Do you have lovely vineyard peaches but your trees are starting to wilt?
Have you tasted vineyard peaches with an incomparable taste at your neighbors?
Like some other stone fruits (see end of article) Vineyard peaches reproduce faithfully by seed. (which concretely means that you get the same fruit).
So don’t hesitate: multiply them!
Harvest and prepare the peach pits from the vine
The fruits must be harvested perfectly ripe, ie when they are edible (late August, early September, depending on your geographical location, soil, exposure), on healthy trees.
After tasting your peaches, brush the stones under water and let them dry by spreading them out on a (clean) tea towel, for example.
Multiply by stratification
It is generally advisable to stratify the nuclei; meaning we will place them in conditions that promote germination.
This is not an obligation (you can sow directly as we will see below.
Here’s how:
- Place the pot outside in winter, along a north-facing wall (the cold has a favorable effect on the germination process);
- At the beginning of spring, when the young shoots are about 30 cm and in unfrozen soil (if not, wait a little longer), transplant them into the ground in a small planting hole prepared in advance;
sow directly
Personally, I generally prefer direct sowing.
Why sow your vine peaches directly?
- Because there is nothing simpler;
- Because a peach tree grown from seed requires less (if at all) water and is more drought tolerant;
- Simply because it is clear that a tree that has not undergone a transplant will be much more robust and resistant to disease. For example, I find that peach trees sown directly into the ground are free of peach curl (a cryptogamic disease known to gardeners).
So it’s very simple:
- Make a small hole that you will fill with loose soil;
- In the fall or early spring (after cleaning and drying them, keep the seeds in a cool place in the house), place the pit (or several to ensure absorption) about 15-20 cm deep;
- In particular, mark the location well (you can already have a stick planted);
- Wait… the young shoot will emerge in the spring… or not until the following year (this is the major drawback of this process);
- You can then add a little mature compost as soon as it comes up (in addition to the nutrient contribution, the soil is therefore covered with a black material, beneficial for warming);
- When the soil has warmed up enough (May-June, depending on the region), you should mulch abundantly instead of hoeing on foot (with the risk of damage to the roots this causes… not to mention the disturbance of the life of the soil).
Those same contributions can be usefully renewed every year.
During the fruiting period, do not hesitate to water the base with comfrey root.
As we have seen, this process has the disadvantage that it sometimes takes an extra year to germinate. Add to that the fact that rodents can take away the core…
What other varieties can you faithfully reproduce from seed?
You cannot faithfully reproduce a variety by seed from a grafted tree (stone or pit) or from a kernel tree.
Nevertheless, as for candid peach trees (ie, not grafted), certain stone varieties can be propagated successfully:
- many varieties of plums: Quetches, Mirabelle plums, Reines Claude, Ente plum (from Agen)
- some cherry trees, such as morels,
- the almonds,
- some apricots
- certain old kinds of nuts…
