Apricot, Nectarines and Plums from seed

Discussion in 'Fruit and Nut Trees' started by rwood, Aug 2, 2005.

  1. rwood

    rwood Member

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    Location:
    Canberra Australia
    Hi there,

    I have collected, wintered and planted apricot, nectarine and plum seeds from trees in our garden. I think Ive prepared the seed well enough that it should germinate (Ive had a few volunteers in the compost heap so Im a bit confident).

    All the trees are massive producers (they are all old) very healthy and the friut is superb. Will they grow true from seed? Do I need to, should I and/or could I graft or bud material from the parent trees onto these seedlings (should they choose to appear of course).

    (see 'Have p.Trifoliata seed, now what' for details on my location).

    Any help would be appreciated.

    Thanks
    Raphael in Australia
     
  2. Carol Ja

    Carol Ja Active Member 10 Years

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    Location:
    Salt Spring Island
    I've heard true to seed, but slow to grow. Grafting is faster.
    Carol Ja
     
  3. mr.shep

    mr.shep Well-Known Member 10 Years

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    Location:
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    Will they grow true from seed? Do I need to, should
    I and/or could I graft or bud material from the parent
    trees onto these seedlings (should they choose to
    appear of course).


    Unless the parents were seedlings themselves or were
    cutting grown, the likelihood that the seedling offspring
    will be true to the parent in quality of the fruit is almost
    nil. Seedlings attained from grafted or budded parents
    will generally yield offspring closer in type to what the
    rootstock parent is, rather than the scion parent. As an
    example let's say a Rio Oso Freestone Peach is grafted
    onto Nemaguard rootstock. You can pretty well expect
    that most all of the seedlings raised from this parent tree
    will more closely resemble the Nemaguard rootstock than
    they will the Rio Oso Peach (there can be some exceptions
    but not enough to count on). This above scenario is truer
    for the Stone Fruits but does not hold true for many of the
    Pomes (Apples, Pears, Pomegranates) and the Nut Trees
    (Almonds, Pecans, Walnuts, Filberts) depending on what
    their rootstock parent is.

    To further things: let's say a Butte Almond is grafted onto
    Titan (which is an Almond rootstock) will yield offspring
    closer to what the Butte is but if the Butte is grafted onto
    Nemaguard (Peach) rootstock the seedlings will appear
    closer to the Nemaguard parent. Even a Chandler Walnut
    grafted onto Black Walnut rootstock can yield English
    Walnut offspring.

    True to type means that an Apricot will yield Apricot
    offspring but this will not hold true if the scion parent
    was not grafted also onto Apricot rootstock. If the
    Apricot was grafted onto Peach rootstock then the
    offspring will in most cases be a Peach or very similar
    to being a Peach rather being than an Apricot.

    Even with seedling grown parents, not grafted at all,
    a Nectarine seed can yield a Peach seedling. That is
    how my old Clingstone Peach came about as it came
    from a Nectarine we got from the late Fred Anderson
    from Le Grand, California, the renown plant breeder
    of Peaches, Plums and Nectarines.

    I suggest you graft wood from the parents onto the
    seedlings that do germinate for you.

    Jim
     
  4. rwood

    rwood Member

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    I will do just that then. Thanks for all the info Jim. Any links to how to graft stonefruits out here? I will look around myself, but while Im here....

    Thanks again
    Raphael in Australia
     
  5. Taoist

    Taoist Member

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    Location:
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    Hi Raphael -

    What steps did you take to prepare the seeds? I'm interested in starting nectarines from seed. And, yes, I know grafting is quicker, it may not come out true to the parent, particularly if it was a graft.

    Fact is, I have seed and I want to do something with them. Any assistance is appreciated.

    -Taoist
     
  6. Carol Ja

    Carol Ja Active Member 10 Years

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    Location:
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    Plant them and have some greenery, worry about the fruit later.
    Carol Ja
     
  7. GinnyLee

    GinnyLee Member

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    Location:
    Austin, TX
    I am new to this so please except my apologies if I am not good at it, I will learn lol I want to grow a Plum tree, I have seeds, I know you have to let them dry out, before opening them to germinate, but how long do I have to wait, I have had success at growing lemon trees, mango and Avacado trees, Please help me.
     
