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Peach Seeds
My daughter works at a truck stop and on occasion truckers will drop off produce at their dumpster that their load was rejected for whatever reason. She brought home 2 boxes of peaches that I made jelly and butter from. I saved the seeds. They were white peaches and the best tasting peaches that I have ever eaten. I would like to know how to start peach trees from these seeds. 2 of the seeds came apart and I saved the seed inside of the pit. Should I crack open the others to get the seed or just plant the whole pit? How long does it take to see a sprout? I thought that I would plant them in potting soil that I had left over this year.
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7 Replies
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Cheech, excellent find and excellent plan. This is the first year we’ve tried to propagate peach trees from seeds. Here is what I have found. Peach seed need to go through cold stratification (several months of laying dormant in the cold winter weather, to germinate. There area ton of videos out there. Here is a quick run down of how to do it at home.
1) Clean the pits in a 10% bleach solution with a soft tooth brush. This will get any matter off it that may cause mold or bacteria growth
2) Rinse thoroughly
3) prepare a medium to store them in. Peat moss, coconut fibers and potting soil will work. Wet it down and wring out water until it is just damp enough that you get one drop when you squeeze it.
4) Place the pits in a ziplock bag with the medium, making sure the pits are covered as best as possible. Seal the bag and label with the date. You can also put the date of 5-6 months away so you know when to take them out.
5) Place the ziplock bag in a paper bag or small box, to block out light, and place that in the fridge.
6) Let sit for at least 5 months. It’s my understanding that it doesn’t hurt for them to be stored longer.
7) Once the proper time has gone by take the seeds out and you are ready to plant. I’ve heard that you can either leave them in the shell, or gently crack the shell and remove the seed for planting. I’m going to try both ways.
8) Plant them in side, or in a green house in pots, and move them outside once the weather worms up.
I’m no expert, and as I said, this is the first year we are giving it a try. I’m sure there is a learning curve, and there is someone out there that has actually done it. I hope they chime in as well. Good luck on your endevours.
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Thank you so much Grumpy_G. I so appreciate your reply ☺️!
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I cracked the pit and removed the brown on the seed. Then i soaked the seeds in a wet paper towel in a Tupperware container for about three days. They started to sprout. These are some of them starting to come up after about two weeks.
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I just put them in the freezer after they dried. And didn’t wash them.. Oh well, I’m experimenting. I don’t know if they’ll work.
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Our local Lions Club had a sale, and I bought a box of peaches – canned about half, made peach salsa with the other half, and saved about 20 seeds, as these were cling-free peaches and I’d like to plant a few. I had been considering trying to start them and get them in the ground before winter – but considering this will probably be an unusually hard winter, I believe I’ll wait until spring!
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We have really long winters here. Normally from September until the end of May. I’m going to try and grow them over the winter on my windowsill. I tried the Pit in the fridge, and it didn’t work for me. I haven’t tried directly in the ground yet.
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Thanks to everyone for information on how you are starting stone fruit trees from pits. We got some excellent plums and nectarines last week. We saved pits to start trees and your info will be very helpful.
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