This is a new experiment for me.

Long story short, my friends Jim and (his wife) Janet bought a bunch of peaches. I forget, 3 or 4 or maybe 5 bushel? They bought them to can or make jelly/preserves and pies. So, I asked them to save me the seeds.

Peach seeds need to be chilled/frozen before they will sprout. (From what I've been told, and read.) So, I froze the seeds in water. They've been down to -20* F. for a while. A week or so ago, I took them out of the freezer, and let them thaw good.

Yesterday and the day before I planted them in moist potting soil, in plastic tubs. I've got them here in the house now, warming up. My potting soil was frozen hard as a rock.

I have 32 seeds in the first tub, and I'd guess 40-plus seeds in the second tub. I gave a few seeds to friends too.

I did take a hammer and crack the hull off of one seed, as far as I can tell the actual seed looks good. We shall see.

For the time being, I'll sit back and check them in 2 or 3 weeks to see what's going on.

My father in law planted 10 trees on our property and they all grew,and produced
small peaches. But between the birds and groundhogs climbing the trees and eating them
we had very little to eat. I believe that they would have done better@ another location
on our place ,as there was very little sun because of big White oaks

Years ago Mom had a little compost pile in the back corner of the yard. It's between the shed and the yard fence, maybe 30 inches wide, by the width of the shed? That little spot is where she kept the bean fence, tomato cages, posts and all, from the garden. Just to get it out of the way.

Anyway, 2 peach seeds sprouted and grew. One nice looking tree and the other one always did look kind of weak. But, off and on, those 2 little trees produced pretty good. I don't remember if she ever had enough to can? I think mostly she'd chop them up and freeze them. And really, once the peaches were dead ripe, they were pretty good.

My Granddad, Mom's father, he had fruit trees all over the place. He had a row of peach trees, up at what we call the "Tater Patch", that's 1/4 mile from his house. But back at the time, he didn't have deer or bear like we do now.

It's about the same with any kind of fruit tree, grapes or whatever. About 3 days before they are ready to harvest, the coons, birds and all will raid the patch and ruin the works.

Granddad had plum trees, I remember I pulled off the most mature one I could find. I took it to Mom, it wasn't quite ripe yet. Figured I'd go up a couple days later and pick them all. The coons had been there first, I came home without a single plum.

Your Granddads place must of looked like the farm i grew up on,
we had 6-8 big pear trees,probably 15 apple trees of different type
two big cherry trees,i forget the name of the cherry tree,but they were about
the size of a nickel,and orange an yellow in color.We also had fox grapes.
My mother put up everything she could.

Yes, the 2 farms sound very similar. Honestly, Dad's homeplace is just about the same too. My brother lives on the farm, he does a good job with the fruit trees. He's added some trees, more grapes and all.

Last few years he's been planting those hybrid American Chestnut trees. I think they are supposed to be like 7/8's original. I asked him a while back how they were doing, we're not sure, He and I have both forgotten exactly where most of them are planted. The couple that I know of seem to be holding their own.

I agree, they used everything they could get. Making apple sauce or apple butter, peaches, pears, all of it. Plus the things that were dried. Saving seeds from one year to the next, sharing with family and friends.

Folks are spoiled today.

Today makes 6 weeks since I planted the peach seeds, I cracked the shell off of 4 seeds, 2 from each tub. Both seeds from tub were dried up and dead. Both seeds from the other tub appear to be ok, but still no sign of growth. I've been keeping the soil moist. The actual seeds from that tub feel kind of rubbery, you can bend the seed a little bit in your fingers. I'm not sure if that's good or bad? I'll check them again in 2 or 3 weeks.

In a different thread from maybe a year or 2 ago? We were talking about apple trees, and that we only get a good harvest now and then. My buddy Mark owned an apple orchard down in Hampshire Co, WV. Mark said the break point was 26* F, when it would kill the bloom.

Across the road in the church yard there is an apple tree, some years it does good, some years it doesn't. A friend of mine and her kids planted the tree. Last week that apple was covered with pretty white bloom. I think it was Tuesday, that night the temperature dropped to 23*. Wednesday morning at daylight the wind was dead calm, and within 12 hours nearly all of the bloom was a brownish-yellow color.

The mailman and I looked at the bloom, pretty much agreed that about all of it was dead. It seems some of the lower limbs have bloom, I guess from heat from the ground, the church building and passing cars, keeping a breeze going.

The rains and winds we've had the past few days have blown about all of the bloom off of the tree.

I just read in the news, folks up in Pendleton county had snow last night. The DOH was out with their snow trucks. Looked like maybe 6 inches?

Yep. I had a pear tree in full bloom. Frost knocked them all off. As I said previously, I get a crop about 1 year out of 5.