How Do Apples Grow?

<p>Why do apples have stems? Why do fruits start out as flowers? How did the first apple grow when no one was there to plant its seed? Why can you make a seedless grape and not a seedless apple? Why are apples so juicy? How is apple juice made? Why are apples hard and pears soft? In this episode we take a field trip to <a href="https://www.champlainorchards.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Champlain Orchards</a> in Shoreham, Vermont to learn more about apples. Our guides are 10-year-old Rupert Suhr, his father, Bill, and apple expert Ezekiel Goodband. </p> <p>Download our learning guides: <a href="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/41/60/e5336a8f4693b8ef50ba893d61ec/how-do-apples-grow.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">PDF</a> | <a href="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1hwniCm4n1dSRmbxYte3XuiWoysIV4kXHTMDDFV7UgJQ/copy" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Google Slide</a> | <a href="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/6d/9f/39efb8044d65967d91d422c99f24/but-why-164-apples-transcript.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Transcript</a> </p> <p><a href="https://kidsgrowingstrong.org/about-fruit/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Flower to Fruit Image</a></p> <blockquote> <p>Why are some fruits a flower before they’re fruit? - Grayson, 8, San Jose, California</p> </blockquote> <p>Actually ALL fruits start as flowers (but not all flowers turn into fruit). Growing fruit is a way that some plants reproduce. Fruit is the nice ripe container that holds the seeds, which humans or animals will eat and then spread around (often through their poop), allowing new plants to grow.</p> <p>But that process begins with a flower. The outer part of the flower often has beautiful colors and shapes and smells—and that’s all part of the way the plant tries to attract a bee or other pollinator:</p> <p>“The flower has an ovary at the base of the petals. The petals are enticing a bee to come with the pollen from another blossom that it’s visited and there’s some nectar that the bee can collect and while the bee is doing that it’s shedding som