I planted a few peaches and nectarines from seeds of varieties I really liked. They are approx 1’ tall now and have many branches growing from them. I want them to grow more vertical and branch higher up so I wasn’t sure if it is more beneficial to remove the branches now so it can put its energy into growing more vertically or will leaving the branching be better for now to have the extra vegetation for energy overall.
I grew some too. I trimmed the branches off to encourage vertical growth
You could tip them and have some extra leaves to hopefully get it to put on height/thicken the trunk.
I brought in some peach seedling that I grew from pits, sowed fall of 2023. I will use them as rootstocks for apricots.
They started breaking bud today.
Those branches will help the trunk thicken faster, making it stronger. Removing them too soon will force all of its growth into the central growing point which will very likely grow too fast and flop over.
A better method is to simply shorten the side branches so they stay thin, and then gradually remove them from the lowest working up as the trees grow larger.
Thank you!!
Thank you!!
These are great. My kids desperately want me to grow some nectarine seeds from fruit. What was your process? How long in the fridge and towel vs soil etc?
I cleaned the pit that I got from the peaches/nectarines and placed them in the fridge for a couple days and then cracked them open to get the seed. I tried different ways of cracking them and the one that worked best for me was using vice grips so you don’t crush the seed when trying to crack the pit open. I tried pliers and I crushed a couple of the seeds because I put to much pressure on the pit. The vise grips you can set the the size just barely smaller than the pit and slowly crack it open. Once I got the seed I put some in a damp paper towel and I put some in some damp seed starting soil and both worked. Just make sure not to get them to wet. I placed both the soil and paper towels in a zip lock bag and close it about 2/3 of the way. Make sure you label the bags if you have different varieties. I didn’t and don’t know which are peaches or nectarines. I thought I would remember but I was wrong. I don’t know exactly how long it took them to start sprouting but it was at least two to three months. Check them every once in a while to make sure the soil or paper towel stays moist and doesn’t get moldy of anything. I had a couple seeds that dried up but all the others germinated. Once you see the seed starting to sprout just plant it in some soil. I used Espoma seed starting soil but I’m sure there are many different soils you can use. By the way, I’m no expert I just googled it and followed the directions of others who have done this. I’ve done Apples, Asian pears, Nectarines and Peaches from seed now. I used the same process with all of them. The apple seeds germinated the quickest. They say apples and pears don’t grow true to the fruit you took it from but supposedly peaches/nectarines will be pretty close. I forgot to mention when I planted them I started them in a 16oz clear plastic Dixie type cup and then moved up to bigger pots once the roots started to get to the bottom of the cup. I used clear cups so I could see the roots.
it only takes a couple days in the fridge to stratify stone fruit?
So I didn’t have to wait for them to actually start to sprout? Just leave them in the fridge a couple days and take them out and plant?
im asking. ive never done it before.
Ok, because mine took two to three months to sprout. I believe your referring to putting the pit, which is the hard shell containing the seed, in the fridge for a couple of days and then take it out and crack it open to remove the seed, which looks like an almond, and you then place the seed you removed from the pit in a damp paper towel or soil and put in the fridge until it starts to sprout.
we prun our seedling at 20 cm tall. no problem what so ever.
we only keep side branch after they are 50cm tall and transplant to field.
before that /in nursery we keep prun the lowe 50% of branch.
stratify time is directy link to their chill requirement(flowering).
the lower the chill requirement the shorter time it take.
for our tropical peach varity(less trhen 200 chill hr.) we stratify 1~2 month. mostly for smoother work flow. becouse we have a lot of varity harvest at different time with different stratify time neede.
longer/overshoot stratify can guarantee we have uniform germnaction in september.
i believe they can stratify under 1 month.
we faile to stratify high chill varity (more then 800 hr).
they are not suitable for our climate anyway.
Thank you for the details! Sounds like it was cold stratified for a few months. We’ll see what happens here with our “red nectarine” from the store. Now, that I know there’s more than one kind of “red nectarine” it would be SO nice if stores actually had to label the variety!!
okinawa is gold stander for tropical peach research.
in this study.
okinawa reach 80% germnaction after 50 days without stratify.
but with stratify 80% germnaction can be reach with 20 days.
so even if ur varity do’t need stratify . it;s still very useful and i will defenity recomend doing it.
Thanks for asking
In the fall I stuck whole peach pits on their sides and pushed them down into the soil about 2" deep and covered them up with soil. I left them alone all winter. The next spring I had little peach trees sprouting.
I chose a centeral leader and pruned off all the rest of the branches. Any side branches that grew off the centeral leader, I pruned off when I noticed them.
By the end of the first growing season, the centeral leaders grew 3 to 4 foot tall and just the right diameter to bench graft come spring time.
I didn’t crack open the pits with vice grips and remove the seed, like i’ve seen some people do. I just planted the entire pit and let winter do the work for me. It worked pretty well. I actually have one more peach tree that shot up this spring. So the “natural” method will take one or two zone 7a winters to sprout.
Wow, so simple! Thank you.
Yes it is very simple and you’re welcome. Just ensure you have enough depth in the pot for the roots. You can see by the picture they grew pretty long. That’s just the first growing season.
Oh, you sprouted and grew them in pots outside or directly in the ground?