Growing Peach Trees from Seed Naturally

Rebecca Norman wrote:
I planted a couple dozen peach pits in  damp soil in a container and kept them somewhat protected for the winter, where they'd get cold but not as cold as outdoors. I did not crack or nick the shells. Then I sowed them out in a garden bed in early spring. They certainly didn't all sprout, but maybe a a quarter did. Now three years later I've got about 10 trees planted out to different places.

The oldest of my seedling peach trees has about 10 or 15 fruits! I'm so excited.

I don't have a lot of area to experiment with fruit trees between shade from 90' pines and deer, so i'm not sure random seedling peaches appeal to me. I'd written peaches off because the extension agency describes them as a high fuss fruit, but then i heard about the Blood Cling (Indian or Cherokee) peach that reproduces true enough from seed and was propagated extensively in the southeast by the native peoples before John Lawson traveled in the area between 1700 and 1711.

I know the pandemic put a great deal of pressure on nurseries, i wonder if this fall there will be plants begging for homes. Anyhow if anyone is growing blood clings , i'd love some pits!

Hi. I'm new to the forum. I live in the Southern California desert and this winter/spring I winterized 5 peach/nectarine seeds and four out of five sprouted in the spring. I kept them indoors near a screened sliding door so they'd get natural light and be protected from the local wildlife.  Unfortunately, this was an unusually hot summer here and only one survived the brutal temps as I only have evaporative cooling in the house. I did provide afternoon shade when it was the most extreme but it didn't help the others. Even so, the one that's left is 18 inches tall and looking beautiful.

But I'm going to try again. I have four freestone pits that were from delicious organic peaches and they're currently in the fridge in a baggie with some moistened coco coir. With temps being so unpredictable these days I'm reluctant to buy a tree that's used to better conditions and that might not survive here.

I'm so glad I found your website/forum. It gives me hope.

Thanks!

updates on my peach tree:

First, I lost the fruits. Plum curculio found them and attacked the biggest peach, which was over an inch. I removed it thinking the other two small ones would take over. No. They just shivered and died too.

Then I thought about trimming away some lower branches so chickens can scratch underneath, getting rid of pest grubs. Somehow the wound didn't heal completely and I saw clear resin oozing in rainy days. Don't look like a bad case of gummosis but is there some way to help the tree heal?

Now the peach tree reaches 11ft tall and 9 ft wide, but it's very asymmetrical. The mass on the south side almost twice as much as the north side. Since every time I messed with this tree it made things worse, i will just let it grow whatever.

May Lotito wrote: updates on my peach tree:

Neat to see an update May!

First, I lost the fruits. Plum curculio found them and attacked the biggest peach, which was over an inch. I removed it thinking the other two small ones would take over. No. They just shivered and died too.

Mine did the same thing. I think it was a combination of curculio and frost damage on mine. Hoping to taste the fruit next year though, and I bet yours will produce a lot next year!

Then I thought about trimming away some lower branches so chickens can scratch underneath, getting rid of pest grubs. Somehow the wound didn't heal completely and I saw clear resin oozing in rainy days. Don't look like a bad case of gummosis but is there some way to help the tree heal?

I bet it will heal over fine on its own. Mine usually do the same thing from wounds, and then will eventually heal over.

Now the peach tree reaches 11ft tall and 9 ft wide, but it's very asymmetrical. The mass on the south side almost twice as much as the north side. Since every time I messed with this tree it made things worse, i will just let it grow whatever.

I've come to the same conclusion. It seems like that if I can leave it alone, it does much better.

Your tree looks awesome May, thanks for sharing the update!

I took a close look on my two year old peach tree and saw lots of flower buds!  Hopefully we will have a less erratic spring next year so I can have some peaches.

Kevin Young wrote:I planted some peach pits last fall and none of them came up (I am in northern Utah). Did you do anything special prior to planting? I'm surprised to see how quickly your peach trees have grown!

