Saturn peach tree from pit

[shirleyallen]

Has anyone grown Saturn peach trees from pits? We’ve got a few peach trees already on the property but these are all grafted with nectarine. We’ve been looking to add a couple Saturn peach trees but we’ve not found a good source for 2 to 4 year old trees so we’ve thought about trying to start some from pits but curious if anyone has had any luck doing so?
I’ve got 3 pits in damp soil in a sealed bowl in the fridge. I did leave them whole and didn’t crack them open. I thought I would check them in a couple months to see if any have broken free or rotted.
Has anyone done this before? I’m also curious if some fruit will taste the same as the latent fruit, seems there is a lot of debate in that area

[swincher]

I was just reading all the old posts about growing peaches from seed, hoping to find that same answer. A few people noted that donut/Saturn peaches are harder to germinate than late peaches, like here:

@Olpea

I have read seeds from earlier varieties (as well as donuts) don’t germinate that well naturally, but I’ve seen seedlings come up under just about any peach tree.

Here are a few more threads that talk about peach germination generally:

Will pits that have dried out still germinate for stone fruit?

I saved some peach and apricot seeds a few months ago and allowed them to dry out. I planned on trying to stratify them this winter but now I’m wondering if there is any point. Does drying out destroy their viability? Or will I still have a good chance? I’ll probably still pop them out there in the soil this year, but I won’t hold too much hope if their viability is probably shot.

Germinating seeds under lights?

I have some peach pits that I am germinating under lights, more as experiment and something to take away some of the winter blues than anything else. How do those of you who grow under lights gauge whether your lights are too close or too far away. I noticed today that a couple of seedlings that are 2" high seem to bending away from the light as if it is too strong. Healthy looking otherwise

Seed Savers

I’m saving seeds (apricot/nectarine/pluot/plum). In the past i’d save the whole seed (shell). I would wrap it into wet paper towel and into the refrigerator. Lots of mold later and some (few) would sprout in Dec and i’d be potting up trees around Christmas. So the past few years I’ve been removing the seed from the shell (with a hammer) and wrapping them in either paper towel or last year wet peat moss. Lots of success…some mold (bad seeds) but still very early (Christmas time). This year …

I’ve been saving donut peach seeds to germinate and grow in pots in my greenhouse, and I figure I’ll plant them all outside next year and cull any that get bad leaf curl (which might be all of them here in the PNW!).

For mine, I’ve removed the shells. They came apart pretty easily in my hands, I only had to use a nutcracker on one out of seven seeds so far. They all looked like healthy seeds inside, though small and misshapen, as you might expect from the funny shaped pits. I’m storing them in a damp paper towel in a takeout container in the fridge, and checking regularly to change the paper or remove any that start to mold (none so far).

[elivings1]

Peach trees will not grow true from seed. It is less risk than say a apple where a apple seed can result in a crabapple. Assuming you live in the USA Raintree sells a few types and will open presale in July, Bay Laurel has a few types and One Green World has a few types and open sale in the fall (September and November I believe)

[Lucky_P]

Actually, peaches come fairly ‘true’ from seed.
I can’t speak to the Saturn/Galaxy/Donut - peento types, but in particular, with landrace types, I’d expect 95+% of seedlings to produce fruit virtually indistinguishable from that of the ‘mother’.

I’ve got minimal experience growing stonefruits… dumped out a bucket of ‘Guthrie’ plum pits in a low spot at the edge of the pasture, after pulping them, one year and now have a thicket of P.angustifolia growing at that spot.
I planted a batch of ‘Javid’s Iranian’ cold-hardy almond pits(cracked just before planting) this spring, after cold, moist stratification over winter. Not a single one germinated.

[jaypeedee]

I had a lot of SpiceZee pit sprout this spring, plan to put them in the ground a few weeks from now. Going to grow out a couple and use the rest for rootstocks.

[JohannsGarden]

Although they don’t come “true” from seed, many people say peaches come true from seed. I think this is because most seedling peaches are of good eating quality even if they don’t pass for clones of their parents. On average peaches go from seed to producing tree very quickly so there’s no reason not to plant peach pits if you don’t care about knowing exactly what the resulting fruit will be like. An advantage is you can plant way more than you want and then cull them for disease resistance early on; saving only the best.

[randyks]

I think I would crack them so they don’t have to struggle…

[Exmil]

Why do people say Cherry trees grown from pits will not grow true , but Peach will?

[swincher]

Neither will really grow true, but maybe there’s a greater risk of outcrossing for cherries, since ornamental/flowering cherries are so common, so that would make them less likely to be similar to the seed parent?

[ammoun]

Also most peaches are self fertile.

[dour]

Peachs grows well from seeds (and is similar to its descendant due to the lack of genetic differences), but it is recommended to pollinate it with other varieties.

@Exmil

Cherry trees grown from pits will not grow true , but Peach will?

Because there are no genes that prevent self-pollination (self-incompatibility) and thus the lack of genetic differences in peaches, that appear similar to its predecessor because it is often self-pollinated.