Peach Pits Look Like Almonds

This summer I decided I wanted to start experimenting with growing pit fruits, such as peaches and plums. It all started in July when I was on vacation with my family. We bought peaches while we were down in the South--boy were they good!--and the pits were just begging me to try and crack them open. 

With a little help from a fork, I was able to get the first peach pit open without too much hassle. I have it pictured below in a bag with a moist paper towel. I have it labeled "DO NOT EAT - Peach Pit (7/14/15)" As you may already know, stone fruit pits contain low levels of cyanide. Not something you want to be eating regularly. 

Fun fact: Almonds, another stone fruit, have been bred to not contain the cyanide compound. For this reason it is not advised to plant almonds from seed, and to instead use a verified cultivar. Because of genetic variation in sexual reproduction, the next generation of almonds may in fact be poisonous. 

Let's not do that, yeah?

Anyway, back to my peach pit. 

I don't usually like using the paper towel in a baggie sprouting method, but I figured it would be best considering the special conditions required for germinating stone fruits. What special condition? you may wonder. Stratification. Stone fruits, like many other trees, sprout in the spring once winter has passed. It makes sense when you think about it. If the seeds just sprouted whenever, they may not be strong enough to make it through the winter. So they're programmed to germinate after a long period of cold. The way we mimic that is by putting the seeds in the fridge. 

Now, you can't just go throwing them in the fridge without any accommodations. It's like giving someone a home without providing a bedroom. I guess. 

Anyway. 

The moisture from the wetted paper towel helps keep the seed viable while the cold makes it think it's winter. After 6-ish weeks the seeds should start thinking about sprouting. So far it's only been four weeks, so I still have a while to wait. In the meantime, I've been collecting other varieties of stone fruit pits. At this point I have at least a dozen. The varieties I have include supermarket peaches, supermarket yellow plums, Ohio-grown peaches, Ohio-grown prune plums, and I think maybe one other kind. I don't have them right in front of me at the moment, so I can't be sure. I'll write another post with all the details. 

Hopefully enough of them sprout that I can train at least one of each variety into a small tree. I hope I can get some fruit! Also I'm praying that the Ohio-grown varieties will be hardy enough to make it through winter. I mean, I assume that they would, if they were grown in Ohio (zone 5?), but you can never be too sure. Eventually I want to experiment with grafting, and see if I can get the non-Ohio-hardy varieties to survive on an Ohio-hardy stock. So we can have lots of  different stone fruit varieties growing from just one tree! 

It sounds crazy, but it's totally a thing that's been done--look it up!

Kinda looks like an almond, doesn't it? Go figure. 

Until next time, 

- Jess