In article <z4x_b.590078$JQ1.91493@pd7tw1no>,
"JE Anderson" > wrote:

> > Apples don't grow wild all over the place, they only grow wild where they
> > have been abandoned, any modern fruit must be grafted on a parent stalk to
> > grow,
>
> Where on earth did you get that tidbit? I know of many own-root apple trees
> here in Canada. Grafting is used to increase hardiness in the colder zones
> but as far as I know you can still grow a productive apple tree from a
> seed....

You can grow an apple tree from a seed, but the fruit won't be the same
as the fruit of the parent tree and the odds are that it won't be good
for eating out of hand, although you could get lucky.

Grafting root stock is used to change things such as tree size and
hardiness. Grafting the part that will become the bearing tree is
used--has been since at least Roman times--to make sure your new tree
bears about the same fruit as the old. Almost all apple trees in
production are clones of other apple trees--at least the top part.

And essentially all the apples we eat are the result of millenia of
selective breeding.

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