Peach question

I have found an abandoned peach tree and have been harvesting the fruit from it. It was planted by the landowner who moved away. The fruit is rather small. I don't know if this is by design or from neglect. The flesh is white and the fruit is delicious. I have saved all the pitts and was wondering if I need to wash them or can I just let them dry in the sun? Thanks for any help you can offer.

I let mine dry in the sun then put them in fridge for 2 weeks... Just got them planted so dont know how well it works... hoping to see lil trees before long...

Why would they need to go in the fridge?

They have to be stratisfiyed. They have to have so many hours of cold temps before they will germinate.

CajuninKy This might help..
Step 1Remove the pit from a fresh peach. If there is any fruit attached to the seed, soak it overnight in fresh water to remove it.

Step 2In the fall, dig a hole that is 4 inches deep outdoors. Place the seed in the hole and cover it with soil. Add a 1-inch thick covering of straw over top of the soil. Water the area thoroughly.

Step 3Place a piece of screen over the straw and weight it down at the edges with stones or bricks. This will keep wild animals from digging up the peach seed. Check it in the late spring to see if it sprouted. After it is about 4 or 5 inches high, you may transplant it to a permanent location.

Step 4If you decide to plant the seed in the spring, you must fool the seed into believing it has already experienced winter (correctly termed "mimicked stratification"). Three or four months before the planting season begins, moisten some paper towels and put them inside a plastic bag. Place the peach seed in with the paper towels and seal the bag airtight. Put the bag in the crisper drawer of a refrigerator and let it stay there for three months or more.

Step 5Remove the bag from the refrigerator and take out the seed. Dig a hole three inches deep and plant the seed. Water the area well and check to see if it has sprouted in a few weeks.

CajuninKy I was just goofing off..
I think it has more info.

InstructionsThings You'll Need:
Peach pit Metal file or sandpaper Coffee can, plastic bag or plastic container Soil, sand or perlite
Starting a Peach Tree From a Seed
Step 1Peach pitsRemove the pit or stone from a fully mature fruit. Clean pit thoroughly with water and allow it to air-dry.

Step 2Scar the pit by using a metal file or coarse sandpaper to scratch the thick coat. Be careful not to injure the delicate seed kernel inside. If you do, start over with a fresh pit. If you cannot penetrate the pit without causing damage, move directly to the next step, but realize that germination might take longer or be unsuccessful.

Step 3Expose the seed to cool, moist conditions, a process called stratification, to end dormancy and evoke germination. Put a clean peach seed into a coffee can, plastic bag or plastic container. Fill the container with perlite or a mixture of equal parts of sand and peat moss. Moisten and add air holes to the container. Store in a refrigerator for 90 to 105 days. The seed is ready to remove and plant when a sprout has emerged.

Step 4 Plant outside if weather permits. In colder climates, peach trees can be started in a container and transplanted outdoors after the last frost. Choose a location where the tree will receive full sun but has some protection from the wind. Soil should provide good drainage. Plant seed two inches below the surface and water as needed to keep it moist.

Step 5Peaches on treePrune the tree to ensure the fruit receives the sun exposure needed for the peaches to fully ripen. Unpruned trees will be weak and overproduce fruit at a higher risk of disease. Remove old, dead or slow-growing shoots before spring blooms or after the summer harvest. Remove up to 40 percent of the tree to stimulate new growth.

Step 6Inspect the tree for fungi and insects. Peach trees are susceptible to Taphrina deformans, a fungus that attacks and destroys leaves before killing the entire tree. Preventive treatments are available from nurseries and garden-supply centers.
Peach tree borers resemble small moths. They penetrate the fruit in late June to early July. Peach twig borers infect new growth in the spring.

Thanks a mil. That surely helps.

Your welcome..Gave me something to do..LOL

my mother starts peach trees from pits all the time. She take the pit out and throw away the fruit if they are not good and just put them down in the ground an cover up with dirt and a few weeks later, small fruit tree. She dig them out and put them in a pot.

