They’re tough as nails and need very little care once they get established. We plant them by throwing seeds in the general area we’d like to have some.
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I planted apple seeds as well as two-year-old trees from a nursery last year, and I’ve been finding that my apple seedlings are more drought tolerant and resilient. Fully half of the trees from the nursery died (25% during the winter, 25% during the summer); about half of the seeds sprouted, and 90% of the ones that did survived, even though I watered them way, way, way less often.
My suspicion is that the half that didn’t sprout aren’t dead, they just went into the ground too late to be fully stratified (some of them went into the ground in January, for example). Those will probably sprout next spring instead, and I suspect they will mostly be just as drought tolerant.
I am developing a very strong preference for growing apple trees from seed, just by watching how resilient those beautiful seedlings are. I still want some clones because I want fruit sooner, but I think I may be done with rootstocks from now on.
I am very, very tired of seeing the top of a grafted apple tree die and then seeing the rootstock start suckers from the bottom to replace it. I wouldn’t mind at all if it was the same cultivar, but it’s not, and I have never chosen M111 to be a parent in my population. I just keep on getting it shoved at me by default.
So I figure next year, I’ll buy scionwood of a few varieties I really want in spring, soak them in willow water for a day or two, dig them deep down into the soil so that there are only one or two buds aboveground (which I may coat in Elmer’s glue to keep in their moisture), and then baby them a bit by making sure they get water every few days for a little while. Some will probably still not root, but others may, and then I won’t have to deal with unwanted suckering from a rootstock.
Apples are supposed to be “impossible” to root from cuttings, by the way, but it’s absurd to believe that’s universally true, given that the M111 rootstock is an apple that starts easily from cuttings. My suspicion is there are probably a lot of cultivars that can start easily from cuttings; it’s just that people rarely try and find out. (Any cultivar that is prone to burr knot, which is aerial roots, would probably be very easy to air layer, ground layer, or root from cuttings, for example.)
As for suckers, those are welcome from trees on their own roots. If it’s a sucker of a delicious cultivar, great! I’ll happily take that plant’s suggestion to clone it, either by leaving the sucker alone to grow into a new tree in that spot, or by digging it up to move it elsewhere, or by giving it away to somebody else.
As an added benefit, if most of the clones that survive to be parents to seedlings in my yard have been started from cuttings, it’s likely a lot of the seedlings will inherit the ability to do that as well, which would make it way easier to make clones to share.
I’ve decided I don’t want to add germplasm I don’t want to my system. No more standard cloned rootstocks. I’m tired of those.
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I sowed 200 seed of sweet chestnut the other day for winter stratification. Got the seed from a steward of a chestnut conservatory in the Roya valley between Italy and France. Trees were a mix of unknown named varieties, some of them very old, other spontaneous hybrids - the whole chestnut forest grows pretty wild. They use the nuts esp. for purée. Chestnuts do not easily grow in my climate of Northern Europe, but increasingly they do. I would love one day to do a mass selection with a couple of thousands seed to look for hyper precocious plants. I think of this little planting as a test and a chance for me to get to know the species.
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Hyperprecocity is a very desirable trait! I planted about two hundreds peach pits from my next-door neighbor’s last year, and I pulled out all the small ones, leaving only the most vigorous ones that are now two feet tall. I’m hoping to keep all the ones that start fruiting the soonest (and have fruit that tastes good, obviously).
I’m loosely thinking that after 75% of them have started fruiting, I’ll pull out the ones that haven’t started yet. It won’t be selecting for hyperprecocity (because drought tolerance matters to me more), but that may help to at least select against trees that take a long time to start bearing.
And obviously I can favor hyperprecocity by planting more of those trees’ seeds than the ones that take a year longer. 
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I would probably assume the opposite could be true: Some precocious trees also tend to have dwarfed growth, ie. grow slowly. Other fruit trees tend to set fruit when they reach a certain height and then speed of growth obviously matters. I hear hyperprecocity is not your main priority and drought tolerance matters more to you, so it doesn’t really change that much 
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I transplanted about 70 fruit and nut trees into my field last week: Pistachio, pecan, oak, several species of plum, mulberry, elderberry, cotoneaster, grape, sweet cherry, and a couple from an unknown species (paw paw?) They were mostly 2 year old seed grown plants. I expect that the pecans might winter-kill. Perhaps it will be too moist in my field for the pistachios, they don’t like being transplanted.
A couple days ago, I planted a bunch of peach pits, super close together. I expect to select for winter-hardiness, precocious flowering, and vigor…
I planted seeds for the second generation from my apricot breeding project. I could have planted those a few years ago, but things happen, and life continues, whether or not I am present, the trees grow.
Plum and mulberry
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I had success air layering 2 out of 4 attempts on my Mcintosh this year, but if you need drought tolerance, you would probably benefit from the tap root on a seedling. I like that these air layered plants can go down as far as i can dig. Root stock really is kind of annoying.
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Plant seedlings when the soil is deeply moist. Fill the planting hole with water and let it soak. Repeat two or three times. If the seedlings can follow the moisture with their roots as the water table goes down, they should be ok. But if there’s dry soil underneath, there won’t be anywhere for roots to go. A lot of people make the mistake of planting into dry soil, then top-watering often to try to compensate. This only allows for a shallow root system and a weak plant.
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That makes sense. So, dig a deep hole, water the hole, and only then plant the tree, put the soil back, and water the top. Right? That seems like a good way to make sure the plant has good moisture beneath it.
