Peach seeds!

I saved lots of peach pits from last summer to see if I could get some of them to sprout and grow. I had the pits in fridge for a few months to give them the cold treatment to help with germination. Now I did crack the pits to make it easier for the seeds to sprout. I'm now waiting for the seeds to sprout in the fridge inside some moist paper towels. That's if they do germinate at all. I also saved a few Nectarine, apricot, and plum pits. It would be nice to get a few trees this way, sure would save me some money.
I know someone who gave me a few peach seedlings years ago from pits they planted. They sure do grow quick, you never know maybe they will produce in a few years.


Here's to hoping they'll sprout......

Greenthumb, it is great to see you again !

We are always told that modern apples are something special and must be grown from cuttings, alone. I am just not sure if that is true with peaches.

I had a peach seed sprout in some compostables that I had in a garden bed. Completely the wrong place, I decided I would just move it over near the neighbor's fence. There was enough room over there for a small tree. If it produced poor quality fruit, I didn't think much would be lost - a little time, a little space I wasn't using for anything special. Well, some nice iris are over there. They still are - and so is that peach.

It has had some good years & some bad ones. I'll be spraying it with dormant spray soon hopefully to move it along towards a good year.

When it produced its 1st small crop - they were wonderful white peaches! I took one to an orchardist and she said that they look just like her Blushing Stars! Well, you know, that peach seed may have come from her fruit.

The next year it was just loaded!! Then, it had a problems. At first, I thought it was an insect attack but later found that it is a fungal disease that causes the bark to split. The answers to the problem are to try to stop the fungus each winter/spring before it can cause too much trouble and buy disease resistant rootstock . . .

Well, it obviously it wasn't grafted onto anything! I'm just happy that it has wonderful fruit. Last year, the tree was very healthy! However, we had a couple of very late, hard frosts and that took care of the year's crop!

I will keep digitS' crossed for yours and for mine in 2014. And, Happy New Year!

Steve

Thanks Steve for your reply!

Yes, Happy New Year to you as well. I been having problems with my old computer lately for months, that explains my disappearance. I now use an iPad to search the web.
I will have to keep that in mind with fungal diseases. Even if I can get a few crops of peaches it still would be interesting coming from a seedling. Maybe these trees can act as a pollinator in an orchard with other stone fruits.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed too!
As a gardener I just can't help but try to grow these pits to see what happens.

Hi Green thumb!

Hey there thistlebloom! Nice to hear from you.

We have a fairly new (2 years?) peach tree (not grown from seed, though). Last year it had just a few blossoms (no fruit).

I am wondering if anyone knows if -29 will kill the tree? It is a Reliance peach. Or would that just kill this years buds, and I'll have another chance next year? I would love to grow my own peaches here (even just a few fruits!).

buckabucka said:

We have a fairly new (2 years?) peach tree (not grown from seed, though). Last year it had just a few blossoms (no fruit).

I am wondering if anyone knows if -29 will kill the tree? It is a Reliance peach. Or would that just kill this years buds, and I'll have another chance next year? I would love to grow my own peaches here (even just a few fruits!).

Click to expand...

It looks like Reliance is supposed to be hardy in zone 4, and for zone 4, the low temp range is "-30 to -25" or there about. So theoretically, it would probably be hardy. But with the wind chill expected, don't count on it being hardy.
Maybe the snow and ice cover will protect the plants. I hope.

Give it a good mulching of a straw/compost mixture if your worried about it. Within this next season I might expect a few fruits.

I don't know. Here's what Stark Brothers has to say about it but they just talk about zone, not absolute temperatures. It's probably about how long they are at that temperature too, not just how cold it gets. The longer it's really cold, the worse it is.

http://www.starkbros.com/products/fruit-trees/peach-trees/reliance-peach

The longer its been there the better your chances. I find a lot of trees are fairly delicate their first year but get tougher as they age. Dad used to pile dead leaves around trees their first year or two to insulate them and get them through that first winter.

Somewhere in our neighborhood there is a peach tree. The squirrels drag them onto our property and partially eat them. They also bite into and bury the pits. We frequently find small peach trees growing in the mulch around our shrubs, so germinating them should not be much of an issue.
jackb