If you have branches where you want don't sweat the flopping around. Just support until it can support itself. The alternative is to cut it back next spring.

Well that's a relief. I was worried that maybe it pointed to a bigger irreversible problem. Thanks, will do.

Not that you asked, but you do realize that apples or any fruit trees grown from seeds are rarely anything like the parent tree, yes? And you won't know until you get fruit years from now if the fruit is delicious, so-so or inedible?

Carla in Sac

Yup. Don't be in a hurry for them to fruit. They can take 7+ years to flower from seed. You can speed that up by branch bending and other tricks, but it still will take awhile. If you plan on using them as rootstock, just cut them back and graft lower.

Yes Carla, I am aware I won't be growing the same apples as that of the Fuji apple from which I got the seeds. It's a worthwhile experiment for me to see how the resulting mystery fruit will turn out after 7-10 years or so (if I'm lucky that is...). I'm not holding my breath to see fruit or blossoms anytime soon but I am excited about the thought of having started couple trees from seed. I've grown flowering annuals and perennials from seed but up till recently I have never entertained the thought of growing a tree...haha. I'm not mentally prepared yet for the complexities like grafting but heck, I've got two saplings don't I? Oh, the wonder of nature and human curiousity! This forum has certainly piqued my interest in this whole new realm of fruiting trees and shrubs. I can only hope my pocketbook is prepared for all this upcoming madness.

Grafting them is no big deal, and now is a good time to do it. You can see a video at http://www.youtube.com/kuffelcreek#p/u/16/Q0e2SuupqCM

That would be here.

Here is a link that might be useful: Kuffel Creek video

Wow, thank you applenut and fruitnut,

They say a picture says a thousands words, but a video says a million! I've seen illustrations of the procedure but have never seen it done firsthand. Plant surgery still seems pretty daunting to me but I think I'm going to go for it (now that I know you can buy budwood; I thought you had to buy the variety of apple you want and THEN cut the budwood off the tree to do this...now I feel silly).

Just like Pandora's Box however, the video does conjure up a few questions and they are:

1) Does the rootstock need reach a certain age or diameter in girth before becoming a candidate for the grafting procedure?

2) When making the T-slit, how deep should one make the cut before damaging it? i.e. No more, no less than X mm or X fraction/percentage of the trunk diameter...

3) Can one graft more than one bud (into the same rootstock) at a time?

4) Lastly, if a grafting attempt fails, can you simply try again on a different section of the rootstock or is the whole thing deemed unviable?

Many thanks in advance!