I can understand growing a locally-adapted annual vegetable, but growing a locally-adapted peach seems much harder due to the long time span between planting and harvesting. Do you have a timeline or specific plan you are working through? And if you obtain something you are really happy with, where do you go from there? Do you clone your new variety onto existing root stock, or do you keep on breeding?

If you have problems with sprouting peaches/nectarines or other stone fruits just do it like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=686fccM2Gmc

If you crack the pits open and soak the kernels/seeds in ordinary cold water in room temperature for 24+ hours(video says 12 hours but I like to do 24+ hours) and look closely you will find that almost all of them will already have tiny sprouts. After you plant in soil they will emerge as seedlings after just 3-4 weeks or so(sometimes more, sometimes less). A lot of peaches/nectarines that you buy especially early season varieties you buy in the store will have useless immature seeds though, so make sure that the seeds you are planting are actually the viable kind. The deflated/flat seeds that look like there's nothing inside them are usually useless and won't sprout in my experience, you want to plant the ones that look just like almonds do(usually peach kernels are smaller though, but you get the idea). Careful to not water too much and using too heavy of a soil because these seedlings I have noticed are very sensitive to damping off. And yes, this basically means that stratification is not an actual requirement to making these seeds germinate.

I did this again just 2-3 weeks ago using a few months old seeds and I already have a bunch of nectarine seedlings, and also apricot seedlings of several kinds including those from old dried up sweet apricot kernels that you can buy in a bag meant for eating just like you can buy sweet almonds. It's a super effective way to germinate peach and stone fruit seeds, just be careful to not damage the germ if you peel off the seed/kernel coating. I believe this also works with apples, pears and certain other seeds as long as you can peel off every coating down to the actual germ without damaging it. As a bonus it also works with English walnuts as well and I am guessing that likely the same goes for other walnuts and hickories if you carefully crack the shell around the pointy end and exposing the germ and leave the rest intact and give the seed a good, long soak before planting. Example on English walnut(I tried this method on freshly picked walnuts and it WORKS): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nPNd269q1I

Anyhow, if anyone here has trouble with growing peaches or nectarines or other stone fruits from seed just do it the way video/myself described and you will see a very, very high germination rate. And not just if you have trouble, it's good if you're impatient and want fast results or you find old peach/nectarine/stone fruit seeds in the spring or summer long after the winter has already passed.

Here are two different nectarine seedlings from a few seeds I planted only 2 ½ weeks ago using the crack pit, 24+ hour soak and peeling skin method which I then originally threw into a plastic bag with some soil mix in it until they came up as trees, one whom I have already put in a pot:
https://i.imgur.com/GK9kKdH.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/VRem56W.jpg

So you can grow peaches and nectarines just fine without stratification using this method, and this was not a serious attempt just something I did with a few spare seeds I had. Again this works on other stone fruits like plums and apricot seeds too and there are more seedlings to come!

By the way how come all peach tree threads are about peaches and not nectarines? Am I the only one here who prefers smooth skinned peaches aka nectarines?

I got my first fruit from a 4 year old seedling tree and it was delicious!!! Omg I was so excited! They were small, late (Sept), and a little tart, but whoah, the flavor was amazing, very dramatic. They might ripen sweeter in future years -- I had to take them in earlier than I wanted to because the neighbor workers had already asked for or stolen about half of the 25 fruits that were on the tree.

My first peach tree was started from a dried seed in early 2018 in a container, planted out onto the greywater canal in spring 2019, and produced fruit in 2021.

All my others were fresh seeds in a container of soil to stratify in late 2018, sown into a garden bed in early 2019, grew and survived two winters in the garden, were planted out onto barren canals in spring 2021, and have not yet fruited. I think I got about 50% germination and survival. Since I was planting seeds of peaches I'd eaten so I had plenty of seeds, and only wanted a maximum of 10 trees, this germination rate was more than enough for me.

In 2021 the first tree alone bloomed and set fruit with no pollination partner for miles around, so cross-pollination is evidently not necessary.

