Last year i grew some prunus family from seeds. Few peaches, Japanese plums and Euro plums. All of them reached about half meter in size, except the Jap plum beeing tiny 30 centimers. One exception… My peach seedling grew a shocking 2.5 meter in its first year! I have never seen anything like it! I know this isnt a quality that most are looking for. But i am delighted! Any people with experience on such vigourous seedlings? And what height could this tree reach unpruned? My idea is to cut back to 2.5 meter this summer and leading it horizontally on my wall.
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Prunus are very vigorous from seed. Makes a case for direct seeding things like peaches that are more or less self fertile and come true from seed. I’ve had 4-5’ of growth with branches and 3/4” caliper from a seedling peach first year
It’s impressive, really
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I have a couple of little apricot seedlings I saved from the compost last year, transplanted into a garden bed and babied, but they only got to about a foot in height. I’m hoping they get serious this year and then we’ll see.
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Yes peaches from seed seem unstoppable. Mine are super vigorous. After two years I chopped main leader of in half and grow an open bowl type tree. Last summer when 2nd leaf they fruited a little, third leaf they were loaded. Going on 4th year now I plan to grow out more. Specific crosses I’m trying. Breeding plants is a hobby within a hobby for me. I have many of my own cultivars, not trees brambles. I lost like eleven tree seedlings due to mites once and an unexpected freeze. So starting over again. Although I do have those peaches.
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Im having so much trouble with this tree👀 its raises more questions then answers at the moment. Its a peach from a random tree I found growing in a sidewalk crack in my city, either planted by a human or animal. The home owners clearly dont mind. Reason I grabbed a spoiled peach was, in my opinion, obvious. I spotted in it spring with its iconic blossoms for the first time and ever since its showed zero susceptibility to peach leaf curl. And kept alot of ripening peaches on there, without ever being pruned for a productive setting. The seedling from this “random” peach doesnt loom like this is not at all at the moment ( except its vigour). Very susceptible for leaf curl and for the second year in a row, it keeps its leaf in winter. Now half november its still fully green not rejected a thing. If i didnt know where i got the seed from, i would expect it to come from a “supermarket peach” that here, in the Netherlands, come from Spain. That would make it a low chill peaches which would explain alot. But i know its not because i took it from that tree. So my hypothesis/question at the end of this long, possibly boring story is the following. Could the Peach ( mother of my peach) have been a Spanish supermarket peach that might have been a cross between a high Chill and low chill? Which resulted in a high Chill peach that still carried low chill genes, which appeared on within my peach seedling? Here is a grab from google maps to get an idea.
I have a Japanese Apricot tree that went from a pencil stick to giving me 4+ ft of growth per limb and more than double its trunk circumference this year