Mostly From Seed

My 2 Year Old Lemon Tree

noreply@blogger.com (Ruben Berenguel) — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 00:12:00 +0000

You may have been following the history of my home-grown lemon tree, or maybe you just caught this blog after last year's Earth day lemon tree give-away (with a thorough how to grow your trees at home!). In any case, my lemon tree is now more than two years old and is thriving.

In the picture it looks a little wrinkled, but it looks like this from time to time, usually after a sudden leaf growth (as in this case).

It is around 60cm tall (2 feet) and is starting to develop a wider trunk. A small buddy appeared on the right side, as you can see in the picture. We are not sure if we dropped some lemon seed there or it is growing a second trunk. It will be interesting to see how it develops.

Lady Beetles as Pest Control: The Ultimate Organic Solution

noreply@blogger.com (Ruben Berenguel) — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 20:23:00 +0000

From jpokele@Flickr

This is a guest post from Maria Rainier. Maria is a freelance writer and blog junkie. She is currently a resident blogger at First in Education and performs research surrounding Online Degrees (onlinedegrees.org). In her spare time, she enjoys square-foot gardening, swimming, and avoiding her laptop.

If you’re struggling with infestations of green flies, red spider mites, or any other type of aphid or mite, the solution to your problems might be lady beetles. This is especially true if you have edible plants, heightened chemical sensitivity, or any other reason to avoid chemical pest control. Your neighbors will even thank you for keeping chemicals out of your yard because pesticides often drive out beneficial insect predators within a wide radius. If you want to keep your yard and the land around you free of chemicals, keep a balanced population of lady beetles in your garden or around any deliberate vegetation you might have in your yard.

The Benefits of Lady Beetles

As larva and adults, lady beetles feed on both aphid and mite eggs as well as the adult pests. Where you would have to combine different pest control methods if you chose to use chemicals or other solutions, lady beetles can take care of your problem in all of its stages. Another great benefit is that maintaining a lady beetle population can both eradicate current infestations and prevent new infestations from occurring. Lady beetles consume at least their own weight in pests each day and are fast predators, so you won’t have to worry about pests escaping from them. Within two or three weeks, a balanced population can take care of most infestations. However, even when your problem seems to be solved, you’ll want to keep the lady beetles around as a preventative measure.

Attracting and Maintaining Lady Beetle Populations

Before you try buying lady beetles, make an effort to attract them. You’ll save money and won’t risk causing an imbalance in your garden’s delicate ecosystem. If this doesn’t work, you can move on to purchasing lady beetles, but there are some simple steps you can take to try attracting them. So what keeps lady beetles coming back for more? The answer is simple: food. If you have an aphid or mite infestation, you already have an excellent lady beetle food source, but you may want to place attractive plants closer to your garden’s border to lure the lady beetles in. Besides aphids and mites, lady beetles are attracted to pollen and nectar from plants like alfalfa, goldenrod, morning glory flowers, dandelions, Queen Anne’s lace, and grains like buckwheat. If you don’t want to plant these in your yard, you can try offering artificial foods like BugPro, although lady beetles will prefer natural food sources if they have a choice. Once you’ve managed to get a lady beetle population, maintain it by avoiding insecticides and other harmful chemicals. Your population will also need a food source once your aphid or mite infestation has been eradicated, so it’s important to keep the aforementioned plants and/or continue to provide artificial food.

Buying Lady Beetles

If you can’t seem to attract a decent lady beetle population, you might resort to buying some of these insects from a local or online garden supply store. It’s helpful to choose lady beetle packages that have been screened to remove unhealthy specimens and offer a significant number of females to lay eggs and provide you with a second wave of predators within a week or so. Once you’ve chosen and purchased your lady beetles, it’s important to keep in mind that evening release tends to result in better population retention. You can also use a sprinkler or hose to spray down your yard, providing the lady beetles with a much-needed water supply. Again, keeping a supply of natural and/or artificial food sources available to your lady beetles is necessary for their survival, so try to have several food sources in place before you release them. If you’re concerned that the lady beetles might fly away before your infestation is eradicated, you can place garden fleece over the lady beetles after you’ve released them into your garden. This can keep some of them from escaping and can prolong your lady beetle

population’s stay in your garden.

Note from the editor: Do you already have a nice ladybug population? In case you don't, you can buy ladybug attractors from Garden.com or go for the big game with 1500 live lady bugs from Amazon.com.

