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

After ripening the peaches for a few days, I have tasted a few, and I am blown away by they're amazing flavor!

They have a slightly tropical flavor to me that's hard to describe, in addition to a good peachy (of course ) flavor. The flavor is more intense and better than most other peaches I've tasted.

I had a hunch that it was going to taste good when I opened the bag of peaches a few days ago to check they're ripeness and was blown away by the amazing peach aroma.

They are a yellow fleshed, semi freestone type, with very firm flesh until fully ripe. When ripe, they still have a pretty firm but very pleasant texture. The skin is slightly fuzzy.

It appears that the firmness may also help with deterring pests, which is a huge benefit in my climate. These peaches had very minor insect damage compared with other varieties of peaches I've seen growing in my area!

I'm going to go take a cutting and hopefully do some T bud grafts onto some of my existing peach trees to propagate this variety.

I'm also collecting all of the seeds from all of the peaches I've eaten from this tree, to plant and hopefully create even more delicious and better adapted peaches for my area and to increase the biodiversity by not growing all clones.

This has really encouraged me, and I hope it encourages others too, to plant more peach seeds and other fruit from seed!

I'm rather jealous. My kids and I were invited to pick fruit from a neighbors orchard last summer. Apples, plums, peaches. I made a huge amount of jam and saved all the pits from the stone fruits. I kept them in the freezer until this spring. So far I have a zero germination rate. Maybe I should have compromised the outer shell in some way before planting but IDK.

Dan Allen wrote:Rebecca, that is how I stratify peaches as well. Actually dig them out of the compost. But I crack the pits open before I plant them and I get almost 100 percent germination, at least with peaches. I also find lots of seedlings in old pig pens, apples, pears, bramble fruits, etc, which I dig up and transplant.

OK, all you experts, I'm a complete newbie to this and I've collected a few peach pits of a couple different types. I did let them dry out for a while. Should I not have? I read leila yamaha's post in the grocery store seed thread and immediately plopped them into a jar of water. What should I do with them before fall, when -- if I understand your note right, Dan -- I'll crack the pits and stick them all in a pot with some potting soil outside to cold stratify? (If I've done the wrong thing with these seeds, I'll try again with others.)

I'm excited to see if I can get mangos, papayas, and guavas to grow from grocery store seed here in zone 8A. Do folks know how I'd treat those seeds to encourage germination?

In a nearby town the other day that's a little under a thousand feet higher up than us, we toured a garden on a steep south-facing slope where a lot of neat trees had been started by our guide, including a couple date palms from seeds he'd spit out. We need to go pick his brain -- and accept acorns and things from him -- more soon. (We were picking up some old windows from him to use for cold frames and a sunroom, and he connected us to another guy with more old windows, and it turns out he sold trees he grew from seed for years. He no longer has the business, but we recently bought some seed-grown native mulberries, an elderberry, and a chiltepin from his neighbor, who has a similar seed-grown tree business almost entirely focused on native species. When I start to lose faith in humanity, people like these -- and you all -- help restore it.)

Beth Wilder wrote:

Dan Allen wrote:Rebecca, that is how I stratify peaches as well. Actually dig them out of the compost. But I crack the pits open before I plant them and I get almost 100 percent germination, at least with peaches. I also find lots of seedlings in old pig pens, apples, pears, bramble fruits, etc, which I dig up and transplant.

OK, all you experts, I'm a complete newbie to this and I've collected a few peach pits of a couple different types. I did let them dry out for a while. Should I not have? I read leila yamaha's post in the grocery store seed thread and immediately plopped them into a jar of water. What should I do with them before fall, when -- if I understand your note right, Dan -- I'll crack the pits and stick them all in a pot with some potting soil outside to cold stratify? (If I've done the wrong thing with these seeds, I'll try again with others.)

I'm excited to see if I can get mangos, papayas, and guavas to grow from grocery store seed here in zone 8A. Do folks know how I'd treat those seeds to encourage germination?

In a nearby town the other day that's a little under a thousand feet higher up than us, we toured a garden on a steep south-facing slope where a lot of neat trees had been started by our guide, including a couple date palms from seeds he'd spit out. We need to go pick his brain -- and accept acorns and things from him -- more soon. (We were picking up some old windows from him to use for cold frames and a sunroom, and he connected us to another guy with more old windows, and it turns out he sold trees he grew from seed for years. He no longer has the business, but we recently bought some seed-grown native mulberries, an elderberry, and a chiltepin from his neighbor, who has a similar seed-grown tree business almost entirely focused on native species. When I start to lose faith in humanity, people like these -- and you all -- help restore it.)

