Question
I planted apple seeds from an apple I bought at my grocery store. The tree has sprouted and is doing well it seems. My husband was talking to someone who told him that with the kind of variety of apple they sell at a store, the seeds will produce a crabapple tree. Is it true that regular apple seeds can make a crabapple tree??

Answer
Hi Jacqui,
Thanx for your question.  Most apples sold in the store are from hybrid trees.  These hybrids are almost always grafted to a stronger form of the Malus (apple/crabapple) species and that is usually a very hardy variety of crabapple.  The problem with growing seed from hybrid fruit trees is that the resulting seedling will seldom resemble the parent plants because of all of the hybridization.  Many times the resulting progeny will degrade to something less than what the parent was.  Rarely, an improvement will be made though, so, it can still be fun to see what you get.  The fruit you will eventually get from your apple (it will take 5-7 years for fruit)seedling will be an apple, not a crabapple.  The rootstock simply helps the hybrid become more hardy because they tend to be somewhat frail by themselves.  I hope this helps.
Tom