Malus, from seed (2025) [1]

[stav121]

So, around November of 2024 I went on a trip to the Netherlands and started picking up random crab-apples from street trees which I liked and planted them up on individual pots right after I came back from the trip. Around the end of January (2025) I had about 4 that sprouted, one of them ended up dying form the heat during June, and the rest keep growing.

This thread is about the one that I have documented pretty much from its first week. Here it is after it sprouted:



And here it is around 1 month later in late February:


At this point it was living inside and I was planning on acclimating to the outside, the problem is that outside it was too windy and the tree was too tall and skinny, so you can see where this is going:



After that, the tree was moved outside. The weather was already starting to wam up so the tree adjusted very fast. So here it is around early May:



And here it is around mid-June. The tree had once again become too top heavy plus we had a heat wave of around 40oC which made it droop way too often.



So, 5 days ago I decided to cut back a bit to reduce the weight of the top of the tree. Here it is today, at least 6 new buds have just burst into life.



I actually have no plan for this tree and don't know what to do with it in general, but I enjoy so much the way and rate that this is growing that I thought it was worth sharing here.

 

[Ininaatigoons]

It is growing fast. One suggestion is during spring repot, make sure the roots are radial and not overlapping. The longer you wait the harder it is to correct. Maybe put some movement into it. Branches can wait since they will not usually be part of the final tree. Roots, trunk, and then branches

 

[stav121]

It is growing fast. One suggestion is during spring repot, make sure the roots are radial and not overlapping. The longer you wait the harder it is to correct. Maybe put some movement into it. Branches can wait since they will not usually be part of the final tree. Roots, trunk, and then branches

I tend to do the first trunk chop and root work on every seedling after it's first dormancy - so this late winter it is going to get a lot of work. Among with all the other seedling that I have, they have all grown a lot this summer.

I will probably post photos in early Spring.