Peach seeds sprouted right away?

I pressed some peach seeds into some soil and intended to let them winter in the porch for spring sprouting. 3 of them sprouted right away. Has anybody else had that happen? I thought the root would be OK buried in soil and left them till yesterday. All 3 rotted. I brought in both peaches and nectarines, and today 2 nectarines have chitted, and one had sprouted in the porch and seems to be ok…root white and healthy. 8 weeks in the porch at around freezing killed 3 peaches, but not a nectarine. I think I cracked out the seeds at around Sept 15, so that seems like a rather short time till they pushed out a root. Anybody got comments?

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When I stratified peach seeds in damp paper towels in the fridge I put them in on September 1st and they sprouted on December 15th. I lost some to rot, I found it much easier to grow them in a peat pot than plastic cells

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I’ve had good luck stratifying various fruit seeds in damp sand in baggies in the fridge. Various stone fruit seeds usually germinate within two months and then I keep them growing in a South facing window until spring. A few have rotted doing this, but it’s under 5%.

Where did you get your seeds from? If they are from store bought fruit, they possibly spent enough time in refrigeration for the seeds to have stratified enough already, leading to immediate germination. I’ve ate apples from the store before and found germinated seeds in the core.

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They were grocery store peach and nectarine pits. I hadn’t thought about possible cold storage before sale :slight_smile: Usually I plant our own peach seeds, but this year I wanted some new toys (seeds) to see what I’d get.

The hardest part about growing trees from seed is timing the germination. Direct sowing outdoors in fall is dicey, with critters getting the seeds, and other factors.

Then, in my experience, although veggie seedlings do great under a grow light, trees don’t seem to fare as well, and really prefer to grow outdoors in the sunshine.

It’s hard to ensure germination starts when I want it to, which for me would be around late March/early April.

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Ah, well, here they are anyway. They can have the sun in the spring:)

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I plant peach pits generally in late August outside. I don’t crack the pits or anything, just plant them.

I’ve been doing this every year for about a decade and had good luck. The sprout in the spring when they are supposed to.

These from my own peaches and have never been cold stored. The pits have never been dried out.

Although the store bought peach seeds probably had some of the chill requirement met, the biggest reason your peaches sprouted early probably had something to do with removing the seeds from the pits. The pit slows the peach seed down considerably. I frequently have some which germinate even the second year after they were planted.

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Our own peaches ripened the end of Sept…we are probably north of you. They are happily napping in the porch, not a root in sight. Of the store bought ones, 3 sent out roots, and the rest seem to be napping, no roots at present. 3 of 4 nectarines have sprouted, the last looks healthy. All were cracked out. Most years, peaches in the porch sprout in early March. This year, things have been odd, weatherwise, and even the year old quinces have leafed…had to take them into the house too, so they won’t freeze when the temperatures fall. There is a dentata chestnut sprouted too, root only, and I may have to take that in too…