@Chunky they were cold stratified in cococoir in the baggies they came in for 6 weeks after soaking them overnight. I then planted in potting soil mix on a heat mat once they pop I’ll pull them off the heat. Once they grow a little I’ll transplant into 4x4x4 cardboard pots. Then up pot to 3 gallon for the year. Will graft to dwarf rootstock next spring and plant in the ground
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Id like to cross AC Harrow Sweet pear with Seckel Pear. Stress out 100 seedlings and keep 10 of them, then graft them to Bradford pear seedlings at my daughter’s park. Worst case scenario the pears arent good, but the deer will still win.
I cold stratified some cosmic crisp apple seeds I collected at the same time as the Skillcult seeds. The cosmic crisp seeds had very high germination by 5 weeks. Got pulled out of the fridge at 6 weeks, forgotten in the garage for a week and then finally planted and now growing very happily two weeks later. A pity the pollen parent is probably a disappointing crab.
None of the Skillcult seeds have germinated yet.
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I feel like I’m behind now. I haven’t pulled anything out of the fridge yet. This weekend should offer a good opportunity to spray my trees so maybe seeds are a good after activity.
I noticed a tail coming out of a solitary open pollinated claygate pearmain yesterday which had been in the fridge since late November. This feels like a timely reminder to be patient. There’s 3x skillcult seeds which have cracked open a little but that’s it. They were received and soaked January 21st.
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He says, with a selection of cracking seeds. The 3 groups of 10 all have 1-3 opening up. I’ve taken the tubs out of the fridge and sat them above an LED strip heatsink on the propagation rack.
They are mdv x cherub, Hella kitty x pink parfait and sugarwood x Jellybean cider.
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Very exciting.
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I had 3 sprouting as of today: 2 vanilla pink x williams pride and 1 black strawberry x Sunrise. A few of my own crosses have died (wet feet, I’m afraid), so I’ve purchased some better seed starting soil to give these a better chance. 
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How big were your seedling when they died?
I’m not sure they’re completely dead, but they have yellowed and stopped growing. (See comparison seedling that sprouted later but is now bigger and the amount of green I expect in a healthy apple babe). I’ve considered transplanting to better soil, but transplant shock might kill it off entirely. For now I have a fan in the grow tent for more air circulation.
Seems the pinker lady crosses may be more tender compared to my others.
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That’s what all ten of my current seedlings look like… I’m going to switch to a more straightforward potting mix for the next ones. The mustard greens liked it… but maybe the ph is a bit off and there’s lockout going on.
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If they are still growing they might be okay, but given my yellowish ones have stopped putting out new leaves, I think they might be on their way out. Will see if drying their soil out a bit is helpful at all.
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I’m a novice at growing apples from seeds. Do you stratify for 6 weeks then bring to normal temp for germination or leave the seeds in the refrigerator until germination occurs. I got mine 2/18, soaked for 24 hours then put into the refrigerator.
I usually leave the seeds in the refrigerator until the white radicle begins to emerge. Most will germinate if planted earlier, but keeping them in cold stratification until the radicle appears helps ensure dormancy has been fully broken, since six weeks may not be sufficient for all seeds.
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I also tend to leave in the fridge until at least one from the specific cross has germinated. Then I keep them at room temp and plant them in pots as they sprout.
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Aye, the open pollinated claygate pearmain I had in the fridge since Nov all sprouted in short order in the last few days of being in a warm place. They had not shown any indications of doing so until now and hadn’t been dried or soaked before going in the fridge.
Less eagerly so for the skillcult ones that had 5 weeks or so since being soaked but some are doing it.
I just potted a tray up after spending some time today sieving some store bought potting mix (John innes #1 and jacks magic) together with crushed biochar fines and a bit of my own potting megamix. Hopefully this will have better results.
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I had some Wickson x Cherry Cox seedlings that the voles girdled. I was able to save scion wood from them, and check out the callusing. Looks like they might form roots easily.
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The ones you sent me did that too. Didn’t consider rooting them, but would be interesting if that worked!
I sent a photo to Steven. He said he sees it quite a bit in scions stored for a long time, but rarely sees actual root development. I did harvest those in the fall, so it may just be a result of time in storage and not a trait of the cross. I probably won’t try to root them, just graft to some B9 and see what the fruit is like.
Ah, thanks for the intel. I grafted mine to B9, so hopefully they take well to that!