Growing Apples in Mauritius

Yes, you read the title correctly, you can grow apples from seeds in Mauritius. Whether it survives or not that's another story.

This is more of an experiment I made back in 2010, initially to make bonsai out of them [ well that's the main theme of this blog, so it had to come back to bonsai =D ]

Why try to grow apples in Mauritius ?

There are tons of fruit trees that grow easily in Mauritius and could be used to create a bonsai.
Pommegrenade, tamarind are already used worldwide in making bonsai.
Other local species that have been tried ou could potentially be tried in Mauritius are goyava, mangoes, letchi, longan.

So why?

• Because of the challenge
• Because Apple bonsai or using its scientific name, Malus Bonsai would be a something unique in Mauritius. [ Well now you can give it a try too ]
• Apples are related to the roses family and are beautiful in bloom [ well from the pictures I've seen at least : Bonsai Eejit.com - Malus in flower  ]
• Just for fun =)

Crab Apple bonsai [in flowers], April 2010 by Chris Guise

The Challenge
Apples grow in Temperate regions [ Just as a reminder, we are in a Tropical region ]... This means that for the seeds to germinate, they need to undergo a cold stratification period... Wow big words here, lets simplify...
From what I understand, the seeds need to be in a very cold environment or freezing environment, before it decides to germinate.
In nature, that would be like winter, frozen earth, seed undergoing cold stratification, then as winter ends and spring begins the seed starts to germinate, and by summer you have a small apple plant/tree.
Ok, so I just have to wait for Winter in Mauritius... wait Winter in Mauritius = Tanning at the beach, that means NO NATURAL COLD STRATIFICATION possible ...

So what can you do... You induce an ARTIFICIAL COLD STRATIFICATION, in other words the Freezer.

There's loads of "How to grow apple from seed" if you google it.
I like this one : Grow-an-Apple-Tree-from-a-Seed

Anyway, here is a little progression of a trial I made back in 2010.
I only have images from the time the seeds started to germinate. Like I said, I made this for fun, not expecting the seeds to actually germinate.

Out of 5 seeds only 4 germinated.
Out of those 4 germinated seeds, only 2 are currently growing strong and will potentially become bonsai.
One is dead and the other is not growing much.

For those of you who read my post on Growing Bonsai from seed, well the progression above was the "-2 / -1 yr : Seedy Potter - The seed that survived!" part.
I've now entered the 2nd phase of "00-03 yrs : Game of Patience - Watch it grow!", so I'll come back to you in 2015~2016.