Related posts:
Strawberry seed germination
Lemon seed germination
Earth day give-away project: lemon trees from seed to save the planet
Pineapple seed germination

A natural solution for red spider mites

noreply@blogger.com (Ruben Berenguel) — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 15:00:00 +0000

When we came back from our holidays in Iceland, I saw something odd in our celery plant. And after a few days without looking at it, I suddenly saw a whole leaf covered in spider nets. Red spider mites (or araña roja, as it is known in Spanish) were here.

Weather had been very hot and dry while we were away, and although the celery plant was being sprinkled with water instead of watering directly, it got a very hard red spider attack. It looked as we could not save it, and as we had several other plants in the zone, we dumped it, together with soil and pot.

The problem was then what to do with nearby plants. We have a chocolate mint, several tomato plants, lemon thyme and broccoli nearby. All edible plants! So no chemical option was available. Moreover, the mint plant looked somewhat sick, and I saw a small red bug walking around it.

I googled and found these recipes in bonsaigarden.com, and settled for recipe #2. It looked easy and potentially effective, moreover could double as a cat repellent for our neighbours cat (who love to do their things in our garden). And it was a deterrent for uninfected plants! This is the recipe as appears there:

½ - 1 ounce (15-30 gr) Garlic
2-3 ounces (60-90 gr) of onion
½ - 1 ounce (15-30 gr) of cloves
½ - 1 ounce (15-30 gr) of Cayenne pepper

Whiz in your blender with 1 Cup of water till very fine.

Add this mixture to one gallon of room temperature water. This spray must be repeated 3 times at 5-day intervals to kill off freshly hatched mites (the spray will not kill the eggs). If the mixture gets washed off it must be re applied.

I didn't have that much water, so I just mixed some quantities and added water. I have kept on spraying over our plants, and looks like it worked as expected: not a trace of red spiders in one week. Just in case, I'll keep on spraying for a while.

Do you have any other red spider natural solution? And what about greenflies? We had an attack a few months ago... And went with the chemical solution: 60 days without mint for health issues. I would prefer a natural solution next time!

Related posts:
Strawberry seed germination
Lemon seed germination
Earth day give-away project: lemon trees from seed to save the planet
Pineapple seed germination

Our chocolate mint just flowered

noreply@blogger.com (Ruben Berenguel) — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 23:00:00 +0000

Chocolate mint flowering

Last February we bought a chocolate mint plant in the shop of the Botanical Garden in Madrid. It was an almost dead plant, with just a few offshots and 20 or 30 small leaves. But we loved the smell, and thought it would come out well.

Indeed, it has been growing steadily since then, and we planted a lot of cuttings out in the garden, where they are growing slowly but steadily. It needs a lot of water (and cuttings will grow roots very easily just in water). Our main indoors plant is so happy where it is that it started flowering this July. For now, just two buds, one in the picture and the other just appearing. It is the first time one of our mints flowered!

Chocolate mint does not exactly smell like chocolate, but something similar to a box of After Eight when you have eaten all the chocolates. They can be used like regular mint to add flavor to your dishes, and there are also several specific recipes to enjoy the special taste. As an example, here is a chocolate mint syrup recipe and here another recipe for home-made chocolate mint ice cream.

If you find a batch of chocolate mint, don't doubt and buy it, even if it looks like it will die tomorrow. Water it and see it grow! If you already have a chocolate mint plant, what do you use it for?

Get your own fiery cactus: Dragon fruit seed germination

noreply@blogger.com (Ruben Berenguel) — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 16:11:00 +0000

If you want to grow your own lemon tree, come join the Lemon tree give-away!

This is a dragon fruit, also known as pitaya or pitahaya. It is called dragon fruit because it has scales in the outside and has brilliant colours. They can be red skinned with white flesh, red skinned with red flesh or yellow skinned with white flesh. Dragon fruit does not grow from a tree, but from a cactus. Thus by growing dragon fruit seeds you will get cacti.

The particular type I used is red-red. Dragon fruit is not very tasty, you should not eat it with strong tasting foods. I found it very good, despite this.

To eat your dragon fruit, cut in half and eat the flesh with a spoon. The flesh is full of seeds, like a kiwi, and these are the seeds you need to get a dragon cactus. From a spoon of dragon flesh you can get plenty of seeds, more than you will need.

Dragon seeds have a high germination rate, with just 15 or 20 you can grow as many dragon cacti as you want. After eating your dragon fruit, you will probably leave a little flesh and seeds close to the skin of the fruit. Remove it with a spoon, and clean with water to remove as much flesh as you can.

