Years ago, I remember a neighbor lady that threw out the leftovers from canning Colorado peaches and alas, a year later, a really nice peach tree started growing and after afew years she harvested nice peaches off the tree. Was that a fluke? I have some Colorado peach stones and thought that I would try it. My husband has drilled some holes in the bottom of some small pails and we will fill them with dirt and I am wondering just how deep I should plant them. I have a feeling that the seeds will have to lay over the winter in the pails before they will sprout, if in fact they will. I know the Amish plant peach trees this way but do not have an aquaintance of any and they live quite afew miles from us. Has anyone had any experience with planting peach stones or any information as to the care of them. Thanking all who have information to share.

-- Jean (kjean@i-rule.net), July 27, 2000

Answers

I know that the traditional advice about this is don't bother. The thing is in reading fruit tree catalogs where it talks about the origins of varieties, it seems that many new varieties were seedlings that came up in someone's orchard and were good enough to graft from. I have this friend, Virginia. Virginia has the best luck with fin trees coming up in her yard from seed. She has a seedling white nectarine that just came up in her yard. She also has one pecan, two mulberries(one white and one red), and a fig. All of these are seedling trees. Because of Virginia, and because I love to experiment, it is my dream to plant an all seedling orchard, and pick and choose the keepers and the firewood. The Grannysmith apple was a seedling from the red delicious, if I remember right. I think it would be fun to see what I could come up with. What ever didn't work out could be later grafted over to another variety. I think it would be fun to have an orchard of all new varieties that had never been grown anywhere else but on my farm. It would also bee cheaper than starting with trees. Although I would probably start some trees and let this be my experiment. I also have to wonder if seedlings grown in the location the were germinated in won't be stronger and more pest resistant than the alternative. Like my tomatoes this year. All the tomatoes I planted from seed are visibly stronger once again than the transplants I put in. They also have tomatoes on them while the transplants do not yet. Very interesting.

Little Bit Farm

-- Little bit Farm (littlebit@calinet.com), July 27, 2000.

My mother(lived in Iowa) always used to plant peach pits and got some very good peach trees as a result. Peach trees dont have the longest life span so you need to continue planting them and selecting for best fruit. They as mentioned dont breed true. Mom had best luck planting in an old cinder pile (had lot decayed leaves etc over the years mixed in) behind garage. Seems the very good drainage and wind break the garage made was just what the peach trees liked.

-- Hermit John (ozarkhermit@pleasedontspamme.com), July 28, 2000.

Jean, when in doubt, plant seeds, pits, whatever about 3-4 times the size of the item deep. In other words, imagine you've got 3-4 peach pits stacked up on top of each other. Dig your hole that deep. Hard telling what kind, if any, of peaches you'll get, but worth a try. Gerbil

-- Gerbil (ima_gerbil@hotmail.com), August 02, 2000.

Thanks to all who answered the post. I have 4 peach stones planted in four small buckets with holes in the bottom. I did add some sand because our soil has alot of clay in it. The rest of the stones will be planted directly into the ground. The thought of planting in the buckets was that when transplanting, the tap root won't be severed. If my luck is good, I will post about the same subject in 3 or 4 years. Jean

-- Jean (kjean@i-rule.net), August 02, 2000.