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Having planted a few apple seeds and nurtured them to a foot high (if skinny) I have just read that apparently the least successful fruit from seed is apple!
Do I therefore have to invest in a tree, I want it to be paired (can apples be peared?) with a crab apple over an arch
Now hears a question - how do I know which is a boy tree and a girl tree?
When is the best planting time - spring?
I just don't want to nurture it to four foot high to find my plans for blackberry & apple crumble fall by the wayside. By the way acording to Weakest Link a dewberry is a black berry - never knew that!

Just eaten salad with home grown garlic chives - yummy and free!! don't you just love it

Sorry Sue, I know nothing about apple trees, apart from that I have a few I scrump from!

My next door neighbour has a diddy little apple tree, no taller than me (we are talking diddy here) which is laiden with fruit and guess what? ~ the apples fall to the ground and rot. Last year I asked her if I could rescue some. Sure she said, the tree was a birthday present to me, but we don't eat them. What a waste. They are beautiful eaters!

It is a gamble with any fruit from seed, but that is how all fruit developed. At least you know with apples you will get beautiful flowers!

And apples don't have boy and girl trees, it's all in one. Maybe what you're thinking of is cross-pollination - you do need another tree nearby, which flowers at about the same time. But both trees will get fruit.

Traditionally the best planting time is winter, but if it's been in a pot, and you will faithfully water it regularly, then I think Spring will be OK too.

Apples are normally grafted onto different types of rootstock which determine their vigour and size. I don't know anything about growing an apple tree from a seed, whether it would fruit well is anyone's guess (!) but I would imagine it would eventually grow to be a rather large tree.

So it would probably not be suitable for an archway and you'd be better getting one with the correct rootstock for the size of tree you eventually want, but keep on going with your own little sapling and plant it out somewhere to let it grow into a tree (if you have the space), or keep it in a pot if you haven't.

the guy on the allotment next to mine planted an apple seed 15 years ago and the apples are really sweet and there are lots of them...and he does nothing to the tree ...just leaves it to fend for itself ...and it is full every year. He is afraid to touch it in case it stops fruiting.

Oops, just re-read my post, and realised you guys are coming into Autumn, not Spring, so that wasn't very helpful, was it ?!? What I meant was, if it's in a pot, and you can look after it once it's planted out, any old time(except perhaps a heat wave) would be ok for planting out.

big thank you for all the replies
I will definitely nurture my baby tree - even if it ends up in a pot - good idea that. Who knows one day I may end up with a garden big enough for an orchard - bliss!
Is winter in the UK the best time, mind you as I won't be able to dig through the ice, I guess autumn may be better?

I have a strip next to my path which I want to use for raspberry canes, so I'm hoping for a fruity pathway to my home!

I got a bargain archway in the sales today - so do you think the tree and ground will hold it, or should it be concreted? Its only a thin steel one.
Actually must get some before and after photos too