The next step is really boring. Pick a paper napkin or something similar and one seed. Press it with your finger against the paper towel, rubbing it. Repeat until there is no flesh left around the seed.

Keep repeating until you have enough seeds. An interesting fact is that when these seeds sprout, they develop a hairy root which adheres to the substrate. This means that sprouting them with the paper tower method can be hard: when you have to remove the seeds, you have to pick also the paper, they are strongly attached to it.

I had better results by sprouting them in a glass with wet cotton. They will start sprouting in 3 or 4 days, and start developing two leaves, which will disappear as the cactus grows.

10 days after

Earth day give-away project: lemon trees from seed to save the planet

noreply@blogger.com (Ruben Berenguel) — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 16:10:00 +0000

The lemon seed I
started just one year
ago

To commemorate this year's Earth day, I have started a little project: The big lemon tree giveaway. If you enjoy it, please share it with your friends through StumbleUpon or Twitter!

The plan: germinate as many lemon seedlings as I can to give them to friends and acquaintances. I will sketch here the procedure you have to give lemon seeds in order to speed its germination. A year ago I was able to successfully germinate a few lemon seeds, which turned into 3 nice lemon seedlings. Sadly two of them died, but the other one is thriving. I want to share the experience of growing a little tree with everyone.

You can look at the pictures from the post I wrote a year ago. I hope you join me in this project and germinate as many lemons as possible to give them as presents to people you care about. Come on and join me! I am sure you still have plant one tree in your life's to-do list.

You'll need plenty of lemon seeds, I got a lot because my girlfriend wanted to try a recipe we found: strawberry and basil lemonade. It turned out to be great, I recommend it to you, too.

The tools of
the trade

You will need some kind of pointy blade. You can use a cutter, or even a a pointy knife. With it you have to remove the seed coat from the seed: the woody part and the skinny one.

To do so, clean thoroughly the seed with water and dry it completely. Use a paper towel to be sure it is completely dry. Pick it with one hand, and with the other, try to make a really shallow cut to the outer skin, while you try to peel it with the point of the blade. You can also try to peel it lit you would peel a banana with a knife, starting by the point where the outer skin is thinner. Once you have something to get a hold, remove it by hand with occasional help with the tip of the blade.

Do it very, very carefully! If not, the seed will break and probably, die. Or you will cut your finger and get a little red pool. Beware. Make plenty of lemonade if you need more seeds, and don't hurry.

Repeat with all your seeds. Once you are done, pour a little water over a paper towel, place your seeds over it and put all in a ziplock bag, airtight. I am also experimenting with putting them in plain water, and a glass with cotton. I'll tell you back which way is easier, but I know from experience that wet paper works correctly. Put it in a somewhat sunny place and wait. In around 5 days they will start making a small root, maybe even less. Mine have developed a small root in just one sunny day.

I put the seed inside an old floppy disc case,
with wet paper and cover it in
transparent film

Let them grow a little inside the bag, and then move the seedlings to egg cartons, paper cups or some other bio-degradable small container (first make a little hole in the bottom, just in case you overwater) with a little soil. Keep in mind you have to water them regularly, but not that much that the cardboard gets wet. Now is when you should give them to your friends!
When they have grown more and it is planting time again (spring-summer), you can put them directly on a hole in your garden, or in a bigger pot and the cardboard should degrade naturally and the plant grow as a nice little tree. You can also remove it with scissors, beware of damaging the seedling.

Below you can find lemon tree from seeds related posts.

Related posts:
Lemon seed germination
Reader hints on lemon seed germination
Lemon seedlings (1)
Lemon seedlings after 7 months

Reader Hints on Lemon Seed Germination

noreply@blogger.com (Ruben Berenguel) — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 16:09:00 +0000

If you want to grow your own lemon tree, come join the Lemon tree give-away!

As you may already know, I have a post (and a few follow-ups: after 3 weeks and after 2 years) on easy tips for lemon seed germination, which have gathered quite a few visits since I wrote them. They have also collected a few comments, with really useful tips that I want to share with you now.

Michelle Hammersmith (sorry, she didn't gave any backlink!) has a few great suggestions.

After they have a root, plant them in special citrus compost. It should not be really expensive.

Remember: the seeds need a pH around 5.5, this means that you can use some ericaceous (Wikipedia) compost (for lime-hating plants), and if your water zone is marked as "strong", be sure not to use tap water for watering: The soil needs to be slightly acidic.

