Growing fruit trees from seed, what triggers fruiting?

Submitted by HighRepsToHugeness t3_10obnd3 in askscience

When growing fruit trees from seed (apple, pear, citrus, etc.), there is a wide variation of time when the seedling will mature and grow fruit. Some apple seedlings will produce fruit in a little as 3 years, some 10 years, some many years past 10 years. What causes this difference? Is fruiting genetically determined, size of the tree, size of roots, number of branches, etc? Or is it a combination of many factors?

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Chagrinnish t1_j6ewyo4 wrote

With respect to apples the biggest influence would be the type of rootstock used. As another poster mentioned, commercial apple trees are propogated from small segments of branches (scions) from the desired cultivar which are then grafted onto the roots of another apple tree cultivar (the rootstock). The rootstock of the tree influences the mature size of the tree, and rootstocks selected for dwarfing characteristics generally produce a tree that fruits earlier than a full-size, "standard" tree.

In the plant kingdom in general plants usually don't flower until they start approaching their mature size. In that respect it makes sense that a dwarf tree will fruit earlier in its life than a taller tree.

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No-Dimension9651 t1_j6gqzzg wrote

Apples are done this way because they are not true to seed, meaning you won't get the same type of apple as the parents were. Doesn't really answer the question, but growing an apple by seed could get you one of something like 40,000 different apples, most of which are not good to eat. If not familiar, look up Johnny Appleseed for an interesting story.

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Cluefuljewel t1_j6egwln wrote

Hmmm well in practice fruit trees are propagated from cuttings and thus are clones and are not grown from seeds. Propagation ensures the consistency. Keep in mind that fruit trees are highly altered and manipulated from their wild ancestral form. Many tree varietals found in nurseries cannot be grown from seeds at all. But that’s about as much as I know. Hope this helps and I look forward to more detailed answers. Great question!

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JimmiRustle t1_j6gzba6 wrote

Clones isn’t quite the right word. The grafted branches are clones but the apple’s or at least their seeds are a genetic scramble.

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atomfullerene t1_j6ff1vy wrote

Usually what's going on is that genes determine how a plant will respond to those various other factors. And growing fruit from seed you get a crazy grab bag of genetics.

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