For years my wife and I would harvest the seeds from the plants we grew in our raised beds. It consisted primarily of tomatoes, a variety of cucumbers, bell peppers, peas and of course summer and winter squash varieties...all of which my children enjoyed picking and eating, especially the cherry tomotoes. What we saved in seeds equaled a savings in my wallet each spring and fall.
Over last summer we moved; leaving any seeds that we did have and giving them to friends. After a month and a half of slowly unpacking I told my wife that we need to start saving as many seeds as we can. So in September I have been making it a trend in our home to save the seeds from any fruit or vegetable that we eat.
So far we have a pretty good stash of acorn and butternut squash, garden and roma tomatoes, large, small and "gnarly" pumpkins, gourdes and grapes. We are also saving a few nuts from the Black Walnut and Hickory trees. I also got some marigold and zinnia seeds from a friend at church.
With all the seed saving going on I thought of collecting apple seeds. We love apples. My girls love Red Delicious. My wife Marian enjoys Gala. I enjoy the crisp and tart side of the apple family, and eat Granny Smiths. One day (October 4, 2017) my daughter was eating an apple and she was about to toss the apple core in the compost bin and I stopped her. I cut open the center and extracted the seeds and prepped them (details are below) and tossed them in my beer fridge.
Have you ever put something away only to forget about it? Those apples seeds were just that until yesterday!! Last night while obtaining an adult beverage I noticed something different about the ziplock bag that had the apple seeds in them. THE APPLE SEEDS WERE SPROUTING!!
I already have the three different apple trees in the ground that I planted this fall. With these new sprouts and some nurturing, our orchard will expand. I am so excited and blessed to see this. And I know my girls will absolutely love it.
Step 1. Eat the apple but don't toss the core out just yet.
Step 2. Carefully remove the seeds from the core.
Step 3. Place all the seeds from the apple onto some paper towels (I use 4 sheets).
Step 4. Get a sandwich sized ziplock bag and a permanent marker and write the apple variety type and date it was extracted.
Step 5. Fold the paper towels in halves so that it will fit in a sandwich sized ziplock bag.
Step 6. Fill the ziplock bag with just enough water to saturate the paper towel.
Step 7. Drain and lightly press any excess water out of the ziplock bag.
Step 8. Seal the ziplock bag and place it in the refrigerator.
Step 9. Wait.
It is important to know that each seed will not sprout. Less than 50% will actually sprout. So it is important to get each seed from the apple when doing this.
Because apple trees are not self pollinators, they need to be planted in pairs with different apple variety. (To me, this means I need to hurry up and get other seeds going!!!)
Now that this little guy has sprouted, I will get some compost and moist soil from the garden and fill a pot. Carefully I will remove the sprout and transplant him into the pot. Do not add fertilizer!! Then it will sit in front of the window inside the house.
If this little sprout is successful and I keep doing this, maybe in a few years I can have a nice small little orchard in the back of the farm!! I will keep everyone posted on any updates.
As always, have a great and blessed day and continue to help each other grow in knowledge.
Kenny ~~~Pfeiler Family Farm~~~
