What fruit trees will grow true to type from seed?

Jason says...
How true are they talking?. I've found most things will be more or less similar to their parent/s. Although not many seedlings are true clones (other than some Mangos and Citrus for example). With temperate things like Peaches/Nectarines you almost get an identical fruit to the parent everytime. I think because there's just not much genetic variation in Australia of those species. Even the White sapote seedlings I've grown out are almost the same as their parents.

JohnMc1 says...
I think they are looking for true clones eg Kensington pride mango.

gimme says...
This is an interesting reference for those who like to propagate

http://www.crfg.org/tidbits/proptable.html

MaryT says...
Most citrus are untrue, Mike?

MaryT says...
Ummm I worry about my Julie tree (Seville) seedling which is three years old. I also have a couple of bush lemon seedlings that I want to grow into bush lemon trees!

MaryT says...
Thanks, Mike. :)

JohnMc1 says...
I think it would be easier if I linked them to this thread. All these contributions would be appreciated.

yrt says...
If a great deal of plant breeding has gone into a particular fruit then seed, unless polyembryonic, will not resemble the parent . I read somewhere that, curiously, the inverse can hold true- so much breeding has been done that bad characteristics have been bred out and seed will be different but still v. good. eg citrus ,peaches.

jakfruit etiquette says...
From about 20 original peach vars, now have about 10 volunteers. Seedlings are generally good, some better. One white peach seedling cames in April 1st, another still green at April 7 never ripens( odd tree now dead)I think original white was early(Dec), now some new white seedlings are ripening Feb 15.
Another freestone seedling has a fault at the core, always decays.
The seasonal ripening range from the original grafted set of 20 has been lost, seedling fruit are good, but ripening times can change.
Grafted trees are predictable in fruit/season, otherwise all fruit comes at once.
Avocadoes? has anyone ever found a bad Avo seedling in Australia( one that was so bad it required an AVO taken out against it ??)Some arent as good as others, but either are the named cultivars.
Most named Avo's in Oz are race hybrids(MexicanXGuatemalan etc)

Otherwise Jason I generally agree, but there are advantages to grafted trees also.

allybanana says...
I have yet to see a good seedling avocardo on the south coast and there is over a dozen big seedlings around. The trend appears to be after 10 years you get a 8 meter tree and then if you are lucky you get half a dozen fruit the trees dont improve over time. The grafted ones perform well though.

I agree that peach cultivas can produce good seedling, providing they do not have rootstock pollen avalible. Rootstock seedlings are feral around here they grow beside the road and are not that good. Another thing to consider is chill hours, low chill varietes may not produce low chill seedlings.

Rusticular says...
Sorry, got off topic. The misshapen fruit of the seedling seems to indicate the seedling did not grow true to the parent, which has fruit of a balanced shape.

gnome says...
Gimme- et al- there are over 4000 (last book I read) varieties of apple. All grown because someone grew a seedling and was very happy with it. There's a lot of varieties of mango, and of pommelo, avocado, grape, fig and chiku (etc) for the same reason. Nectarines are described as a "sport" of peaches- it's a matter of taste.

The likelihood is (extrapolating from my limited understanding of Mendel's work on plant breeding) that of any four sexually produced plants, one might be better than the parent, two might be about the same, and one might be worse. (That's a lot of mights, so you can quote me- I have nothing to lose here.)

OTOH- the oft-quoted likelihood of a plant never bearing fruit because it was grown from seed and is of a species that doesn't come true to type, is about the same as that of a child being born without a nose, or without legs. It does happen, but you wouldn't want to plan your breeding program on that expectation. Fruit is as fundamental to plants as noses are to mammals.

It is much more likely that someone had to grow something from seed because the named varieties weren't available in their area, and that species just won't produce there, which is why plants weren't available.

Grow seedlings if you have the space. Experiment as much as you can with specific cross-cultivar breeding- that's how superior varieties come into cultivation.

By way of example- my experience with black sapotes is that some seedlings are choclatier and some are creamier- some people prefer choclatey, some prefer creamy- neither is bad.

A seedling grown carefully will have a tap root, which a cutting, layer, marcott or tissue cultured plant will never have.

Remember though, citrus may take many years to bear, and the young plants will be vigourous (eventually too high to harvest easily), thorny and the fruit of juvenile trees will be seedy. Even for fruit which comes true to type (lemons, grapefruit, mandarines, oranges) there is an advantage in using multi-generational clonal material for citrus.

Remember too, that as well as the scion, the rootstock might confer some advantage. Although Poncirus (trifoliata, but monotypic anyway) gives slightly inferior tasting fruit, the tree will generally be smaller, precocious, frost, drought and collar rot resistant.


(Add purple mangosteens to the list of plants which do come true to type from seed - Garcinia mangosta I think- someone can correct if wrong.)

Remember also that polyembryonics can produce sexual offspring if you remove the apomictic shoot, which is usually the biggest one at the seedling stage. You will need to do this if you want to cross-breed polyembyonic plants. (That won't work for mangosteens.)

(Buy a copy of Hartman and Kester- worth every cent.)

Rose3 says...
HI Ann-Maree, I have been looking for a blood plum for years. The kind I remember from the late 60's. Is this the kind of blood plum you mean?
We had success with a nectarine. It grew from a stone very well and fruited so heavily within the 2nd year! We have 2 Apricot trees, the 1st year also grown from stone. Now we need the Blood Plums, they were just so yummy and juicy. We are going to try a peach we like next, we have been saving the stones.

phil@tyalgum says...
I have some seeds of Loquat "e;White Vista"e; if anyone would like to try them. They are an American variety and my trees are bearing after five years from seed. Bright canary yellow, large sized fruit - extremely juicy. Seed are second generation from the named cultivar but this thread would indicate loquats breed true to type.

denise1 says...
When you want to grow seedlings for fruiting, First you need to find a great tasting plant. If that plant however was pollenated from a bad performing plant nearby then it could well be a waste of time. Some people want to grow a shop bought seedling avocado expecting a decent quality crop. Unfortunately quite a few of the pollenater trees in the avo orchards are quite poorer than the ones you eat. In selecting any seeds for growing seedling trees it can be quite important to check the neighbouring area that there are no poor fruiters in the area.

Markmelb says...
You should have top worked that Avo with a good scion or 4 ? Such a waste of a rootstock.

Luke :) says...
So guava (Psidium Guajava) do well from seed ey??
I could grow alot more varieties!

jakfruit etiquette says...
Brenda-ohio says...persimmon and paw paws grow true to seed.
Are you talking about the American persimmon and American paw paws, which are largely wild plants, with some beter selections ??