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Old December 11, 2009   #8
mensplace
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Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: USA
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Originally Posted by huxter09 View Post
According to Pollans book ,old Johnny Appleseed only grew from seed so his apples were all over the place and wouldn't have conformed to the parent type .Didn't matter if you couldn't eat them , as the early pioneers only made the apples into booze and moonshine . It was a requirement that land settlers plant 50 trees as an orchard before gaining title ,so guess which smart entrepeneur sold them the trees----ole Johnny Appleseed . Grown on land he bought so he died a property millionaire ! All that other schmaltzy nonsense about him was made up by Disneyland for a cartoon .Some of his heirloom apples would have been unusable by modern standards .
Many are quick to say that all apples produced from seed are bad. That is just plain wrong. Seedlings can excel their parents. It's just that with so many varities available for pollenation today, most seeds will be some kind of cross...but, maybe a better cross. Johnny was very real and those apples he sowed fed meany a family when there was nothing else available. Today, there are over 4000 varieties. The Red Delicious did much for the industry, but surely led to most here ...up until about 15 years ago...having little knowledge of the true breadth of flavors and textures. Kind of like heirloom tomatoes and other vegetables. Each time I go to one of the MEGA international markets near Atlanta I see new vegetables that have long been enjoyed around the world. Interestingly, seeing the videos from India and Japan today on vegetable grafting kind of opened my eyes to new means of addressing disease...use rootstocks that are not susceptible!
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