Beth,  I've had good luck with papaya seeds from the store,  just stuck straight in the dirt fresh.  Also passion fruit,  all citrus,  kiwi, pineapple tops,  avocado,  horned melon,  pomegranate, basically anything I could get my hands on.  Pomegranate do best if you let the seed dry out before planting,  and kiwi and passion fruit did well after soaking in lemon juice to mimic stomach acid. I haven't tried guava yet,  but I have tried mango without success because it was winter when I planted it.  But I think warm soil and a fresh seed for mango, also try to carefully peel off the seed coat. I'll be bringing a couple hundred more trees and plants down to Florida  this winter that I started here in Michigan.  I found a huge rotten avocado at a rest stop in Florida on my way back this spring. I kicked it out of a patch of poison Ivy,  and it rolled into sewer drain and got stuck,  but I reached way back in there and got it, brought home and planted it and it's about two feet tall and ready to travel back soon, along with about 50 other avocado seedlings of regular store bought variety.

Are the unpalatable ‘dud’ able to be become valuable when used differently? Eg. cider apples and wine grapes are inedible fresh, but are amazing when fermented. White mulberries taste like nothing when fresh, but are fantastic when dried. I wonder what very weird tasting seed-grown peaches, pears etc. would taste like when dried, fermented etc.?

My dad used to own a native Australian forest but sold it as we never knew what to do with it other than go swimming sometimes. It’s a pity because now I would have planted tens of thousands of fruit seeds all over it.

My sister has a really old peach tree, likely ungrafted, that was on her property when she bought the house 20+ years ago. It's old and mostly dead, but it's got the best fruit of any peach I've ever tasted. So I got all the fruit (it was all falling off the tree prematurely) and I'm going to start more trees. She said she wanted one to replace it, and a neighbor has also asked for one (I warned her it would be a few years before it bears).

Then I'll also be starting my nectarine trees this winter.  

Beth Wilder wrote:
OK, all you experts, I'm a complete newbie to this and I've collected a few peach pits of a couple different types. I did let them dry out for a while. Should I not have? I read leila yamaha's post in the grocery store seed thread and immediately plopped them into a jar of water. What should I do with them before fall, when -- if I understand your note right, Dan -- I'll crack the pits and stick them all in a pot with some potting soil outside to cold stratify? (If I've done the wrong thing with these seeds, I'll try again with others.)

In my experience peach trees can take several years to germinate. I have planted peaches with and without shells with little difference, although the nectarine shells are so thick that very few ever germinate. I'm planting my whole nectarine harvest this year, half with and half without shells, to try to get four trees. Leave them outside over the winter and likely you'll have sprouts by spring. Mine generally come up wherever I dump the remains from processing the harvest, which is how I can tell how long they take to germinate.

Peach seedlings are coming along nicely. I pruned them to half height for storage in the greenhouse  and the trip south. Building a small temporary battery greenhouse in an old basement foundation to protect all my tropical seedlings til we head out. Lots of success with the Tropical trees so far. I realized I had way too many trees so I gave away some of the more deciduous ones like apples, peaches, elderberry, pears, etc. I kept more peaches than any other deciduous plants. Some of them will be purely experimental in 9b/10a because of chill hours, so I had to let go of some. I also wild planted some.

I'm peachy keen to start fruit trees from seed. Lots of apricot seeds on the ground here for the gathering. I'm just waiting for the fruit to rot off the seeds. I have been wondering if I will transmit any disease the seeds might have to the farm though? Most of the apricots here have spots on them which I believe are from stink bugs. I don't want to introduce pests to the farm. I wonder if a light dose of bleach water would kill funguses, etc but not kill the seed?

I'd skip the bleach personally, I'd be more afraid of that.

I cut the flesh off some of my peaches and washed the pits under water, and they seemed to get really clean. I got tired of doing it though after a while though, and just planted a lot of the pits with a little flesh still attached, after removing most of it by hand.

As long as the soil is healthy, I figure the good organisms can fight off the bad ones.