starting fruit trees

[Elijah Gunn]

I never have enough money to buy fruit trees to plant so I want to start some from seeds. I've saved some peach , plum , and cherry pits. Can I start them now or should I wait till spring? I would just like the basic instructions on how to get started.
Thanks, Mark

[Graybeard]

If the seeds are from Hybrids (almost an absolute these days) then there is no telling what you'll get starting from those seeds. What you most assuredly WILL NOT get is the same fruit that the seeds came from. Only if the seeds are from an heirloom plant will they reproduce true.

As to when that sorta depends but in the natural environment seeds along with fruit fall to the ground at the end of the growing cycle and remain there over winter and then sprout in the spring and grow. Yours should do OK if treated the same.

[Elijah Gunn]

Thanks Graybeard, I would have replied sooner but my phone line went down. I will probably try to grow some anyway. I have room, and it wont cost anything.
Regards, Mark

[jvs]

Some Fruit seeds are fickled.  I know there are some Apple Seeds that need to go through a dormant period.  If that is the case, keeping them in the bottom drawer of your refrigerator for a few weeks copies the period that seeds go through in areas of the country that have cold winters.

In some fruits, that dormant period is important for proper germination later on when the seeds are planted.

Good luck.

[Gary G]

Here is what I do:

I clean and dry the seeds in the house. Don't want them to get hot.

After they are dry put them in a zip lock bag with a few damp paper towels and put them in the refrigerator.

Plant them in a row in my garden in the spring where I can keep them worked out.

The next fall I transplant them to their new location.

In the spring I graft them from the mother tree if it is a good one,  or from a favorite tree. That way it will grow true to form having the same genetics as the parents.

Peaches will often make good trees without grafting, but apples usually will not because they mostly cross pollinate and sometimes from a crabapple near by.

If someone has a semidwarf apple tree near you, you can get the dwarf rootstock from them. Suckers grow up from the base of the tree about this time of the year. After the tree is dormant, cut, pull, dig some of these ground suckers and plant them keeping them watered good after growth starts in the spring. The next fall graft whatever you like to them and you will have dwarf apples. Graft apples in early spring just before the sap rises. Most people bud graft peaches in June.

One of my better peach trees is from a seed and not grafted.

Plums sometimes grow suckers from the roots. You can dig and plant those and they will grow to the same form. Plums are not usually grafted.