Seedling peach tree success/proof that it's worth it to grow from seed.

Some more seedling fruit trees

Thanks to whoever removed the double-posted pictures. Not sure what I did there.

I cut down the peach tree and measured the stump. It was 4" in diameter and had 4 rings. So pretty much an inch a year. Pruned up the sucker too.

Incredible. I forage peaches from a tree growing near a railway station. Perhaps someone threw their pit over the fence coming on or off the train. If that is the case, this is a tree that not only grew from seed and produced fruit, it did so with zero irrigation.

13 feet this year, seed volunteer, third or fourth year, no fruit, frostdamage.. last years was good

I was at our local grocery store yesterday, and as I was pulling out of the parking lot, I noticed a peach tree growing at the side of the road, and looking closer I could see a peach that looked almost ripe!

It was growing near a spot where people sit down and eat, so I'm guessing someone tossed a peach or a peach pit there a few years ago, and now there is a huge healthy peach tree growing there!

The tree is so healthy! Its leaves are super dark green and are huge compared to any other peach tree I've seen in this area. The new growth from this year is pushing close to 3 feet already, just over half way through the growing season here. It is growing on a small ledge, near the top of a super steep ravine that drops down about 20 ft. to a small stream below. It gets sun to the east and south but is shaded by other trees on its other sides.

I picked the only peach I could reach, and it had almost no insect or disease damage, just small cosmetic issues. The peach was a soft yellow greenish color, medium to smaller in size, with a faint red blush on the sunny side.

I'm hoping the peach will ripen in a few days so I can taste it! Hopefully it wasn't picked too early, but I plan to go back in a few more days with something that i can harvest a few more.

Even if it doesn't taste great, I'm going to plant the seed and breed it with some of the current peaches I'm growing, because its health and vigor is amazing!

Its neat to think that this tree may have been the result of a gorilla gardener, or it simply could have been someone tossing a peach pit away. However it got there, it's encouraged me to plant more fruit tree seeds!

Wow, steve, that is an awesome find. Can't wait to see more pics of the fruit and find out what the taste is like.

This thread is awesome.  Could you share what state or province you are in, Dan Allen?  I'm wondering if its worth it for me to try peaches here in Zone 6 AK.  We have mild winters for the latitude and maybe 4-5 months frost free, but a very cool growing season. Seedling sweet cherries are pretty vigorous here, as are nanking cherries.

I'm in zone 5, But last winter closer to zone 4. All I could say would be to give it a try. they tend to get some tip burn around - 15 to -20, and under -25 can destroy next year's blossoms, but the tree will survive. We hit -26 last winter and there's still a few fruits growing. Late frosts are no big deal, I've had sprinklers freeze trying to protect them during a spring frost, and icicles hanging from the trees and they fruited decently, so now I don't bother protecting from late freeze. Usually they blossom mid April but this year they were a month late.

I went back yesterday and picked 11 peaches from the wild peach tree!

The blush on the peaches varies from a deep burgandy to a really nice reddish pink color.

I picked a few about a week ago, and they weren't ripe yet. I tasted one anyways, and even though it wasn't ripe, and I couldn't tell for sure, it seemed to have a really good flavor!

If it's really good, I'm going to try to do a summer bud graft from this tree onto a few of my existing peach trees to try to preserve this variety. Sadly it is encroaching towards the road, so I could see it being sprayed and killed anyday.

Crossing my fingers that it tastes good once these ripen up!

Wow, Steve, those peaches look great! What an amazing find. I bet they'll taste great fully ripened.