I know that all the books recommend that you shouldn’t grow stone fruit from seed because the resultant fruit is variable, but I would still like to have a go at it.

When would be the best time to sow the seed?

AnneS.. you will need a large farm.. ;) but having said that I will also say .. don’t let the facts astonish you.. try to prove them wrong.. I do and have many times.

The best ever nectarine.. I grew from a sample of seven seeds.

Stupid me.. I didn’t graft it onto something else., as seeds sown naturally .. don’t always land in the correct place to fulfill their purpose. The reason is that humans put things like houses in the way.

Generally speaking you are going to get what you want from one in a thousand.. or maybe that is conservative. I did get two prostrate tea trees from some two thousand Leptospermum seed.. both were different.. one like a dinner plate in size and less than 50mm tall. The other one grew to approx 300mm tall but I never got to see either of them grow to full maturity since I sold them to other gardeners to pay my water bill. Yes I took many cuttings.. but again I sold them all.. and.. the mother plants died .. since this isn’t really tea tree country.. unless you use the local tea tree.

Generally speaking.. to select the best from the seed you grow of stone fruit such as peaches or nectarines .. you will need to grow each seed to the age of two to five years before you find out how good or bad it is.. out of seven nectarine seeds I grew seven edible nectarines.. some were extremely white fleshed some were more the goldmine type since goldmine was the seed I used.. some werre so bitter that the window in which to eat them was very small.. one had skin so tough that I’d rather eat my leather belt.

Now .. to germinate the seed .. well., Now is when you are getting the seed so now is the time to start.

Eat the peaches.. keep the seeds.

Dry the seed well. Spread it out in the sun after you have eaten the fruit and selected the nicest fruit to collect seed from.

Once dry .. put it away in a bag until autumn.

either cold stratify the seed by soaking it.. and keeping it moist and cold until the seed cases start to split, which is when you sow them out….. or.. just sow them in May.. and soak the beds until the soil is black with moisture .. and leave alone until spring.. That is.. if you get frosty winters.

As a nurseryman I can tell you this.. most nurseries get their seed from processing factories(canneries).
We buy them in tonnes and spread them in the sun to dry.. then we put them in bags and chuck them in the shed until the very last water we can get.. usually May. We dig the trees we grew last year from May to July.

We then get on the tractor and sow tonnes of them.. one by one. yes we use tractors but yes we also sort each seed.. one by one. Mind.. you need a tractor with crawl gear.
We then soak the whole paddock black.. yes that’s a lotta megalitres.. but we are used to doing that.

We then forget about them until they should be coming up.. in spring.. at which time we send someone in to spray the weeds and plough between the rows etc.. before we go in by hand and clean up properly.

Then we clean the trees and bud every one to a variety on the catalogue.

My suggestion is this.. do the above .. but do it only with seed you select.

don’t bother planting seed from fruit you don’t really like the taste of. plant only from the best.. whenever you get that “best” piece of fruit.. save the seed.

Remember that it needs to be wet all winter.. for it to work.

and go for it.. many of your trees will be classed as .. “oh why did I bother”.. but some will be classed as .. “I’m glad I did”

remember.. this:

If your experiment fails.. in that the seed you grew turns into a patch of trees that taste like the bottom of a birdcage.. then.. you can still go to your neighbour’s tree.. you know the one you really love.. and take a branch.. cut the leaves off and .. slice a bud off the branch.. stick it on the ugly seedling and end up with something that you do want to do the work to keep the fruit for harvest .

If you live in a tropical area.. you will need to be more careful to only use seed from trees proven to grow in your locale.

A bit more needs to be said..

about the fact of locale and seed.

truthfully If you gather seed locally or from abroad.. chances are that it will all be rather mixed up.

The only seed you know is local.. are native species that were there before you got there.

No stone fruit other than Quandong could be local.

What you need is a tree that has proven to grow well locally.. this tree is best for seed to grow locally.

If the fruit that eventuates tastes good .. well and good.

However, if it does not.. and the tree is growing well, it will make a sound rootstock for any variety you graft onto it

It is a gardening forum so I didn’t say this yet.. but the rule of thumb is .. plant any seed.. its own depth

or.. do I need to say that another way?

adding to that..

and this is the same for all trees and plants.

they will grow best if you approximate the conditions they evolved to suit.

part of that is that in many cases.. indeed with deciduous species.. they cover their seed with their leaves.. In the case of tres that originate in snow country.. the seed needs to be under leaves.. under snow.

So now you should understand the term “ cold stratification”

Australia has some zones where this can occur naturally.. even without snow. Otherwise.. you will have to try and approximate.. Which means use a fridge.

What can I say but Wow? Thanks for all that info roughbarked. I’ll give it a go because really what have I got to lose? If nothing else I will get some rootstock!

BTW I gather you had problems sleeping last night…looking at the time of your post…you poor thing. You must be exhausted now. I’m so gald we got our southerly yesterday. At least we could sleep.

I sleep very little in hot weather.. ;)