Beware of breaking the root when planting!

If there is not enough sunlight where you keep it, buy a cheap aquarium lamp, it will do wonders.

If you are really into it, buy a low-power heated propagator.

The process followed also works for other citrus plants as qumkuats, mandarins, oranges, grapefruit.

An anonymous reader suggests moving the plant to a bigger pot, with good drainage.

Lemon seedlings around 7 months

noreply@blogger.com (Ruben Berenguel) — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 16:08:00 +0000

My lemon "tree"

If you want to grow your own lemon tree, come join the Lemon tree give-away!

This is how my only remaining lemon looks like. I moved all three outside for the autumn and winter... and after a while, moved this inside again. Good move, I guess... the two others are dead by now, and this one is growing, slowly but nicely.

Lemon Seedlings

noreply@blogger.com (Ruben Berenguel) — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 16:06:00 +0000

If you want to grow your own lemon tree, come join the Lemon tree give-away!

After 4 weeks the lemon seedlings look like this. They have grown quite quickly. Update: only one of them survived... You can see how the lemon tree looks after two years

In just 3 weeks!

And here they are alone:

If you enjoyed this post, or was lucky and got a nice and cute lemon tree, leave a comment, picture, digg this, stumble this, or whatever. Thanks!

Ginger germination

noreply@blogger.com (Ruben Berenguel) — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 16:06:00 +0000

When bought, and after a week. Plate+water

If you want to grow your own lemon tree, come join the Lemon tree give-away!

A few weeks ago, I entered an asian supermarket, and saw that nice piece of ginger root (in fact, rhizome, not root), with something that looked like a potato eye. I wondered it that meant that ginger could be grown easily... bought it and googled it. Turned out ginger is really easy to grow, the Internet said. And I tried, and it is far easier. First step, go buy a big nice piece of ginger.

It started to show green "blobs" in 2 days

Ginger will start growing in the "eye like" places, like the one above in the right, which grew into that nice and small green planting. Break (or cut) your big chunk of ginger in pieces, looking for eyes, and although the toothpick+vase way is nice, I suggest a plate. This way the plant will grow roots quicker AND will grow straight up from the rhizome, not to the side.

Roots

When the roots have grown to a fair size, just move the whole piece to a pot with a nutritious mix. Aim the starting leaves to the surface, of course. I don't really know how this plant will turn out... just keep reading and I'll keep posting pictures. Keep in mind the following tips, collected around the web:

Grow either indoor or outdoor. If it can freeze in your area, keep it indoors in the cold months.
In winter the leaves will yellow and die. In spring it will sprout again.
Wait at least 3 or 4 months (or better yet, a whole year) to harvest the rhizome, do so when it starts appearing over the surface of the pot.
Ginger doesn't like directy light, keep it in a shady place.
Water regularly.
Fertilize during spring.
It will grow to about one meter high (4 feet) with leaves about 20cm long (1 feet). They will slightly smell of ginger.

If you enjoyed this post, or was lucky and got a nice and cute ginger plant, tell me so! Leave a comment, picture, digg this, stumble this, or whatever. Thanks!

Lemon seed germination

noreply@blogger.com (Ruben Berenguel) — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 16:05:00 +0000

After 3 weeks

An easy and effective way to germinate lemon seeds

If you want to grow your own lemon tree, come join the Lemon tree give-away!

So you want to grow your own lemon trees from seed? In this post I'll teach you the procedure I followed to easily germinate apple seeds at home. You can also try strawberry seed germination, pineapple seed germination, tomato seed germination, cotton seed germination, apple seed germination and now ginger germination. More to come next spring!

You can see see how the lemons grew in around 3 weeks after planting and you can also see how the lemon tree looks after two years.

Lemon seeds turned out to be harder to germinate than apple, or any other seed I have tried (except cherry and peach, I had no success with them)... Before I found the trick. Last year, without it I just got a lemon seedling, from 8 seeds coming from the same lemon: it was the seed which was scratched by the knife after slicing it. This year I got 4/5 seedlings from 7 seeds, and it could have been 7, but I barely missed. What did I do? I got 7 seeds from a lemon, and treated them diferently:

Peeled the first coating of 2
Peeled completely 2
Left 2 as they were
Discarded 1 too small

To peel it, use a cutter and do it carefully. The first layer will come of quite easily (if you don't cut yourself), the second too, but beware of damaging (a scratch or two is OK) the inner seed. In the following picture you can see 2 seeds peeled, 2 first-coating removed seeds and 3 as they were, after this a half peeled one, and a completely peeled seed.