Peaches are not common in my region (the main fruits are apples and apricots, and I know of a few mulberry, pear and sour cherry trees at my altitude). The few local peaches I've eaten were very late and had not much flavor. I planted seeds from 2 local sources of peaches and 2 American sources of peaches, and I didn't keep track of which was which. A local govt. horticultural agency posted on social media recently that they have a good variety and can give scions to the public next year, so I'll be able to graft a good variety if any of mine turn out to be dull.

Good point about nectarines. I thought that nectarines (fuzzless peaches) would have to be grafted onto peach roots, and would not come fuzzless from seed, but maybe they would, since this year I learned that peaches can self-pollinate just fine.

That's a great looking seedling peach tree and peaches Rebecca!

Rebecca Norman wrote:I got my first fruit from a 4 year old seedling tree and it was delicious!!! Omg I was so excited! They were small, late (Sept), and a little tart, but whoah, the flavor was amazing, very dramatic. They might ripen sweeter in future years -- I had to take them in earlier than I wanted to because the neighbor workers had already asked for or stolen about half of the 25 fruits that were on the tree.

My first peach tree was started from a dried seed in early 2018 in a container, planted out onto the greywater canal in spring 2019, and produced fruit in 2021.

All my others were fresh seeds in a container of soil to stratify in late 2018, sown into a garden bed in early 2019, grew and survived two winters in the garden, were planted out onto barren canals in spring 2021, and have not yet fruited. I think I got about 50% germination and survival. Since I was planting seeds of peaches I'd eaten so I had plenty of seeds, and only wanted a maximum of 10 trees, this germination rate was more than enough for me.

In 2021 the first tree alone bloomed and set fruit with no pollination partner for miles around, so cross-pollination is evidently not necessary.

Peaches are not common in my region (the main fruits are apples and apricots, and I know of a few mulberry, pear and sour cherry trees at my altitude). The few local peaches I've eaten were very late and had not much flavor. I planted seeds from 2 local sources of peaches and 2 American sources of peaches, and I didn't keep track of which was which. A local govt. horticultural agency posted on social media recently that they have a good variety and can give scions to the public next year, so I'll be able to graft a good variety if any of mine turn out to be dull.

Good point about nectarines. I thought that nectarines (fuzzless peaches) would have to be grafted onto peach roots, and would not come fuzzless from seed, but maybe they would, since this year I learned that peaches can self-pollinate just fine.

Nice trees. I love seeing the natural form of peach trees that is being more of a bush/bushy tree than the typical trees we think of. Again the grafted trees sold at nurseries are a sham compared to these beautiful trees/tree-bushes grown from seeds!!

Nectarines will grow fuzzless that is still being nectarines from seed if the seed came from a flower self-pollinated or pollinated by another nectarine tree. The fuzz gene of peaches is dominant but if you get two recessive alleles from both parents it will end up being fuzzless ie a nectarine. So even a peach can give a nectarine from seed if both peach tree parents actually still carry one recessive allele/nectarine gene each for being fuzzless! Works the same way as inheriting light eye colour does in humans. Also as a whole nectarines and peaches grow true from seed even in other properties like 90% of the time, they are quite reliable to grow from seed! If you like a particular variety of peach/nectarine tree of yours you can always grow more clones on their own roots from cuttings and maintain that bushy way of growing compared to the grafted trees.

It took about two years for the pandemic to come to an end and a peach seed to turn into a mature tree. A really long time for the former but super speedy for the latter.

My oldest peach seedling is blooming prolificly this year! This photo was taken on March 17th. It is only 30 months old in this picture, and now there are a few peaches forming. I'll post some pictures of them soon.

We had some late freezes this year, and it is the only peach tree that held onto any fruit. I find that really interesting because I didn't expect it to have very cold hardy blossoms from the way they looked, but it is seeming to prove me wrong.

Great disease resistance....  Check

Vigorous while also having a natural open growing branch structure.... Check

Frost hardy blossoms....  Check

Now if only it has tasty fruit, this will be ONE AMAZING PEACH!

Yes! My oldest tree, planted from seed in 2018, produced about 20 to 25 fruit in 2021, now in April 2022 has bloomed much more prolifically. One of the other peach trees from seed a year younger than the oldest bloomed this year too. The oldest tree is sometimes fed by greywater so I think its soil is much richer than the others, and I suspect that's why the others that are only one year younger may take an extra year to produce fruit.

