got my peach stones cracked and 19 good kernals

[jocelyn]

Peach kernals are sitting pressed into some damp peat on the kitchen table, waiting for green 
This time of year I am just croaking for a sign of spring, grin.  It might be a bit early, so if nothing in 2 weeks, they'll have to go to the porch for a bit and come back in later to see if they are ready then.
Those first green sprouts, ah.

It's a bit north here for peaches, so I plant seeds and nature culls hard.  Some do rather well, and a couple of winters tells the tale.  These are stones from our own peaches, redhaven and harrow beauty open pollinated, mostly.  The mice ate my reliance and harrow fair, darn mice.  There don't seem to be quite as many mice right now as earlier this fall, not much snow so the foxes have had easy hunting, bless them.

[raymondo]

Is this an easy way to sprout peach seeds? I planted a load of pips last autumn and got 5 or so seedlings up in spring. I'm wondering whether getting the seeds out of their hard shell would improve germination rates.

[reed]

I'v found peaches to be very easy to sprout outside just by direct planting or in pots. But they OFTEN don't sprout till the second spring. First discovered that when I dumped some pots that didn't sprout the year before and they all started sprouting. I also think they don't like to dry out, planting straight out of the fruit works best for me. I'm sure other more hands on methods also work but I'm lazy.

[jocelyn]

I have so many mice that I store peach pits in the fridge in a bag of damp soil, sometimes a plastic tub too. After about a hundred days I crack them out and press them into peat to see if they are ready yet. There is slightly better germination when cracked, but the big thing is a lot of them can be pressed into peat in a small space. Today, 24 hours, there are two sprouting, so I'll pot each as the root gets a quarter inch or so.
Windowills fill up quick, real quick, so I only pot as they sprout. If you have less mice, direct planting seems a lot less trouble. Mind you, I love having something green this time of year, especially since we are under another winter storm warning. Mice....jumping mice, meadow voles, house mice, golden mice, probably lots more, but those little nibblers are very common here.

[richardw]

Like reed i'm a bit on the lazy side too. For me i gather up stones from fruit i think is worth growing then put three stones per pot in autumn and let em do there thing, come spring thin out to the strongest. Because i cant grow stone fruit here ive been planting them down each side of a of a dead end road that leads down to a river, only fisherman and Marijuana growers use this road, a central pivot irrigating unit does a sweep of about 100m along this road with the outside gun squatting water out over both sides, i reckon there's enough room for about 50 trees, ive only got 20 planted so far.

[jocelyn]

Unfortunately, if I plant them outside in a pot, the mice and squirrels get them. Some squirrels stash them elswhere, and peaches and walnuts come up in the oddest places. The other day, we had a thaw, so I cleaned up inside the top step, yes IN the top step, grin. There is a frame filled with gravel and flat stones set in it...and acorns and walnuts and a peach pit. Squirrel was not pleased that he had to re hide his stash.

I've dug sprouting trees out of the walkway, the gravel next to the green bin, out of the raspberry patch...crows, bluejays and squirrels mostly. I went to water a little tree I had just planted, and when the water pooled, up floated a chicken's egg. Crow had hidden it in the loose soil when I had gone for the pail of water.