|
|
Post by Alan on Sept 28, 2009 23:08:20 GMT -5
 OK, since our forum always seems to make a mass movement towards the same experiments at the same time (minus animals and fungi, come on guys, get a few and share your experience!) and since our focus is always on experimentation and breeding for the most part as well as exploring new means and methods I though I would open a thread on "doing the unthinkable" (according to experts) and starting fruiting trees from seed, but this can also include of course just starting rootstock from seed. I would also like to see lots of info here for starting from cuttings. Anything pertaining to the propigation of orchard or vineyard crops from less accepted methods of propigation which leads to diverse stocks being planted. I know Karen (plantsnoobin) is very knowledgable regarding such means and methods so I would love to see her input here. I figured we can kind of use this a guide to those of us trying all of this out for the first time. I know I get aggrevated with stumbling through stuff sometimes so perhaps we can all help one another out now. Everything from stratification to soil mixes, to cold frames and on and on and on please!
|
|
|
|
Post by mnjrutherford on Sept 29, 2009 6:30:15 GMT -5
Well, Val sent me about 15 gazillion cherry pits about a month or so ago. We have them in both pots and in a sort of "cold frame". No lid, just a frame of 2" x 4 or 6" on garden fabric to help discourage weeds. According to what Dan sent along for reading material, our winter should do the trick and we should have sprouts late spring. Also, our orchard trees are mailed to us in little 4" pots. I'll be figuring out some sort of "tray" set up for them, filling them with dirt, then putting cuttings of lavender and rosemary in them. Probably a few grapes will go in as well.
I haven't gotten anything from GRIN tree wise yet. I'll report back when we do.
|
|
|
|
Post by denninmi on Sept 29, 2009 19:53:53 GMT -5
Well, I've been starting peaches for about the past 15 years from seed. I'm beginning on my 4th generation.
This all came about as a fluke. I bought was was supposed to be a double flowering peach very cheaply at the garden center of a big box store. However, it actually turned out to be a regular, white fleshed, late maturing (around Labor Day or bit later) peach. I suspect it may have been 'Belle of Georgia" since the store also offered those from the same vendor (McMinnville, TN area grower I believe).
When the tree started to get older, I decided to start a few seedlings just to see what I would get, and so I would have a replacement when it died.
I've now got 3rd generation trees fruiting, and 4th generation seedlings started.
There has been an interesting diversity of both fruit size, quality, and characteristics. From the original tree, which bore white fleshed, freestone, generally medium sized, late ripening peaches, I've gotten a mixture of white and yellow fleshed, clingstone and freestone, small to large fruited, with a range of ripening from early August to mid-late September.
I grew out about 3 trees from the first generation, about 6 or 7 of the grandchildren of the original, over a dozen of the great grandchildren, which are now reaching prime bearing age, and I have over 50 seedlings that came up this year.
I don't do anything very sophisticated to start them -- I just save all of the pits from the fruit I pick and process for the freezer or eat, and then plant them in unused corners of the garden in the fall, in places where they can grow for one season until they can be moved to permanent spots.
I've toyed with a couple of pear and apple seedlings and now have 3 year old trees, but these take a LOT longer to bear than peaches, so I don't know if that is really worth it.
|
|
|
|
Post by Alan on Sept 29, 2009 20:00:12 GMT -5
Excellent info! This is the exact kind of stuff we will need to have here for new fruit explorers from those who already have experience!
Please keep all of this coming and later this week I'll spend a bit of time updating on my progress!
|
|
|
|
Post by mnjrutherford on Sept 29, 2009 21:00:47 GMT -5
Well I'll be darned Denn! Sounds like what I would do! I've had the boys plant pits all over the place. Maybe we'll have some surprise peaches showing up soon.
|
|
|
|
Post by castanea on Sept 29, 2009 21:11:57 GMT -5
denninmi, iunteresting info. Thanks.
Do you let the pits dry out first before you do anything with them? Do you stire them at all or just plant them immediately?
|
|
|
|
Post by Alan on Oct 1, 2009 21:08:21 GMT -5
Anybody have any luck germinating apple pips from the store?
I ask because it's hard to figure out where the apples came from, via the northern hemisphere this time of year, or held over from the southern, if they were held over in cold storage they should be able to germinate immediately without stratification correct?
How about plums? Anybody ever mess with germinating grocery plum pits?
I was thinking about a new method for germinating/stratifying more seeds for this winter/next spring since I plan to continue collecting seeds throughout the winter.
