The Repurposing Life

How to Grow Stone Fruit From Pits

Yes, you can grow the peach pit from grocery store fruit into a peach tree. These instructions also work for other cold hardy stone fruits including plum, cherry, and nectarines. New trees grown from seed this way will be hybrids of the original fruit and the pollinator. You may also enjoy How to Grow an Apple Tree from Seed for more propagation tips.

Grow a Peach Tree From Seed

Yes, you can grow fruit trees from seeds, but there are a few things to know first. The steps for growing a tree from the seed (also called “pit” or “stone”) found inside favorite cold hardy fruits like peaches, plums, cherries, and nectarines are basically the same. The only thing that varies is how long each will take to sprout. I’ve listed the estimated times below.

If you think about how this occurs naturally in a cold climate, propagation starts when the tree drops its ripe fruit at the end of the growing season or an animal eats the fruit and eliminates the seed. Safe inside each fruit are seeds encased in a protective shell. The characteristics of the shell vary depending on the type of fruit, but they all serve the same purpose: to keep the seed dormant until the embryo matures and is ready for germination.

Many fruits purchased at grocery stores seem to lack the pit, or have a partially formed pit. Those fruits are fine for eating but the ones you can propagate need a fully formed pit. To encourage sprouting, these cold hardy fruit seeds need one or both of these processes: stratification and scarification. Do not worry, these are easy to mimic right in your kitchen. Most stone fruits need 3 to 4 months to stratify at temperatures between 1°C to 4°C (34°F to 40°F).

• Stratification is a period of cold, damp conditions that some seeds require to break their embryonic dormancy phase.
• Scarification is cutting, scratching, or otherwise softening the seed shell wall to hasten germination.

You can do this at home using a refrigerator. Once the pit is sufficiently chilled and softened, it’s time to grow.

Considerations Before You Start

Specific Fruit Variety or Hybrid: Since most seeds from fruit will not reproduce true to the parent, this type of germination is done mainly for fun and gardening practice. Your peach pit may grow into a peach tree, but not the specific variety you started with. It will be a unique hybrid.

Also, beware that some seeds will never germinate at all or may require different conditions than described here. For example, some peach varieties require a much colder stratification period than a residential refrigerator can provide. If you want to grow a specific variety that produces reliable fruit, it is recommended you start with a grafted tree (as is the case with avocados) instead of growing from seed. I’ve written more about this topic in How to Grow an Apple Tree from Seed.

Plant Patents: Some plants are patented and asexual reproduction is not permitted without permission from the patent holder. Patents and trademarks are listed on plant tags.

Steps

1. Start With Ripe Fruit

Start with ripe fruit that contains a pit. If the fruit is ready to eat, the seeds should be ready for the next step.

You’re going to remove the pit from the fruit, clean it up, and place it in moist reusable paper or tea towel in a container in the fridge for the required amount of time.

2. Remove And Clean Off The Pits

Remove the pit (seed inside a protective shell) from each piece of fruit. Keep in mind that even if you provide perfect conditions, not every seed will germinate. Some varieties are very stubborn and a certain percentage of seeds will always fail. So, start a bunch from several different fruits to increase your odds.

The pits will be covered in stringy, pulpy stuff that we will need to remove. Hold the pits under running water and use a gentle brush (bamboo brushes with coconut husk fibers work great) to gently remove the unwanted stuff. It does not have to be perfect.

Optional: If you’d like to experiment with multiple pits, you could try sprouting some with their shells on and others with their shells removed or cracked open. Ultimately I’ve not found an advantage (faster speed) to removing the shell prior to stratification.

If you do remove the seed shell first, try soaking the pit in warm water for a few days and then removing it with a nutcracker, or placing it in a vice and squeezing just until it pops open. Take care to avoid damaging the seed inside or it may not sprout. Now is the time to create tags or labels for each type of fruit unless you are confident you’ll recognize them later.

3. Wrap Each Pit In a Moist Towel

Wrap reusable paper towel (or dish cloth) around each pit and moisten with water. You’ll want it moist, but not soaking wet. Some gardeners like to plant the pit directly into moistened potting mix instead of towels. I prefer the towel method because it makes it easy to check on the seed later. Place everything in a food storage container with a lid or a reusable silicone zip top food bag works fine too. More on this below.

4. Label And Place In Back Of Fridge

This information is rather generalized: if you know the variety you’re starting with, do a little research to check if more specific information is available.

Apricot (Prunus armeniaca)	100 days at 32°F to 45°F
Sour Cherry (Prunus cerasus)	90 to 150 days at 31°F to 32°F
Plum (Prunus spp.)	60 to 90 days at 34°F to 40°F
Peach (Prunus persica)	98 to 105 days at 32°F to 45°F

With everything labeled, place the container in the back of your fridge and set a reminder on your phone to check them weekly. The seeds do not need light to sprout, just the moisture from the towels and the cold temperature of the refrigerator.

5. Check Weekly And Moisten Towel As Needed

Initially you will be checking each week to be sure the towel is staying moist. The whole process may fail if the pit dries out. It’s that constant exposure to moisture and cold that is gradually promoting germination. At this point-some weeks later-you’ll notice the pit begin to crack open and the seed inside will begin to sprout.

6. Plant Sprouted Seeds

Once this happens, you can plant it in a pot with organic potting mix. I like to wait until there is at least 1-2 inches of growth so I’m confident the seedling will survive. You may also find that, after the expected weeks (or months) of stratification, your seeds are still closed or show no signs of sprouting. At this point you have two options: Go ahead and plant them as-is, or after removing the shell, and then planting.

Your new tree should be transitioned to life outdoors as soon as the risk of frost has passed. You can decide whether you want to keep it in a container, increasing the pot size gradually, or plant it in the ground.

Source:
How to Grow a Peach (or Plum) Tree from the Pit
https://empressofdirt.net/grow-peach-plum-seed/
January 31, 2021 by Melissa J. Will