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[/*][align=left]The reason I am asking this is because we have a summer cottage that is only used 2 weeks out of the year in August 60 miles north of Montreal: and a few years ago, an apple tree sprouted and started growing just outside the bedroom door.* It grew apple last year: and I ate one:* It is not a crab apple, because the*fruit was tart but sweet and slightly red: not small, green, hard, and bitter: like crab apples are.[/align]
[align=left]Our*cottage is in the middle of nowhere in the middle of a wild forest,*on top of a hill.* No*apple trees that I know of are near us.* I have read how some trees use animals or birds to spread their seed.* Is this how this apple tree got there?* Did some bird eat an apple and fly over and leave their droppings, and the seed sprouted this way?[/align]
[align=left]Or did one of us just happen to eat an apple at that spot years ago, and one of the seeds fell on the ground, and it germinated by itself?[/align]
[align=left]I looked up some web sites on apple seed germination, and the instructions seemed to be very complicated..* Are these special instructions only for domestic apple tree species?* Is the one growing next to out bedroom window a wild apple tree?* Or is it a domestic apple seed? [/align]
[align=left]Anybody know anything about the difference between wild apple trees and domestic apple trees?* [/align]
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wow you are lucky!, Your guess is probably correct, someone ate an apple and threw the core over that direction. Who knows how things like this happen, it is a miracle of creation!
*My question is, does it have adequate room to grow and thrive? is there at least 15 -20 feet around it to grow into a mature tree?
I know if it was mine, ( and I have done this here on my farm) I'd clear enough area around it and start to nurture it and prune it lightly to give it good form for growth and structure.
Perhaps some fertilizer as well?
Nice find there!
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Actually: it is growing right against the house and rubbing against it, I think it it is too old to transplant because it is already more than 5 years old and the roots have spread all over the place and probably under the house also so I don't think I can transplant it.
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You did not answer my question: so I guess you don't know anything about whether wild apple trees berminate without help from humans, and you don't know if birds carry their seeds.
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The entire point is:* It grew there when nobody was there.* Nobody ate an apple there.* Nobody lives in the house.* The house has been empty for 20 years now.* That is why I was curious as to how this tree could have sprouted there.
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Turak,
You added new information in your reply, your original post had no indication of 20 years nobody living there, and in fact said 2 wks/year, adequate time for a human interaction creating an event to grow a tree, so this contradicts.
Yes, animals and brids can carry seeds from one place to another.
No it is not too late to transplant, if you prune the roots in the transplant, prune at least 1/3 of the top when transplanting. well worth the effort for a naturalized tree.
Seeds can be dormant for many years before they sprout. There are seeds deep in the earth that never sprout until something like construction or an act of nature brings them closer to the surface and they sprout.
A small piece of root or a bud from a tree like that can also propagate, A nest building bird could have dragged a twig from some place and a piece fell to the ground and slowly grew.
Root stock is a viable way to spread DNA.
Tree roots go very deep, and can spread very far, there is Aspen parkland in Colorado that has tree root systems that spread 200 miles, making that forest a single organism.
There could be innumerable reasons,* remember it is nature and we dont have control on every single aspect of its doing. We can only predict what it will do based on previous experiences of what it does if we do something, action/reaction.
You asked a question, and hypothetically gave an answer to your question in the same post, I replied that you could possibly be right. How can anyone actually know what took place there? I'd just be thankful that you have a different species available to you for free, with no effort on your part.
I took over this home property last fall that has only about 5 or 6 species of tree here, and have to buy my stock to give some variety here, many thousands of dollars and much labor will go into this project. A single volunteeer like that is worth a days work to me..
And for the record, I'm a qualified arborist (retired) with over 30 years experiences with trees.
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[align=left]Wow: that many ways, eh?* Hmmmm.* You mean an apple seed from a core eaten 20** or 10 years ago... can lie dormant and still sprout after all that time?[/align]
[align=left]I saw a documentary on PBS years ago... obout biodiversity in*seed stock: and most domesticated seeds will not last longer than a year or two.* There are*a few*cryogenic seed banks that can keep them longer than that...* I thought after 2 years: a domesticated seed that has not sprouted yet, will never sprout.* Seed banks I saw on the documentary:*send their seeds to ordinary gardeners to re-seed and re-grow the varieties and send back seedlings to the seed banks because of this.[/align]
[align=left]I just wondered why this apple tree decided to start growing right next to he house...* when nobody lives there.* It is a sign of new life.* Hmmm.** Life energy work in so many ways...* Thank you for the information.[/align]
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I have a friend that is using tomato seed his now deceased father grew 10 years earlier, he just found it while cleaning up with his mom...
