RE: Germinating Apple Seeds To Add To The Homestead Garden
I think it all depends what your goal is. If you want good fruit and eat it soon, I think your better option is to buy a disease-resistant rootstock with the properties you want. Now is the time to order them and they are quite cheap. One year, I ordered 50 and they were maybe $1.50 each. Then, I grafted them all and gave a bunch away to friends and such.
Make some friends with gardeners who have heirloom varieties and ask them for scion wood. Basically sticks with some grow buds on them. You can store them in the veggie part of your fridge in a plastic bag with a moist paper towel in it to keep them from drying out. A grafted tree will give you apples in a couple of years.
The seed method is great if you have lots of land and time :) You only know if you got a decent apple once they start fruiting.