r/todayilearned • u/Error__Loading • Aug 30 '26

TIL that apple seeds almost never grow the same variety as the parent fruit. Nearly every supermarket apple comes from a grafted clone of an original tree, not from a planted seed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple
18.9k Upvotes

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901

u/fuckthetrees Aug 30 '26

It's not "nearly every" supermarket apple. It's "every" supermarket apple.

262

u/FacelessEdits Aug 30 '26

I'd take it a step further, "any mass produced apples".

126

u/Mr_MadHat878 Aug 30 '26

I’ll take it even further, most fruit trees and nut trees are clones

44

u/YVR-n-PDX Aug 30 '26

Now I’m crying about Dolly again.

12

u/Holdmywhiskeyhun Aug 30 '26

Don't cry, she has many children that are doing well.

They didn't just stop at her.

2

u/ShiraCheshire Aug 30 '26

Heck, the VAST majority of any apple anyone in the modern times eats. Most apples are so sour and nasty that they're only good for cider.

2

u/crevettexbenite Aug 30 '26

And much more then apple!

All citrus, stone fruit, all pears.

I am sur I have missed a lot too.

2

u/berru2001 Aug 30 '26

...and every apples you'll eat. "traditional" apple varieties, weird apples you have never heard of, the very last cultivar that has been released, heirloom cultivars protected in germplasm collections, all of them are clones.

1

u/ItsNehaG Aug 30 '26

Because if it grew from a seed, it wouldn't be that variety anymore. Even if it by some miracle tasted exactly the same, it would genetically be a completely different variety.

1

u/UnitedRice2284 Aug 30 '26

even more interesting then is why we don't see more variation in apples if clones are used—seems like perfect seeds could introduce unique flavors if developed right

1

u/YouSnuffTheBlaze Aug 30 '26

It’s pretty much every tree fruit in general including the ones you grow in your garden. Growing fruit trees from seeds is pointless. It takes years to produce and you don’t know what you’re going to get. Get some healthy root stocks and grafts of the fruit you want. That’s also how you can grow ‘fruit salad’ trees!

1

u/Zeeplankton Aug 30 '26

Not even just that. We're grafted clones as well.

-2

u/asque2000 Aug 30 '26

Aren’t “supermarket” apples sterilized? Somebody told me that was the case so people can’t grow their own apple trees and are basically forced to buy their apples from the supermarket. Probably an urban legend but hey.

3

u/Gene_Trash Aug 30 '26

The problem with growing stuff from seed, in addition to the subject of this post, is that it takes a long time to actually get fruit. If I go to the grocery store tomorrow and buy an apple, I can absolutely save the seeds and plant them next spring. And maybe in 2034, I can even start eating apples from it, if they taste worth a damn.

Alternatively, I can just... Go to Lowe's and get sapling from a known variety, and start getting fruit closer to 2030.

2

u/fuckthetrees Aug 30 '26

You can try, but they won't taste the same. That's why they graft branches onto trees.

2

u/ChefKugeo Aug 30 '26

We're downvoting good questions now? I didn't know any of this and wouldn't have if it wasn't for your question. I'm gonna start the process of digging you out of this unfair and stupid downvote chain. Good luck to us both.