  8. Millet

    Millet Well-Known Member 10 Years

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    Location:
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    Plums do not produce trees true to the mother tree from which they came. Generally, seedling plums are inferior in quality. Plum seed are generally planted only to produce seedling trees to be used as under stock with quality varieties grafted upon them. My best advise is to save yourself many years of waiting and then disappointment. Go out and purchase a grafted plum tree of a known quality variety. - Millet
     
  9. GinnyLee

    GinnyLee Member

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    thanks Millet, Im just a home gardener and was going to try the black plum, but right now i dont have a place to plant my trees, we are in the process of looking for a house, is there a easy fruit tree that will yeild quickly that i could try.
     
  10. MIKEY1TWO

    MIKEY1TWO Member

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    Location:
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    So how about the Ambrosia peach tree? It was found growing from seed and the made commercial by grafting on a Nemaguard rootstock. A little hard to find!
    Could this plant be grown from seed from the grafted Ambrosia that I bought and then later that seedling be grafted with a scion from my bought Ambrosia of known quality.
    Grafts to the Rio Oso Gem tree, Nemaguard and on another seedlings peach tree produced fruit identical to the original parent.
    Whats so special about the Nemaguard rootstock, besides being a good rootstock.....why are they so hard to get for the everyday person.....Any sources for the seedlings or true type seeds?
    I basicly just want to multiply my tree into like 5 (mostly for the challange).
     
  11. sandra varos

    sandra varos Member

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    Location:
    Valdez,New Mexico 87580
    hi, I live in Taos, New Mexico, and my neighbor has a large old apricot tree. I took some seeds. Could you tell me how to germinate them so they will grow? Thanks. Sandra
     
  12. biggam

    biggam Active Member

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  13. ty2340

    ty2340 Member

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    Sorry jim, but you are totaly wrong on this. Rootstock has no infulence on the seed of the cultivar. A seed from a peach grafted unto a plum will grow a peach tree and bear a peach.
    The source of the pollen is what infulences the genetics of the seed not the rootstock.

    http://www.colostate.edu/Dept/CoopExt/4dmg/VegFruit/Fruits/pits.htm
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 9, 2010
  14. mr.shep

    mr.shep Well-Known Member 10 Years

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    Location:
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    In subjective theory I am wrong but in applied
    practice I am not far out of bounds.

    A Peach seedling grafted onto a Plum will yield
    a Peach but somewhere, somehow, the resultant
    Peach will not be quite the same as the Peach
    seed bearing mother plant was.

    Sometimes the difference is quite subtle as in
    overall flavor or the amount of sugar produced
    in the fruit. Sometimes the difference is which
    tree is more or less susceptible to insect, mite,
    nematode and pathogen damage during a
    growing season. Results years ago in Citrus,
    various trials, concluded that even nutrient
    uptake into the host tree can be impacted by
    the rootstock parent of the same genus.

    The source of the pollen is what influences the
    genetics of the seed not the rootstock.


    The above does not take into account asexual
    activity which has been known to occur in the
    Pome fruits, Stone fruits and the Nut trees.

    Read up on the impact of dwarfing rootstocks on
    the varietal standard sized scion trees when seed
    taken from these put together trees are also grown
    on. When a 20 foot Apple is budded onto a certain
    Apple rootstock and the resultant seedlings from
    the fruit are grown on and all of the batch seedlings
    end up less than 15 feet tall in the same amount
    of time as the standard sized Apple, it will be diffident
    to suggest that the genetics of the rootstock did not
    affect the phenotype of the standard sized Apple. The
    resultant proof, certainly suggestive evidence of genomal
    change of the host plant, is in the seedling offspring.

    Jim
     
  15. jaio

    jaio Member

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    Location:
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    Plums have a pit, that should clue you in, and inside that pit there is a very delicate seed. However it might need that pit to grow, that pit might have hormones that make it grow. The seed is kind of like a very thin pinto bean, on the outside, the inside is kind of, well, you have to find out for yourself, and protect your eyes and all before you go cracking into one to see the seed. The pit is kind of hard, so you can try to soak it for a few hours in water first before going into it, it might be as soft as a nectarine pit if you do that, I have not yet tried it. If it's a pit from a store bought plum chances are you won't find viable seed, it might be because of product they might use to induce better blooming, I don't know. Happy experimenting.
     

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