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We have some really good tasting apple trees and I try to sprout them like the basic internet search tells you to, but I never get results. It is almost like the people who write the tips have never actually sprouted apples.

Last year I was on a job with my father and the family had a peach tree already with ripe fruit. He saved about twenty seeds and threw them in his compost pile(leaves/scraps) and this year about 10ish or more little trees are growing through the leaves. I thought it was near impossible to sprout peaches, but it was easy as a compost pile. You never see peach sprouts under peach trees(do you?).

His compost pile is ground level with a border keeping everything in a circle.

So if you ever eat any good peaches throw them in a compost pile, buried about 3-5 inches in moist simi decayed leaves and such. Might take a wintering to sprout, but well worth the try/wait.

To get back to apples this year I'm going to try and sprout apples in compost. I'd love to go back to all the houses with the heirloom varity apple trees and get more samples. I'm going to collect as many new trees as I can this year. I hope to have some decent luck b/c I'll plant apple trees like my folk name is Johnny.

Does anybody know a certain way to sprout apples? damp napkins or soil has not worked yet.

Apples need to be cold stratified, as do peaches for that matter and most fruits or nuts. you can put them in your fridge for 1-3 months. 1 is usually enough.

Just so you know, with apples you will NOT get an apple tree anything like the tree the seed came from. It might not even be good for eating out of hand, or even making cider. Apples are notorious for this. Pears for instance also wont come true from seeds, BUT will usually be useful. you may however find a even more useful variety, though the chances are low. Or advanced disease resistance etc.

Many stone fruits like plums and peaches will come "true enough" from seeds. They will almost always be useful. there are exceptions to nearly everything though..... Theres a handful of apples that will come true from seed, and a few plums that wont.

you could always graft the apple trees....