Oh, cool, that’s useful to know! So small seedlings may be worthwhile to keep around, just in case they start fruiting sooner. Nifty.
I’ve been thinking seedlings that get taller tend to be a sign of better drought tolerance, in my climate – drought consistently stunts plants, so if they’re getting taller on the same amount of water, they’ve probably got deeper root systems and are using the water more effectively. Is that a good assumption to make, or may I be missing something I would want factor in?
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If you have problems growing some plants because of environmental stress like drought, selecting for vigorous growth sounds like a good idea. It might be because the root system is deep or it might be because the root system is shallow (and thus can take up the first water that falls on the soil). Some drought resistant wheat types are known to have shallow root systems. When I learned this, I had thought the opposite was the case - quite contra-intuitive.
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Yes. Basically, you want an uninterrupted water column going down. Roots will not venture far into soil that is dry. They can follow water down, though, as long as they can maintain contact.
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Shallow root systems for drought tolerance seems odd, but it puts me in mind of bearded irises – those roots are very shallow indeed, but they can handle a ton of drought. Their strategy seems to be growing very, very thick rhizomes that sit on top of the soil. Maybe shallow-rooted crops that are drought tolerant follow a similar strategy, growing roots that are extra thick to store water (as well as high up in order to collect any sprinkles of rain that may not percolate into the soil much).
I believe fig trees are shallow-rooted. Someone correct me if I’m wrong. I know they’re infamous for being terrible to house foundations, and that seems to be a pattern with shallow-rooted drought tolerant trees. Their strategy seems to be spreading widely.
Personally, I find that to be a reasonable approach to drought tolerance, but I prefer deep roots over shallow spreading roots, for two reasons:
- Small growing space, so I want to cram as many plants in as possible.
- Very little rainfall, BUT a high water table, because I live across the street from a river. If my fruit trees can grow deep enough roots, they can reach the water table, and thus be able to take care of themselves. That would be awesome.
I figure selecting for the type of root system I prefer will be fairly simple: all I have to do is water the plants in the way I find most convenient anyway: very infrequently, with a whole bunch of water all at once.
If a plant’s strategy is to capture light sprinkles of rain, it probably won’t do too great. If a plant’s strategy is to seek for deep water, it’ll probably thrive. If a plant is adaptable and okay with doing either, it will probably learn to grow the way I prefer (and, who knows – maybe even flip an epigenetic switch to nudge their offspring to grow deeper roots from the start!).
But, you know, ultimately, it doesn’t really matter all that much if a species insists on shallow roots for its drought tolerance, just as long as it behaves well in a polyculture, doesn’t damage my house, and gives me lots of tasty food. I think deep roots are a much better strategy in my particular yard, but if they insist on doing things their own way and make us both happy, I am not going to argue.
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In some places that get little rain, the soil moisture never goes deep, so deep roots would be a useless waste of energy for plants that grow there.
That makes sense! That would be a good reason for shallow, spreading roots as a survival mechanism.
Is anyone working with peaches? I got a hold of a bunch of peach seeds from the nearest peach orchard but after a long and expensive thought process, I’ve decided not to plant them. Due to the level of diversity available I realized I should be working with plums instead.
@Joseph_Lofthouse do you want? Anyone else? It’s a bunch of seeds.
This fall I planted a plum orchard, and a bunch of peach pits. The plums were 2 year old seedlings.
From my perspective, the diversity of plums is much greater than that of peaches, because I have access to a bunch of very old plums of various species, but only industrialized peaches.
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I had fruit good set on a volunteer peach tree this year. I “think” the mother tree was one that came up volunteer a few years ago itself and appears true to type from one of my wild trees. I have a lot of peach trees so no clue where the pollen might have come from.
Anyway, the fruits were bright red and smooth, no fuzz at all. They started to turn a bit yellow, so I tasted one and it was sweet and a bit sour, really good but hard as a rock. I thought I would let them ripen up a bit more. The next day squirrels came and took every single one.
What do you know about the parent trees? Were the fruits freestone or clingstone? Smooth skin (a.k.a. nectarines) or fuzzy? Do you know the growth habits of their trees? Do you know how often the orchard was watering them?
I wouldn’t personally be very excited about peaches from a commercial orchard unless I knew the trees were either 1) unusual and particularly tasty varieties, and/or 2) specially bred for some traits I particularly value, such as drought tolerance.
I planted a whole bunch of peach pits from my next-door neighbor’s tree. She offered them to me last year, so I figured, “Why not?” I have about 20 baby peach trees now; since the pits almost all germinated, I decided I’d just keep the ones that were in the most convenient spaces for me. They’re freestone, the peaches are tasty, and the mother tree must be drought tolerant because it’s been doing great for the past five years when nobody’s been watering it. (Our summers are very hot and arid.)
@MarkReed, I’m sorry to hear the squirrels came and took all those fruits! I imagine you were disappointed.
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I settled on plums by accident because there are so many plum species available, including some already adapted to North America. I think I have a few species of wild American plums, a French plum, beach plum hybrids, pluots (if I can find where I put them), and cherry plum hybrids. Many from Oikos tree crops, some from grocery store, some from online sellers.
I think I’m one of the few here who is not intimidated by patents. Hopefully I could get an American adapted plum to pollinate the pluot seedlings. No idea what might happen though, this is a very new idea for me. First step is getting the seeds to sprout.