So exciting!

I grew two peach trees from seed and tried to transplant one to our property in NM (7000 ft zone 5B) and sadly, it didn't survive. The tree I still have here in the desert (9B) is still thriving. It blooms like crazy every year and is about 6 years old now. However, it stopped producing fruit last year and has no fruit this year either. I am perplexed.

To update on my nectarines

I got no further germinations last year after the Sunburst twins. But I left the root trainer tray out in the garden, watered it when it was dry just in case.  We had a dry and occasionally very cold winter - the lowest was -5C (23F) in my garden.  All my little seedlings survived just fine. Spring 2022 came and April was very warm and dry, only I failed to notice as it was crazy at work and I was otherwise distracted.  Unfortunately by the time it occurred to me that it hadn't actually rained for a month it was too late for quite a few of my potted plants.  But...not the nectarines!  They all survived the abuse, though one of the Redix has peach leaf curl and all the Sunbursts had some dieback and are looking a bit scrubby, but they are alive.  But...and this is the exciting bit...when I finally staggered out into the garden and viewed the desiccated pots around me I suddenly noticed the root trainer tray...it had a shoot!!!  Amazingly it must have only just popped up in the 24 hours before otherwise it would definitely have died.  It's a Nectarlem, so another late season variety to add to the collection.  This is one of the original pits I sowed in the root trainer outside 2 years ago!  It's taken 2 winter's to scarify it and germinate it. I'm absolutely over the moon!  I potted it up and it's doing well.  Taller than the scrubby Sunburst twins already. So now i have 6 nectarines grown from seed, 3 varieties: 3 early Sunbursts, 2 late Redix, 1 late Nectarlem.  Alas the 4th variety I sowed, the early Honey Blaze have definitely not germinated and poking around the root trainer tray seemed to show that all the remaining seeds had rotted. Oh well.  Now I await the first of my 6 to bloom!!!

That's so exciting Alcina! I always try to leave my seed trays out an extra season, just in case there may be a survivor in there. Many trees do need multiple seasons to initiate germination.
I notice you are in SE England, so you've been getting some hot (!) weather this year? Peaches could very well be a rewarding tree. There was an article in the mainstream press earlier this year that suggested that some of the experimental farmers that planted Apricots in the UK a few years ago, were looking forwards to a rewarding harvest for the first time.
Please keep us posted with how your seedlings do.

(edited farmer location)

I picked a fully ripe fruit from my seed grown peach tree today!. It is quite large at 2.75 inches in diameter or 9 inches circumference. It seems to be true to type looking just like the ones I bought from Walmart but with better flavor.
It's totally rewarding growing a peach tree from seed.

I am wondering my peach tree is not "natural" because the seedling got too much sunlight and branched off too low off the ground. Naturally a seedling would have to compete with other plants around it and has a slender trunk with fewer branches.

Anyway I cut off some of the lowers branches to let light in underneath the tree. This year there was a 10ft diameter dead zone under the tree because of the shade and I don't think that's benefiting the tree roots either.

I have some nectarine seeds for planting and this time I will deliberately let tall plants grow around the seedlings and force it to grow lateral shoots a bit higher.

A gentle reminder. I just saw Walmart carrying 3-pack Saturn peaches( a.k.a donut peaches) for less than $4. They tasted very sweet and juicy and I liked the flavor. I have planted the seeds in ground to grow some seedlings.

I'm getting my second year of harvest from my seedling peach tree. Much bigger yield than last year, and I thinned about 2/3 off it back in June because there were zillions, much too close together.

We had knocked a few off two weeks ago and ripened them in a warm window and they were fabulous yesterday, so today I harvested half of what's on the tree, to ripen in the warmth indoors. We are getting chilly nights now the past week or so, and frost could happen any day. I guess my climate is not quite hot enough for peaches since they are barely ripe at the end of September.

It's so exciting!

