Apple Trees

                                                                                    

TheGardenLady received this question from Lisa –

 It seems hard to find a staymen apple tree at the local nurseries anymore (DC area) and planting the apple seeds has never worked no matter how many times/ways we’ve tried.  Do you have to plant the whole apple for the seeds to sprout?  Any other ideas on how to get a staymen apple tree to sprout/grow for our yard?  Thanks for any suggestions!

You can start an apple tree from a seed. But to get an excellent fruit tree, nurserymen usually graft the tree to good root stock. Grafting takes a certain expertise that the Garden Lady cannot teach. So you are probably best off buying a tree from one of the numerous fruit tree specialists that are listed on the computer. Local nurseries might night carry all kinds of fruit trees because they have the plants they think will sell to most of the people who are shopping there. And fruit trees are not that popular to plant in small gardens. Deer love the fruit.  Also, fruit trees often have diseases that are too involved to treat for the average home gardener.

But if you are sure that you are willing to take on the job of caring for a fruit tree, one source for trees of all kinds is called Arborday.org. This organization wants people to plant trees, so they seem to have specials prices on trees and even give away some trees free of charge. Their website shows that they are encouraging people to plant Stayman Winesap Trees, so they are selling Stayman Winesap trees.

I don’t know where you live. But Washington State University has a website that lists and talks about different kinds of apples. When you read what they have to say about different heirloom apples, you might purchase a different type of apple tree based on their recommendations. On this website there is a list of excellent nurseries that ship apple trees to you. I checked just one of the nurseries and they had Stayman Winesap for sale. Be sure that you buy an apple tree for the zone you are in and that you have the proper location to plant the apple tree that you want.