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Edible fruit from seed?

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by Permadude on December 20, 2005 02:41 AM
I've read recently that fruit grown from seed is not often good to eat, at least not as good as the fruit it came from. I have some bosch pear seeds that came from some outstanding fruit. If I invest a lot of time in growing them, will I have good tasting fruit?

Any tips on growing them from seed in container (since I currently rent and will not have a permanent location to plant for a good minute) will also be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Allan
by Thornius on December 20, 2005 06:46 AM
I have planted Bell Peppers, Tomatoes, Cayenne Peppers and Jalapeno Peppers from seed I got from vegetables I bought the previous Fall at the grocery store. Not only did I get good plants but I got excellent vegetables on those plants.

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A bird in the hand......can sometimes be a mess.
by peppereater on December 20, 2005 07:05 AM
Some pear seed only produces a wild, very thorny tree that makes marble sized fruit. This is because many fruit trees are grafts onto wild type roots, and they revert to their wild nature when grown from seed. You may notice suckers from below the graft on some pears...these suckers are thorny and won't produce good fruit, either.
by treegrower1 on January 02, 2006 09:55 AM
peppereater is right.A pear tree has to be grafted.So does apple trees.If you plant the seed from a apple or pear it will only come back as a seedling.Which it could then be grafted but it would be easier to just go ahead and buy one already a grafted tree.[whichever variety you wanted]
by DeepCreekLake on January 11, 2006 09:10 AM
Fruit grown from seeds can grow into an edible tree, but generally grow into something undesirable and can take a very long time to bear fruit, more than double that of a grafted tree. Many fruits that are crossbred, such as apple and pear, will revert to one of its parents breed,and not come out cross bred. Also the tree characteristics, can be undesirable which is why many fruit are grafted to some form of rootstock to make it dwarf, semi dwarf etc,.
by papito on January 11, 2006 09:52 AM
Most pears are propagated by budding, some are grafted to limit the pear tree's size [dwarf, semi-dwarf] as DeepCreekLake stated.

You might want to consider starting with bare-root pear tree [instead of seedlings from seeds]. The tree can be planted after the last hard frost of spring.

Soil, well drained loam, pH range 5.5 to 6.5.
Dwarf trees bear by 5th year; Standard at 8 years. However, there are some varieties that bear 2 years earlier. Life span is over 60 years.

I have 4 asian pears planted in half wine barrels and 2 bartlett pears in 17" plastic containers. The trees are over 13 y.o. and doing quite well.

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Amor est vitae essentia.
Love is the essence of life.
by Permadude on January 13, 2006 06:29 AM
So is it possible to get good fruit from seed? what if they were sprouted and then grafted onto other rootstock? Or is all good fruit just a cutting from an existing orchard tree that is grafted on a seedling grown to be rootstock?
by DeepCreekLake on January 13, 2006 09:11 AM
Most fruit trees you buy are made by taking a cutting (a scion branch) and grafting it to a rootstock, (quince are popular for pears).Alot of times when you go to a Nursery and buy a fruit tree you will see a number next to the cultivar, such as OHF, M117 etc. That is the rootstock it has been grafted to. Some fruit are chance seedlings, the Seckel pear is believed to be an example- they are also naturally Semi Dwarf. It believed that the seed was planted by German immagrants many years ago. It probably depends on what kind of fruit seed your are planting. It would more than likely be edible but if the fruits grandparent was something bitter tasting, or some other undesirable trait, you could end up with that.

An example to help understand what I am saying could be like this. Say you plant a Pink Lady apple seed. A pink lady is a cross breed of a Willams apple, and a Gold Delicous. The resulting tree that grows from that seed, could be just a Williams Apple, or just a Golden Delicous Apple tree.

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