As mentioned above, this was from a dried seed sowed in early 2018 in a container, planted out onto the greywater canal in spring 2019. It produced 15 - 20 fruit in Sept 2021, and more than a hundred in Sept 2022 (after heavy thinning in June).

I didn't scarify, crack or break off the shell of the pit, I just planted it in a container that was exposed to a chilly winter. I think I sowed several in that container and this was the one that survived.

The peaches (from my 4-year-old tree grown from a seed) are finally ripening up so good! Like, amazing, oh my glob!! They drip on the floor. You have to lean forward to eat them. And they're sweet! Wow, I am so pleased (...is "I am so peached" a phrase?)

Today I made preserves. Without sugar. Wow, so good! Only 9 small jars this year because the rest have to be eaten fresh and shared with friends. I used the method I've used for 15 years with apricots, except that sugar turned out unnecessary.

Peach preserves recipe
To peel (I did, because these had rather thick fuzz and tough skins. But it's optional.).
1. Boil a large pot of water and throw the peaches in, in small batches so the water comes back to a boil quickly. Leave them in boiling for about 1 minute. Dip them out into a pot of cold water. Then dip them out of that. Actually after this blanching, the fuzz was much reduced and the skin seemed thinner, so if you want to leave the skins on, this blanching could be a possible step anyway.
To make the preserves
2. With your hands in a wide low pot or bowl to catch all the juice, peel the blanched peaches with a paring knife, cut them with the paring knife, and drop them into the wide container. I like big chunks. Small bits happen too. Wow, it's a juicy sticky process!

3. Save the skins and roughly cut out pits in a bowl to squeeze juice from later.

4. Put the chopped peaches in a pot on low and simmer for a good long time, like 45 minutes to really juice down. Or for less time if you prefer. This is not for preservation, just to get it how you like it.

5. Taste and add sugar if necessary. This is not necessary for preservation, just for taste, and possibly to thicken the juicy into a more jammy consistency.

I made the first couple jars without sugar for a particular friend, and was going to add sugar to the rest for the rest of us. But it was so sweet and delicious even without sugar that I just kept it plain. If I end up using these preserves in a dessert or ice cream, I can add sugar then.

6. Can in jam jars however you usually can acidic things like fruit or tomatoes. I did a water bath of about 25 minutes because that has always been more than sufficient for my apricot preserves or tomato products.

7. Optional: juice from the skins and pits. I put these in a saucepan with just barely enough water to cover, and simmered for about 30 minutes, occasionally stirring and mashing with a spoon. Then I pushed it through a sieve. The resulting juice was a gorgeous purple "berry" color but didn't have as much flavor or sweetness. I added plain soda water and had a pretty purple drink. Next year, I might add it back into the preserves for the color.

I am so peached!!

Hi Rebecca, amazing harvest!
What do you do with the seeds? Are you going to plant more peach trees or share with other people in the area?
I traveled in the Annapurna area before (elevation 2700m) and the fruits trees there were mostly apricots.

Oops, I read from the recipe the peaches were blanched whole so the seeds in the pits were killed I guess? Did you save some from regrowing?

May Lotito wrote:What do you do with the seeds? Are you going to plant more peach trees or share with other people in the area?
... Oops, I read from the recipe the peaches were blanched whole so the seeds in the pits were killed I guess? Did you save some from regrowing?

I discarded the seeds from the preserves process, but I've been saving the seeds from the peaches we've eaten fresh. I'm considering planting them all in one garden bed so that I can give away seedling trees to friends. On the other hand, this first producing tree has been so good that maybe it's better to give friends scions for grafting. Dunno, I think I'm going to sow these in a garden bed just in case they are wanted.

My area experienced a rapid temperature drop last October and got cold down to near zero F in November. My peach tree didn't have time to acclimate and many small shoots died off in winter. In early April, it leafed out only on the main branches and all the flower buds are dead. I heard that in southern states of GA and SC, peach orchards suffered from crop losses due to freezing temperature following a warm winter.

Now what do I do with the dead dry shoots? Do I need to prune them all off?