From proper pollination to seed to fruit

When a flower gets properly pollinated, it starts to develop an embryo and the tissues that surround the embryo — what we call a seed. As the seed develops and matures, it gives off hormones to produce the fruit. If you have flowers, but no fruit, the flowers are not being pollinated.

Now that you are harvesting your garden, often you eat a fruit and say, “This is really good. Can I plant the seeds for next year?”

The seed in your fruit is the next generation. It received half of its genetic information from the tree that produced it and the other half comes from the tree that furnished the pollen.

Even if the plant was self-pollinated, recessive traits can emerge, and the seed will produce a slightly different plant. It is still the same type of plant, but it might grow bigger or smaller. It could have different-colored flowers or smaller flowers.

The fruit will also be variable in most cases. Usually, only one out of 10 times the fruit will be good to great. Taste is just one trait that will be variable. The color of the fruit, the size of the fruit and the number of fruits could also be different. The growth habits, including size and resistance to diseases, are also affected.

In other words, it will be a totally different tree than the one from which the seed was taken.

In simple terms, you might look and act only like your mother. You are a mixture of genes from your mother and father. The same theory works for allowing your annual flowers to grow back from seeds.

If you allow your marigolds to grow back from the previous year’s seeds, the flower show will not be as exciting. Some of the plants will have flowers, some tall, some short, Some look great, and some look really bad.

It just will not be showy. Go buy new plants or new seeds each year.

All of our fruit trees and most shade trees are propagated by a method called budding or grafting. In this method, a rootstock plant is produced. The plant is propagated by either seeds or by cuttings.

If a vigorous rootstock is desired, seeds are commonly used. If the rootstock provides a special growing condition for the plant, it must be propagated by cuttings.

Growing conditions provided by rootstocks may include disease resistance or the ability to tolerate soil conditions such as sandy or clay soil. The most common special condition provided by the rootstock is its dwarfing ability. The difference between a standard red delicious apple tree and a dwarf red delicious apple tree is the rootstock.

After the rootstock is growing, a piece of a tree with the desired fruit is placed on the rootstock. This piece is called the scion. The rootstock and scion hopefully grow together to form one plant. This one plant has the benefits provided by the rootstock and the benefits of the scion together in one plant. The actual techniques for budding and grafting are varied.

An apple tree grown from seed might produce a good apple, but usually it produces few hard apples or no apples at all. Occasionally it will produce a good apple. This goes for any other type of fruit. The tree itself usually is a very vigorous, healthy tree, but it could also just as easily be a weak, slow-growing tree.

Collecting seed from your fruit trees can be a great horticultural hobby. If you have the room, you can plant the seeds and see what you get to grow. Just don’t expect a plant to be like the tree from which it came. However, you may discover even a better plant.