So, I cold stratified these peach pits and they started to sprout.
My question is, have they sprouted enough to go ahead and plant in pots or should I wait until the sprout is longer?
Also, should I plant the seeds sideways? Is the sprouted part the plant or the roots?
I plan on potting them and keeping in a heated room with a grow light during the winter? Is that ok, since they essentially won’t have a dormant season?
Looks like you have a nice germination there!
I’d recommend planting now, radicle (root tip) down. The emerging root tip is quite fragile and can break off easily if you wait.
From the standpoint of these seeds, they have already gone through their first cold season and they are ready to grow. Your biggest challenge may be giving them enough light as they grow indoors over the winter. You might try planting a few outside (with protection from rodents), assuming your soil is now getting colder, to see if they overwinter before emerging as a back-up.
Good luck and let us know how they do!
Peaches grow fast and that means you better plant them fast. They like ashes in the soil.
Is a grow light turned down to 50% ok, or should they get indirect light at first?
I would let them get as much light as I could if they were my seeds. Turning down the light will only make them weaker.
I agree with this, seedlings will handle bright light quite well if that’s the first thing they’re exposed to. In nature, seeds are adapted to handle some level of sunlight immediately as they emerge from the soil. Though depending on the environment this is usually some form of dappled light (understory in a forest), or less intense but direct sunlight because of the season (think grasses or annuals sprouting in fall or spring). But even fairly bright grow lights don’t measure up to full bright sun from directly overhead in summer, so give em whatever you can.
I saw this vid from an Australian guy who was planting sprouted peach pits and he said to put it in indirect light but you know how hot it is there in the summer.
I’m going to use a grow light as the temp here is going to drop from 80’s to 60’s in a few days
Do you have a link to the video? I think using a grow light is a fine idea and would be essential for growing seeds indoors at this time of year. I just strongly agree with Gibberellin here
I know moss isn’t a peach sprout, but I grow a lot of different things under indoor lighting including shade loving moss and I use 4 high output t5 bulbs about 18 inches or 45cm from the top of my plants. As far as indoor setups go I would call it reasonably bright and the room also gets a decent amount of ambient, indirect sun. That being said, my mosses all grow great in there and that’s because the light (though it is “bright” for an indoor setup) does not even come close to the power of the sun. This way I know that if my mosses are growing under it then it’s not too much light.
After watching the video, I think he is more or less right, but I do disagree with him about placing the seedlings in indirect bright light. Granted, I’ve never grown peaches from seed (hopefully next year i will be able to say I have) so he has more direct experience than i do with those. If they’re exposed to full sun from the very beginning of their life they should handle it fine. Otherwise, started indoors or in indirect light they do need to be slowly acclimated to the full sun.
In the end, though, if you are growing them indoors even with your lights at full capacity I would consider that equivalent or less than a “bright, indirect” light source and would say that you’ve provided what he suggested to your peach seedlings. I think they could probably handle even more, but considering that’s all you have to give them at this point it’s kind of irrelevant in my opinion.
That is quite exciting, though! I hope things work out with them 
How long after planting these will I see the plant emerge from the soil? I am anxiously waiting
“Indirect light” means sunlight without the sun shining directly on them (at least for most of the time). A grow light or under cover of a greenhouse is pretty equivalent.