3 different treatments

Here you can see (a piece) of the first coating removed in the left
and all the coating removed on the right.

I put them over a wet paper towel in a sealed plastic container, in almost full sun (around 3 hours of full sun, full light in the day). The peeled ones started to turn green in just 2 days.

2-3 days: turns green and opens

After around 10 days, the completely peeled ones had "opened" (see picture above), started to grow a very small root and the untreated ones were mouldy. I discarded them, waited 3 days more and removed the last layer of the remaining two. After a day, they started to turn slightly green... but the roots of my first two were not developing. My conclusion: they got enough water as they were, and enough energy from the sun to work. I covered them by folding over the wet paper to avoid this process. After around 7 days they developed a nice root, which grew slowly. Now, after 3 more days I'm planting them, as they start to grow a little offshot.

Steps:

Remove coating of the seeds
Put in wet paper towel (completely covered), inside a plastic bag in a warm place
Wait!
Plant them

In 2-3 weeks

If you enjoyed this post, or was lucky and got a nice and cute lemon tree, leave a comment, picture, or share this post with Digg, StumbleUpon or whatever you enjoy. Thanks!

Cotton seed germination

noreply@blogger.com (Ruben Berenguel) — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 16:04:00 +0000

If you want to grow your own lemon tree, come join the Lemon tree give-away!

In my last trip to Madrid I bought some "exotic" seeds at the Royal Botanical Garden: Coffee, Holy lotus and Indian cotton. In the little (and at 3.90€, overpriced) bag, there were around 10 seeds, which were suggested to be left in water for 72 hours. I picked 3 at random, and left them. Voilà! In just 48 hours the root was already breaking in the coating. After the 3 days had passed, I moved them to a wet paper towel inside a sealed plastic bag, and after just 2 days, the seeds have grown quite a bit. Turns out to be easier than expected, now let's see how it grows. The how-to is quite simple:

Fill a small jar or pot with tap water
Put in the seeds
Wait 3 days
Move to paper towel

After 2 days in tap water. Moved them to wet paper towel after 3 days

After 2 days in the paper towel

After 2 days more they have grown largish roots, I guess it's time to move them to a nice pot.
I can't wait to see how the leaves grow!

Tomato seed germination

noreply@blogger.com (Ruben Berenguel) — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 16:04:00 +0000

After apple seed germination, pineapple seed germination, strawberry seed germination, now comes the mighty cherry tomatoes. You can also have a look at cotton seed germination, finally lemon seed germination and now ginger germination.

On Thursday 11 of September (which is Catalonia's national day, and then is a day off-work) I made some oven-dried cherry tomatoes and took some seeds out, cleaned with water and rinsed the pulp, put them over a wet paper towel and inside a sealed transparent plastic bag, in a somewhat sunny place:

Yesterday (that is, after only 4 days!) I took a quick look and to my amazement they were already germinated and starting to show some green. Today I took this picture and put some of them in pots:

They have grown quite a bit since yesterday, truly amazing. If you try to grow your own, tell me how they do.

If you enjoyed this post, or was lucky and got a nice and happy tomato plant, leave a comment or picture.

Strawberry seedlings: showing leaves

noreply@blogger.com (Ruben Berenguel) — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 16:03:00 +0000

Just a quick update about my tiny strawberries. A lot more have germinated, and now the first one to do so are showing their first true, small and beautiful leaves. I also added some more soil and add a few drops of water with a little fertilizer (from what I gave my other plants).

If you enjoyed this post, or was lucky and got a nice and happy strawberry plant, leave a comment or picture.

Pineapple seed germination

noreply@blogger.com (Ruben Berenguel) — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 16:03:00 +0000

I wonder if you ever thought of where are pineapple seeds, or even how to germinate them. If you did (and found this page), congratulations! You can do it, as I will show you. You can also try apple seed germination, pineapple seed germination, tomato seed germination, cotton seed germination, finally lemon seed germination and now ginger germination. More to come next spring!

While my strawberry seeds were germinating, I also had some pineapple seeds growing. You can find pineapple seeds, obviously, in pineapples, while peeling it. Below you can see a picture of them.

