How to Start Crabapple Trees From a Pit

Crab apple trees, with their sprays of white and pink flowers in the spring and colorful fall fruit, add a beautiful accent to any garden. You can propagate these trees a variety of ways, including growing them from pit, or seed. Starting crab apple trees from seeds takes a little knowledge and some simple gardening materials.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Fresh crab apple seeds
• Plastic container and lid
• Soil mixture of 1/2 peat moss and 1/2 sand

Starting Your Crab Apple Tree

1. Select several ripe crab apples and open them with a sharp knife. Remove the seeds from the core of the apple.

2. Break the dormancy of your seeds. Crab apple seeds require a certain amount of cold to germinate properly. The following steps describe two methods of how to break dormancy.

3. Sow your seeds immediately. If you live in areas where temperatures drop below 40 degrees F for from 60 to 120 days, you can plant your seeds directly in the ground in the fall.

4. Stratify your seeds. If you do not live where the temperature is appropriate for direct sowing or wish to plant in the spring, use a technique call stratification. Place your seeds approximately 1 inch deep in a container filled with half peat moss and half sand and refrigerate them for 60 to 120 days.

5. Keep the soil moist but not wet. In either method, keep the soil from drying out to encourage germination. If you have planted outdoors, don't worry about the ground freezing.

6. Sow stratified seeds in the spring. Watch for growth within three weeks of planting.

Tips & Warnings

• You usually propagate crab apple trees from cuttings to ensure they resemble the parent tree. Because seeds are produced by pollination from an unknown source, trees from seeds may not always resemble the parent plant.

References

• Iowa State University