growing trees from pits

wiringman

14 years ago

i have several Italian plumb pits.

how do i start trees from them?

we grow a lot of seedlings for flowers and veggies but i have never done trees from pits before.

Dean

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Comments (4)

price403
14 years ago
Clean the pits and dip in a diluted bleach solution for 30 seconds. I use 2 teaspoons of bleach in 3 cups of water. Let the pits air dry for an hour or two. Store them in damp perlite, peatmoss or sand in your fridge for until 3 or 4 weeks before your last frost date. Plant the pits 2 or 3 inches deep and 12 to 18 inches apart in a protected spot where you won't accidentally mow them and grow them out until next winter. Dig them up and transplant to their permanent location.
jocelynpei
14 years ago
You can check on them from time to time while they are in the fridge. Any that have roots can be potted up and grown in a sunny window till spring. They might get a little bit of size on them before spring. 2 litre milk jugs with a few holes punched in the bottom make good pots, nice and deep and narrow enough to fit the window sills. You just open them up with a pocket knife when it's time to plant the little trees in the ground. Make the opening in the top bigger, so it's easier to fill the jugs with soil, then press the sprouted seed into the soil, sprout down. The first sprout is always the root.
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Mistryl: Sure it will work and sounds like a great project! First thing to know is that most stone fruit seeds will require some chilling in order to sprout. This is often called vernalization, I believe. You can get this in the frig or by planting the seeds in late fall oudoors. The natural cold over winter will satisfy the chilling requirement and the seeds will emerge in spring. I haven't done the frig chilling but think you could put the seeds in damp, not wet, sand in a plastic bag. Store in frig for at least 60 days. My only concern here is that the ethylene given off by ripening fruit in frig might hurt the seeds. The seed might be protected by being in plastic. Not much to lose but a few seeds. I've started two fairly large tree rows of seedling apricots by planting about six apricot pits in Nov at each location where I wanted a tree. The Fruitnut
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I'm vacillating about your choice as well, primarily from my experience with them. I've planted them twice and both were failures and I'm not one to often fail with trees. The first one was in full sun, planted young and purchased as container stock. It just took forever to put on any height at all and basically was the same size three years later as when I planted it. I side/planted it with a witch hazel (I often will plant a second tree next to one I suspect will need to be replaced) who cranked so fast it left the katsura in a trail of dust and I whacked the katsura off at ground level to allow the witch hazel to grow unimpeded. I tried it again in a semi-shaded area I thought would have better moisture retention, but good drainage. It grew in an uninspired manner as an understory tree for a few years and frankly I have so many trees now that I forgot about it. I went looking for it this spring and didn't see it. I dunno if the partner who does almost all of the tree maintenance just took it out or not. I also love the appearance of katsura, and have seen some lovely ones in the circumstances similar to what you have in mind. They are cheap enough to give it a try that you won't be out much monetarily if it doesn't work, but you might sacrifice years in waiting to see if it does, and then replanting a different tree and waiting until it sizes.
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The first photo looks like 2 trunks, so I'm thinking you have a seedling tree. You can top work the tree by grafting a good variety on it. There are a few good You Tube videos showing exactly how to do it. I plan to do this with my seedling that isn't as old as yours, but pretty aggressive.
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They will certainly bare fruit when they are older, but it might not be anything work eating. What are you waithing for? Put them in the ground now. The sooner they get established the better. I think that is a fun project to try. Although i have 2 newly planted peach trees, I might try to start an apple tree from seed just for fun. Good Luck!
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dadhaslonglegs
14 years ago
They take a while to sprout in the fridge. Apples seem to be the fastest, along with apricots. I need to check on some of my others today. Just make sure they stay moist.

I also use those 2 liter OJ jugs. Nice and tall and cheap. I also order nursery pots in bulk. Right now on Eba some guy has 150,000 pots for $9K.
theloud
14 years ago
Just so you know, plums don't come true from seed, so the trees you get will be different from what you planted. Might be worse, might be better. It can be fun to experiment.

If you want to know what you're getting, buy grafted trees.

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growing trees from pits

Comments (4)

price403

jocelynpei

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dadhaslonglegs

theloud

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