obsidian~]

This whole grafting business has taken the fun out of growing fruit trees from seed. There was a peach pit just waiting for me to plant it, but I'm not gonna because after a few years I may just find out that there was no point. Ridiculous :/ :(

[Kirsten]

Oh but I love seeing all the different leaves that pop up from different seeds :)

Re: apple tree - I can't tell you how much I want one, but there's seriously no room for one in my parents' yard, either, and even if we did our Homeowner's Association* wouldn't allow it because they're picky and mean.

*I don't know if you guys have those in London - basically it's a neighborhood government where they decide what you can and can't do with your house and your yard. Essentially they're supposed to make decisions like no, you can't paint your house bright pink, but ours is annoying and makes all sorts of stupid rules and then sends you mail threatening you with lawsuits if you don't follow them. For example, the garden in my parents' backyard is about 6 feet by 10 feet, so pretty small, but we had a (nearly invisible) chicken wire fence around it. Two days later, we got a threatening letter in the mail telling us to get rid of it within 30 days or we'd find ourselves in court. At least one family on the street has gotten so fed up with it that they just sold the house and moved away.

Ugh. In my area (not just my neighborhood, but county laws) it's apparently illegal not to have a lawn in your front yard, or I would dig it up and just plant flowers and vegetables. Also, it's illegal to dry your clothes outside in the sun because it looks bad. Just a couple of the stupid rules we have...

[~Obsidian~]

Boy do they sound like a major pain in the grass! :p Nah I don't think we have them, just the council and they only really bother you when you want to alter the building...and annoying trash rules. But other than that I don't know, I think they're a bigger pain when they own your house.
How do the association know about stuff like your wire fence unless a neighbour lets them know about it? And that sucks.....sundried clothes are the best :(

[Riz]

Re: apple tree - and even if we did our Homeowner's Association* wouldn't allow it because they're picky and mean.

weirrrrd !!!




Ugh. In my area (not just my neighborhood, but county laws) it's apparently illegal not to have a lawn in your front yard

why :confused:

Also, it's illegal to dry your clothes outside in the sun because it looks bad. Just a couple of the stupid rules we have...
wow, i thought america was the home of the free !!

[Kirsten]

How do the association know about stuff like your wire fence unless a neighbour lets them know about it? And that sucks.....sundried clothes are the best :(

Because we have stupid neighbors who spy on people and then happily trudge off to report violators. We'd even caught one of them wandering around our yard. I guess it gives them a sad little sense of power or something.

Re: sundried clothes - I know of people who've built a fence for the sole reason that they can dry their clothes outside without anybody noticing. (I agree, sundried clothes smell amazing!!) And with the cost of energy recently (it went up 18% this summer!!!) people are lobbying to have that idiotic law changed now.

Re: front lawn - because planting vegetables and flowers :confused: looks ugly compared to grass. Of course all the slobs who never mow or water their lawns and have a dried jungle for a front yard are just fine, but you can't put in a well maintained flower garden...

[~Obsidian~]

That sucks :mad: how pathetic!

A thought occurred to me the other day (that's right - hold onto your seats!:p) basically, if there was a food shortage and people decided to start growing their own food and stuff from seed, they'd have some major problems obtaining non-hybrid seeds! Okay sure they could buy them, but I reckon the prices would shoot up, unless you knew someone that was lucky enough to own a naturally grown tree.

Apologies if that doesn't make sense or is just pointless ramble:eek:

It just seems like people are growing trees at a convenient pace at the expense of nature:scene1:

[Te'oma]

I had to comment here...you guys seem to be confusing grafting with hybrid strains. If you graft a golden delicious apple onto a northern spy rootstock, you get an apple that is simply a golden delicious growing from the wood above the graft. The graft stays true to it's genetics ie you don't wind up with a hybrid mix of spy and golden delicious.
A hybrid strain doesn't become evident until the next generation. If a blossom from a golden delicious apple gets pollinated by pollen from a spy, you will have a golden delicious apple but the seeds will produce a genetic mix of golden delicious and spy apple.
All species of fruit are essentially hybrids that keep mixing until a dominant strain emerges that breeds true and can survive well in it's respective climate. The Macintoish apple is an excellent example.
In the 1800's, I believe, a single tree was found in the wild in Ontario by a man that was looking for fruit trees that would grow in northern climates and be a viable crop. Every macintosh apple since then is descended from this single tree which was undoubtedly a hybrid

[~Obsidian~]

Pollen from a spy...?? :eek: What is this, espionage?!?!

I'm kidding, Te'oma, you just made my day!!!:natur014:

[Te'oma]

LOL once you have eaten a pie made with northern spy apples, you won't want to try any other...IMHO they are the best cooking apple on the market.