Question
Hello I have a question about starting from seeds. here is the story: I (an 11 year old girl) was helping out in the office at school, when the head office was eating an apple, I thought "hey if I get those apple seeds maybe I could plant them and in a few years I could have some apple trees" so I asked the head office if I could have some of the seeds she said yes then after I asked my mom (she said yes) I planted them  but only 3 out of 4 sprouted :\ anyway they all died :(  (but at least they all sprouted a bit) how do I get them to at least get far enough to produce wood? because I want to try it again but my mom said I had to look for tips online so I am. but how do at least I get them to get that far?

Answer
Hello Chelsea,
Thanx for your question.  First, I hope you understand that when you use seeds from fruit bought at the store, the resulting plants will bear little resemblance to the parent plants and the resulting fruit will bear little resemblance to the fruit from which you got your seeds.  Also, it will take 5-7 years from germination for the tree to produce edible fruit.  With all of that said, it is fun to grow a tree from a seed no matter where the seed was obtained.  I have grown avocadoes, oranges, limes, lemons, carob, tamarillo and grapefruit from seed.  A friend of mine had a lemon tree survive for over 10 years.  It lived in his kitchen and grew 6 feet tall.  So you got the apple seeds to germinate and you already know how to do that.  How do you get the saplings to survive?  First, I would only plant two or three seeds per pot.  When the seeds sprout, gently prick the seedlings out of the pot after they have their first set of true leaves.  The first set of leaves are called cotelydons (pronounced cot-lee-dons) and they are seed leaves.  They will eventually fall off and the next set of leaves will be true leaves that will help feed the seedling.  Plant the seedlings in separate pots and water them regularly not allowing the soil to dry out completely but not waterlogging it either.  Feed with a weak solution of at balanced 12-12-12 plant fertilizer (1/2 strength) once every 10 days.  Make sure the seedlings are exposed to good light.  If you started your seeds indoors, make sure you don't put the plants out until after the last frost and make sure you put them in the shade for 10 days where they will be safe from rain, hail, wind and cold.  Placing the pots outdoors in a shaded, sheltered area helps the plants become accustomed to the brightness of the outdoors.  After the 10 days has passed, plant the sapling in a place that gets consistent, direct sunlight and no shade.  Water the sapling once a week and begin to feed with a fertilizer rated for fruit trees.  You can find spikes that are slow release at the nursery that will serve this purpose.  I hope this helps.
Tom