"Opinicus" > wrote in message >...
> "David Friedman" > wrote
>
> > > 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.
>
> What did Johnny Appleseed spend 49 year of his life doing then?
> http://www.applejuice.org/johnnyappleseed.html
Planting trees almost all of which were used to produce cider apples,
not apples to be eaten out of hand.
I believe there's a fairly detailed account in _The Botany of Desire_