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

This is a one year update on a peach tree grown from seed that was probably planted by a squirrel.

It has never been pruned, and has a naturally healthy form.

It's grown over 6 feet in its first year of growing, and it has started developing a lot of new young side branches this year.

Hopefully we'll get some tasty peaches next year, less than 3 years after the tree seed was planted!

Peaches are one of the more reliable fruits to grow from seed. The seedling trees are precocious and quite reliable at bearing edible fruit. In the past, propagation by seed, in contrast to graftage was standard practice in Spain. This practice helped to genetically select cultivated peaches for a high degree of reliable edibility.

A friend gave me a Cherokee white peach tree and I had one come up from seed (Alberta I think) from trees growing in a neighbor’s yard.  Years later squirrels were planting seed that had cross pollinated from those two trees all over the place.  Four more trees, each a little different, but all delicious.  This is borderline climate for growing peaches, and really too humid here during fruiting season.  Late spring frosts usually get them, but every few years we get enough to eat, and sometimes even to can a few,  They do bear young, at two or three years old.  

denise ra wrote: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?

Hi denise, in case you want to kill funguses on your seeds, and these don't be affected by them during sprouting process, you could use few cinnamon powder scattered over them. Cinnamon is a natural killer of fungal spores.

I found a few wild peach trees out back of my cousins place a couple years ago, the trees were maybe 15-20' tall. I was there the right time of year when peaches were ripe.  like they 20 years ago there was a peach orchard a couple thousand feet away.  and the wild trees were between and on giant windrows of compost that has been sitting for like 28-29 years. they were very tasty but small. those trees were probably never touched by anyone, ever.  the trees were loaded with peaches, sure there were some with lots of worms but the ones that did not have worms or rot were really great treat.

The peach trees in this thread from seed are very impressive-looking compared to all the pathetic, grafted, massively overpruned trees I've seen being sold in nurseries. It's really sad what nurseries do to peach trees when they can look like they for example do in the OP, which is how they grow the best and most productively. It is very frustrating to see all the grafted trees sold in nurseries already having dozens of scars along the stem from (over)pruned branches.

As other people have said if way more people grew peaches and nectarines from seed we would have had way more different varieties adapted better to both colder and warmer climates and different humidity levels and better local pest resistances. The Native Americans were notorious for having so many different, unique peach and nectarine varieties because they were all propagated and spread by seed and they loved growing peaches in their orchards. There's no good reason to NOT grow some peaches and nectarines by seed if you have the space and not too bad of a climate for it!