Unfortunately for you, the apple sprouts you have will not yield Pink Lady apples, but something that may or may not be similar. And they will produce standard sized trees, and will take a long time before bearing.

But if you want to find out what they are then grafting them to a suitable rootstock, once they are big enough, is doable, fun, and will yield fruit much sooner. And in the process you can choose to allow the "rootstock" (which may be a tree in its own right, not just the root and a foot of trunk) to express itself also.

So you can buy a young tree, even a whip, and graft to it. If you buy a branched tree you can graft to each of the branches, and the main trunk will still produce true to the type you bought.

Thus I have a Liberty apple to which I have grafted over a dozen varieties, but which is still predominantly Liberty.

There are excellent on-line tutorials on grafting. The first to come to mind is Joe Real's over on the citrus forum. Never mind that you're not grafting a citrus: Joe demonstrates on a pear, which is very similar to your apple anyway.

Try the search function on this board. It will yield you tons of information.

Good luck,

M

Here is a link that might be useful: limb bark grafting tutorial page 1

Hi gladahmae
Your seedling will grow into a standard size tree that could reach upwards of 30 feet when mature and it could take 5 to 8 years to get apples. And even then, it is unlikely that the apples you get will be desirable and they *definately* will not be of the Pink Lady variety.

Your best bet is to buy a variety that you like that is grafted onto a rootstock of your choice. Also, a single tree won't provide you with fruit. Apple trees need a pollinator (another apple tree), so you'll need to plant two. I hate to be the bearer of bad news but the seedling you have started just won't grow to be a Pink Lady.

We have some kind of apple tree, crab maybe, (OLD) on the property already. There are also around 15 apple trees on the porpterty in front of us, and an orchard about a quarter of a mile south of us (open field to the orchard). Last year they put bees in just past our property line (for the orchard I'm guessing) so I don't think pollination would be a problem.......cost of a good tree would be! LOL!

Huh I can get quality local trees in the 5-6 foot range for $20.

maybe I'm just not looking for trees in the right spot! We have a LOT of orchards in this area.....