The usual way to grow pineapples is easier and takes less time. You just cut the top of the pineapple and plant it. Seeds are supposed to take 6 months (mine didn't take as long). I had read that sunlight helps germination, so I built something different:

Put them in a sealed plastic bag over a wet paper towel. After one month (10 July-11 August) they had germinated (which is a really short span):

I let them grow for a week:

And I decided to let them grow a week more:

I picked the biggest and planted it in a mix of bonsai soil (which is the only one I have) and a little rock and sand I had from a plant I bought:

Finally, the steps:

Get a pineapple, and peel it. Grab the seeds (you'll get plenty of them).
Enjoy your pineapple, wash the seeds with a little water.
Get a zip bag and a paper towel.
Put a teaspoon of water in the paper, put the seeds over and inside the bag. Seal.
Let them do for a week, after that maybe you'll need to wet it again.
Repeat, until they show signs of green.

Good luck!

If you enjoyed this post, or was lucky and got a nice and green pineapple plant, leave a comment or picture.

Strawberry seed germination

noreply@blogger.com (Ruben Berenguel) — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 16:02:00 +0000

Strawberry leaves forever..

If you want to grow your own lemon tree, come join the Lemon tree give-away!

In this post I'll teach you the procedure I followed to easily germinate apple seeds at home. You can also try apple seed germination, pineapple seed germination, tomato seed germination, cotton seed germination, finally lemon seed germination and now ginger germination. More to come next spring!

Four steps to go.

Get the seeds.
Let them dry.
Chill them.
Get them wet and warm enough to grow.

The first is perhaps the harder step. I grated the outside of a few strawberries with a knife, getting a little pulp and a few seeds, but then I had to remove the pulp, which is harder than it sounds. Some sites suggest you can process the berries with a shredder and water just a few seconds. The process should not damage the seeds (or at least, not all). Any way you want, get a few seeds.

After that, let them dry overnight, and move them in the refrigerator for a few days or a week. The more the better.

For the last step I put my seeds in a small transparent plastic container, with a little soil and a few drops of water, and covered the pot with transparent film. After 14 days, two seeds (out of 5 or 6) had grown into seedlings. But in 10 days one of them had already shown its leaves. Now, let's see how they grow.

Update: Showing leaves

If you enjoyed this post, or was lucky and got a nice and happy strawberry plant, leave a comment or picture, share on Reddit, Digg, Stumble or whatever you enjoy using. Thank you!

Apple seed germination

noreply@blogger.com (Ruben Berenguel) — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 15:55:00 +0000

This is what you'll get

An easy way to germinate apple seeds

If you want to grow your own lemon tree, come join the Lemon tree give-away!

In this post I'll teach you the procedure I followed to easily germinate apple seeds at home. You can also try strawberry seed germination, pineapple seed germination, tomato seed germination, cotton seed germination, finally lemon seed germination and now ginger germination. More to come next spring!

I started with an already germinated apple seed I found inside an apple (I was collecting seeds for this project). I planted it, and let the others (non-germinated) stay in a sealed plastic bag inside a wet paper towel. But they didn't germinate, so I tried another approach with the next apple. I took 5 seeds and put them in the fridge, in a sealed bag with wet paper towel also, for two weeks. After that, one morning I took them to a hot place (where I have my plants). By the night 2 of them had already germinated! I let them stay there for 4 days, this way the roots grew quite a bit (about 5 centimeters for the two first to germinate, about 2 inches) and even had dug the paper towel, as if it was soil. All of them had germinated by this time, sadly I had to toss 2 of them.

Beware:

The first tree died, I think because its root system was too weak. I had 4 small apple trees, all in the same place, and watered at the same time but when I came back from the weekend only the first (which had the smallest set of roots, as the others had been kept longer to grow them) had died, I think excess heat and lack of water.
Do not remove the seed cover until it is not completely necessary, by that time it will fall just touching it. Also if you keep them longer in the bag, they will grow longer and break it.
For the first days after planting, water just a little every day (one or two teaspoons). After that, wait for the soil to dry completely before watering it again.
By the way, the first leaves to appear (which have the shape of the seed, more or less) are called cotyledons, and will eventually fall. Real leaves of the tree don't look like them (take a look at the last picture).

Finally, here are some pictures, from the first germinated seed, the growing process (after planting out) and you can see how they look a month after in the beginning of the post. Good luck!

After 4 days and after 2 weeks

If you enjoyed this post, or was lucky and got a nice and cute apple tree, leave a comment or picture, digg, stumble, share with friends or whatever you feel like doing. Thanks a lot!