It may have something to do with climates, but I just eat the peach and let the kernel dry for a few days and push it in the ground, I have had very good luck with germination. They sprout very soon. I'm in zone 7 though. Tried several different kinds of peaches and they all worked that way. If you have more than one try different ways if you like and see what works for you.

Does anyone have peach pits from a peach called Indian Peach? A family had them in the Wenas Valley in Eastern Washington year ago. They were a small peach and the flesh was red all the way to the pit. They came true to variety from seed. Very hardy. I would like to find some and plant them here. Any help would be appreciated.
Lynn

I put some in a pot last winter and they didn't do a thing?

I've done peaches, nectarines, and patio peaches, georgia peaches, and a couple others and they all sprouted. I'll do one for you flower. Let you know when it sprouts.

Thanks mekos. Appreciate it.

Can you eat them mekos?

BUT OF COURSE, LOCA. Why plant something to eat if you couldn't eat them. I got peaches this year off a three year old tree I grew from a seed. It was loaded. And a 1 year old patio peach has several peaches on it too. I had one that was less than knee high with 3 peaches.

Good to know! Thanks friend! I wonder if peaches will grow here??? Hmmmmmm - need to do some research!

Check it to see. They are hardy here in zone 7 but you are much hotter than we are.

My Mom was telling me about Indian peaches just this afternoon. She wants to find one. She ate one at her sister's house years ago and said it was delish.

Thought maybe you all might be interested in this since we have been talking about Indian Peaches, I also found a place where you can buy the seed for them.


Indian Blood or Cherokee Peach
One "Blood" peach tree was sent Jefferson in 1807 by the Washington nurseryman Thomas Main. In 1810 Jefferson planted forty-one stones of the "black plumb peach of Georgia" in the "New Nursery." These likely came from William Meriwether, who had passed on "black soft peaches of Georgia" in 1804 and "Georgia black" peaches in 1809. When pomological writers such as Philip Miller, William Coxe, A. J. Downing, and U. P. Hedrick discussed the Blood Cling peach, they attributed its origin to a French variety known as Sanguinole, a curiosity suitable mostly for preserving. Today the peach is known as the Indian Blood Cling, a name that unites the "Blood" peach of the French Sanguinole with the "Indian" peach that grows wild in the southeastern states of Georgia and Florida and was obtained by Jefferson as the "black plumb peach of Georgia." The fruit, entirely splashed and mottled with scarlet, tiger-like stripes, is sometimes twelve inches round. The skin resembles a beet: scarlet, tough, and meaty, although pleasantly flavored and brisk. Blood Cling is a fine peach to eat out of hand but is mostly used for pickling and preserving. It was commonly listed by early nineteenth-century nurseries and is still offered in the trade.

flowerfantasy, where do you get the seed? I was looking for the one that is very red fleshed all the way to the pit, very hardy.
This one might do though. : )

Well according to the info this one is red all the way thru too.
Just type in Local Harvest and see if that will bring it up. That is the name of the place so hope it takes you there. If not try Indian Peaches like I did and see what that does.

This is really an unrelated "peach question", but a peach question none the less. We have noticed, or think we have noticed, that this year there are not so many free-stone peaches on the market. We like to grill them and you can imagine that cling is not so great.

Are we right? If so, I'd like to hear your thoughts on this.

Thanks, C.

That is a new one on me. I never heard of grilling peaches. How do you do that?

Hey peach fans and experts,

My neighbor has a peach tree and the peaches seem not quite ripe, though close. Tomorrow night our temperature is expected to go down to 25 degrees. Is it OK for peaches to be on the tree at that temp, or should we pick them and let them finish ripening indoors? Everything I can find on the web is about peach flowers freezing, but nothing about nearly-mature fruit.

Thank you from the Idaho mountains.

Hi mekos - love the name of your town!!

Grilling peaches: We have a gas grill - use medium heat, oil grill. Rub peach with canola oil, cut in half, remove pit. Grill first skin side down for 5-6 minutes (depending on size, better to use a medium size peach, not a big one), then flip over and grill cut side down for same amount of time. The cut side does not require any more oil. They are really delicious.

Thanks for the info on grilling them, I'd never heard of that. I'm going to try it next time we grill.