*Germination rates may not be as good as one would like, but there is a percentage that still grows.
Here is a short article on seed longevity.
http://4e.plantphys.net/article.php?ch=t&id=9
My reasonable understanding is that as soon as man starts messing with God's work, everything will go to hell. GMO and all these morons that think they know more than Nature, that try to command nature to do something are just asking for a whiplash.
We are all going to have to survive what the GMO idiots are doing to our planet, and I figure that if I have heritage, open polinated seed, and let nature do its thing, and just try to give it the best conditions I can, and grow soil, mulch like crazy, I will be thankful that it will produce whatever it does. Nature and God are a lot smarter than I am. All I can do is cause something and watch it's effect, and try to learn from it that way, rather than dictate to it what it is going to do.
and listen to this, you might enjoy it
http://db.georgegordon.com/view_prog.php?prog=225
Good luck with your tree..
Cheers..
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[align=left]We are on the same wavelength.[/align]
[align=left]EXACTLY. *This is the exact same conclusion the PBS documentary on seed banks and the creation of seed banks came to.* The 1st seed bank was created in Moscow Russia in the beginning of the 20th century; because one professor* realized that mass produced seeds were destroying*the biodiversity of domesticared plants all over the earth.* Farmers were letting their local varities of seeds go EXTINCT and buying common genetically altered seeds that were sold to them by corporations and governments.* The professor who began the 1st seed bank traveled all over the world... trying to save seeds and species of domesticated plants that were going extinct because they were not being replanted by man.[/align]
[align=left]What happened then was a drama you should watch.* If you can find the PBS documentary shown 10-15 years ago that I saw...* Moscow suffered a famine...* The professor died from starvation.* He refused to eat one seed of any grain or plant that could have saved his life.* He died for his seeds.* As a result. Many of the species that would have otherwise gone extinct were saved...* The documentary is a spellbinding pile of information about plant biodiversity and what modern mass 'GMO'? seeds* as you call it, is destroying natural varities of domestic seeds that are designed to thrive in their special environment and soil.[/align]
[align=left]I am in the process of designing a self-sufficient cabin that includes a garden, that does not need anything from the outside worlds except clothing, and tools because I see what is gong to happen, and I want people to be prepared when the corporate tits we are sucking on suddenly go dry and bankrupt: just as they are bankrupting the soil: they are bankrupting human society also.[/align]
[align=left]Malasia, or Cambodia, I can't remember:* In the 1970's suffered a famine when the GMO rice crop was hit by a blight that destroyed the entire nation's rice plants.* Scientists went to the world seed bank to find a cure for the blight hitting the rice seeds.* There were 30,000 varieties of rice seeds they had in their seed banks.* Out of all the varieties of rice seeds: they found only ONE seed that was resistant to the blight.* That one variety saved millions of humans from starving to death the nexrt year...[/align]
[align=left]What if there had NOT been that one variety, eh?* What if this one ignored varietal genetic strain of rice seed had been let go extinct?* Then what wold have happened?* Then there would have been no cure for the blight, and the blight would have spread across Asia and created worldwide famine.[/align]
[align=left]This is how close we are to worldwide disaster.* That is how close we came to it in the 1970's.* Every single variety of domestic plant that is allowed to go extinct: could be the one seed that has the needed resistant or properties to save us from mass starvation.* When all the world plants only ONE variety of tomato, and only ONE variety of wheat, and only ONE variety of rice: that is a recipe*for worldwide*DISASTER, just like the potato famine of Ireland.[/align]
[align=left]They were sold a new revolutionary genetically altered rice seed that raised the annual yield by over 30%.* The governemt forced farmers to grow it.* The nation became self-sufficient and stopped being a rice importer for the 1st time in its history.* This is the kind of short-range lunacy that seeds sold by big agribusiness creates.* This is the lunacy that science has done to agriculture[/align]
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