Given that we set up at the farmers market and sell eggs as well as selling them from the house we constantly have people bringing us their empty egg cartons of which I have several hundred of, anyhow, I also have the luxery of having a spare fridge out in the spare room that pretty much only functions for holding seeds in the freezer and beer and wine in the fridge. Anyhow, the plan is to put my home made seed starting mix in the egg cartons, seed into those, water, close the lid and stack them up in the fridge, should be relatively easy to germinate and stratify a ton of seed in this method with probably 100 or so containers fitting into the fridge!
|
|
|
|
Post by silverseeds on Oct 1, 2009 21:29:37 GMT -5
Ive grown apples from seed. All I did was keep them in the fridge for 2 or 3 months. Then I let them sit at room temp for a day or so. then planted them. I had excellant germination. My son and cat climbed, the table I have in front of my south window, and knocked it over, so I never planted it. These were seeds,from apples I bought from the closest thing to a farmers market we have here. From colorado.
|
|
|
|
Post by mnjrutherford on Oct 2, 2009 6:27:56 GMT -5
Alan, I have the kids throwing all their fruit seeds around the forest margin, even threw down a few baskets of strawberries last year just to see what happened. We have wild (read flavorless) strawberries in parts of the forest now. So far, 3 years into being here, we've seen nothing.
|
|
peapod
gardener
Zone 4, acidic soil, and sandy loam that I have worked on for 4 years. Fixing the bad stuff.
Posts: 175
|
Post by peapod on Oct 20, 2009 23:25:36 GMT -5
I usually just read on here but this seemed like a good place to start. I for the 2nd year in a row I'm trying my hand at starting fruit bearing trees from seed. Its a pain in the tush if you ask me. But I want to be able to teach my daughter some really good life long skills and in order to do that I must do it myself. I started Pear, Apple, Plum and lets have hope for the apricot trees, They bloom so dog gone early and its been so dog gone cold that nothing has happened ( because of the youth of the trees too). I am going to hopefully re read for the 9 millionth time how to graft trees. People say its as easy as 1-2-3.
I am a visual learner.
We have wild strawberries that are about as big as a pinky finger nail and I actually saved some of the seeds. That was a joy.
I found my magnafying glass and tweezers.
That was a joy too. My 3 yr old daughter wanting to help with that project.
Imagine.
Oh I forgot to mention I have 10 each of the fruit bearing trees. 3 different kinds of pears, 6 apple, 3 plum and 2 apricot. I think its about 130-140 trees that I have in pots and such.
My husband thinks I have gone bonkers but enjoys the learning curve just as much as I do.
Wait until he builds the windmill that I have plans for.
|
|
|
|
Post by grunt on Oct 21, 2009 2:49:16 GMT -5
peapod: I think you will find the videos on Patrickw's link ( tinyurl.com/yg2fem2 ) to be very helpful. There are some really good demonstrations of grafting there. |
|
|
|
Post by greenhummer on Jan 7, 2010 21:03:45 GMT -5
Sometimes great ideas come from necessity. Got to to try some peaches.
|
|
|
|
Post by plantsnobin on Jan 7, 2010 21:17:24 GMT -5
Peaches really can make pretty rapid growth from seed. You can expect at least 2 ft in the first year. I have a red leaved peach that a friend gave me a few years back. The fruits aren't large enough to bother with really, but a decent nibble when you are outside working. The butterflies love them so I leave them on the ground for them. Well, that, and I am too lazy to pick up all those small peaches. Anyway, that variety can be producing fruit from seed in 4 years easily. It didn't produce well last year as we had weird weather, with rain seeminly months on end. No pollinators were out and about. If it produces normally this year I should have pits to share. Even though the variety isn't good for production, it makes a dandy tree to graft onto.
Alan, I read on your blog that you have planted heartnut seeds. Did you eat any of them? I got some from Clifford and I really like them. I like the butternut too, but the heartnut has such a mild flavor, really delicate. The cultivar 'Jewelbox' is a really strong shaped heart, and would make a neat little craft item. I actually had some seed saved for you, but I guess you won't need them. I like the nuts enough that I am going to go ahead and order more trees this year-I can't wait for my seedlings to bear.
|
|
|
|
Post by mjc on Jan 7, 2010 22:03:03 GMT -5
I'd like to get some of those peaches, Karen...I was going to use it for grafting. I am in need of some decent peach trees.
Previous experience with seedling peaches is very good. Up in PA we had a local orchard that grew an old 'standard' peach and would grow their replacement trees from their own seed. One year, after processing a couple of bushels of peaches, my grandmother planted a bunch of pits from those peaches. She ended up with about 50 peaches...and about 4 years they were producing quite nicely. I had transplanted 3 of them to my house (my parents). All three of them produced great freestone peaches, all like the parent peaches.
Plums...I've had good luck with the old 'standard' varieties...purple prune/Green Gage and, of course, wild plums. Never tried any of the store bought ones, though.
Right now, I'm getting 50 Antonovka and 10 Borowinka apples ready to pot up and then drop into the cold frame for the rest of the winter. I'm going to be using them as rootstock for grafting a bunch of the seedling apples growing here (and I've got some real good ones). I do have some of the Antonovka seed left...I can do 3 pks of 20 seeds.
|
|
|
|
Post by sandbar on Jan 8, 2010 22:28:24 GMT -5
MJC ... you grow your own apple rootstock? If so, please continue reading ... otherwise, you'll want to move on to another post ...  Growing my own rootstock for apples seems very interesting and is a subject about which I know nothing (obviously, one of MANY subjects ... but, I digress). Anyhow, I am not familiar with the two varieties you mentioned. Do these rootstocks then produce dwarf or semi-dwarf trees? Any info you have on growing rootstocks would be much appreciated. |
|
