[at-l] OT - Trees from seeds?

[rockdancer97 at comcast.net (Arthur Gaudet)]

I've been reading about Johnny Appleseed recently and he didn't sow seeds for
his apple. Btw, the apple variety he distributed was "Rambo" and progeny from
his original trees, circa 1820's are still around. 5 young trees from his
originals were planted at the Rt 2 rest area with his name, just outside of
Leominster, MA where he was born.

In other places also I've come across this non-logical reality that apples don't
grow from apple seeds. To get a true version of the parent you will have to
graft the original or clone it from a single cell. The seeds are going to have a
different genetic structure than the parent, unavoidably. This phenomenon is
what made all of those apple varities possible to start with.

Also in Massachusetts, on the Wilmington/Burlington line is a monument to the
Baldwin apple. It's in carved granite, about 5 feet tall. The apple at the top
is about 9-10 inches in diameter. Loammi Baldwin was responsible for creating
the Middlesex Canal and for recognizing & propagating "his" apple once it was
found on someone else's farm.

If listers know more I'd like to hear, offline is fine. John Chapman, aka
Appleseed, created apple tree nurseries as he moved gradually from Pennsylvania
to Ohio to Indiana. He generally preceded the settlers by a year or two, got his
seedlings growing in cultivated "nurseries" and then distributed the trees to
settlers in order to help them get established. In some areas, according to
references, the settlers needed 50 apple trees in order to establish their land
acquisition. This was in addition to other requirements like bulding a house and
plowing a  required number of acres for cultivation. Chapman died near Fort
Wayne, Indiana.

I'm particularly interested in finding where Chapman had his tree nurseries, and
if any of them are still set aside for visiting. I'm thinking road tour someday.

RockDancer aka Arthur

-----Original Message-----
From: at-l-bounces@backcountry.net [mailto:at-l-bounces@backcountry.net] On
Behalf Of Snodrog5@aol.com
Sent: Tuesday, August 30, 2005 10:45 PM
To: at-l@backcountry.net
Subject: [at-l] OT - Trees from seeds?

Two trees I know are getting well on in years. Both are aged and storm damaged.
They aren't on my land, but I'd like to keep them alive in a way by growing
their children here. I'd like to try to grow seedlings from the apples and
acorns they're still producing. The acorns should be easy, but the apple tree I
want to be sure I get right - the parent tree might not make it through the
winter. Grafting isn't an option, this needs to be done from the apples.
any/all help will be greatly appreciated, thanks, Teej
_______________________________________________
AT-L Mailing List.  Debating the c-ll ph-ne since 1995.

Go here to unsubscribe or change your options:

http://mailman.backcountry.net/mailman/listinfo/at-l