Growing New Fruit Tree Plants from Seed

Many people mistakenly believe that fruit trees come true to name from seeds. In reality if you collect seed from a fruit grown on a plant these seeds will produce plants that will be a hybrid of two plants. The new plant will be the same kind of plant, but its fruit and vegetative portions may not look the same as the parent, because the plant is "heterozygous." Therefore, all fruit trees must be vegetatively propagated by either grafting or budding methods. Grafting and budding require that you have a compatible rootstock or mother plant onto which you can attach your desired variety. An inexpensive way to obtain a seedling rootstock is to collect seeds from the type of plant you are propagating. This sheet gives a simple method to help germinate seeds to produce grafting rootstocks. The seeds of all common tree fruits (apple, pear, peach, and cherry) require a chilling period before they will germinate and form new plants. The chilling period occurs after the fruit portion is ripe. This period is known as either dormancy or afterripening. During this period the embryo develops until it is mature. This is accomplished by subjecting the seeds to a cold treatment. There are two systems whereby the necessary after ripening could be accomplished:

Method 1 - Out of Doors

Prepare a garden-soil plot in the fall as you would for planting any other type of seeds. Make a furrow that is no more than 1-2 times deeper than the longest dimension of the seed. Cover the seeds with a light cover of soil and add an inch or two of sand over the row. The sand will prevent crusting of the soil which inhibits germination. Next, place wire screen, or hardware cloth, over the rowbe sure all the edges are pushed down into the soil several inches and the ends are closed. This prevents chipmunks and squirrels from digging up the seeds' The following April watch the seeded area closely for newly germinated seedlings. As they grow, remove the wire-screen to prevent restriction of the new plants. (see Handling in Nursery, below)

Method 2 - Refrigerator
Extract seeds and/or pits from the fruit of which you wish to reproduce new plants. Remove all adhering fruit portions and allow seeds to air dry. Then, place them in a glass jar or other suitable container to which a loosely fitted lid or cover may be added. Set the seeds aside in a cool place until mid-January. Seeds require a period of cold exposure called "after-ripening" The length of this period varies by type of fruit (see Table below). The temperature the seeds are stored will also impact the

success of germination. Seeds should be stored dry in a sealed container at the appropriate temperature. Most seeds can be stored in airtight containers for up to 1 year if temperature is controlled. If seeds have not been previously received a cold treatment then in mid-January mix the seeds with either moist (not wet) peat moss, sand or shredded paper towels. Return mixture to the container and replace lid. Place container and seeds in the refrigerator until after the last severe spring frosts. The seeds should remain in the refrigerator for at least 60 days. In early April prepare a garden-soil seedbed, with furrows as described above, and plant the seeds. Keep the soil moist but not wet. No fertilizer should be added.

Handling in the Nursery

When the plants are 6 to 8 inches tall, apply 1 to 2 tablespoonful of urea along each 12 inches of row in a band on one side of the seedlings. Keep the fertilizer about 3 inches away from the seedlings. Water thoroughly every 10 to 12 days. The new seedling has a taproot. To facilitate transplanting we suggest you cut the taproot by pushing a spade under each plant. The spade should be pushed into the soil to cut the taproot about 5-6 inches below the surface. Peach, nectarine, almond and apricot seedlings may be budded the first summer, usually in late July or early August. Apple, cherries, pear and plum should be allowed to grow through to the July-August period of the second year before budding is done. Apple and pear are the only tree fruit plants which the home gardener may expect to bench graft with success. The peach-cherry plum group are very difficult to propagate by any other means than budding. The budding and grafting procedures are described in Pa. Agr. Extension Special Circular 153, entitled "Methods of Grafting" available through the Agricultural Extension office in your county.

Fruit: a matured ovary containing one or more seeds. Fruit development:

Pollination, and the ensuing fertilization within the ovules, stimulates the ovary enclosing them to begin growing into a fruit. Within a few days after successful pollination the ovary begins to swell perceptible. This is called the fruit set. Fruit development is under the influence of the plant hormones auxin and gibberellin. Pollen is one of the richest natural sources of auxin, so it is thought that the initial stimulus to fruit growth comes simply from the auxin to which the pistil is exposed as a result of pollination. Applying the hormone auxin or gibberellin to the ovaries of flowers can induce a fruit to develop without pollination or fertilization. This is called a parthenocarpic fruit and is, of course, seedless.

When its seeds are ready for dispersal, a fruit ripens. Some characteristics of ripening are familiar: changing from green to some bright color, sweetening, and softening. A fruit's color changes due to chlorophyll breakdown and the formation of other pigments in the chromoplasts. Sweetening is due to the accumulation of sugar, which can reach concentrations of over 20% by weight in some fruits. The softening of fruit tissue during ripening involves the breakdown of cell wall components, particularly pectin. The ripening can be induced prematurely by exposing fruit to air that contains only a few parts per million of the gaseous plant growth regulator, ethylene. Ripening can be delayed by storing fruits in air kept as free of ethylene as possible and supplemented with extra CO2, which antagonizes the physiological action of ethylene. In botany, a fruit is a part of a flowering plant that derives from specific tissues of the flower, one or more ovaries, and in some cases accessory tissues. Fruits are the means by which these plants disseminate seeds. Many of them that bear edible fruits, in particular, have propagated with the movements of humans and animals in a symbiotic relationship as a means for seed dispersal and nutrition, respectively; in fact, humans and many animals have become dependent on fruits as a source of food.[1] Fruits account for a substantial fraction of the world's agricultural output, and some (such as the apple and the pomegranate) have acquired extensive cultural and symbolic meanings. In common language usage, "fruit" normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of a plant that are sweet or sour and edible in the raw state, such as apples, oranges, grapes, strawberries, bananas, and lemons. On the other hand, the botanical sense of "fruit" includes many structures that are not commonly called "fruits", such as bean pods, corn kernels, wheat grains, and tomatoes.[2][3] The section of a fungus that produces spores is also called a fruiting body.[4]

Botanic fruit and culinary fruit

Venn diagram representing the relationship between (culinary) vegetables and botanical fruits In the culinary sense of these words, a fruit is usually any sweet-tasting plant product, especially those associated with seeds; a vegetable is any savory or less sweet plant product; and a nut is any hard, oily, and shelled plant product.[5] These culinary vegetables that are botanically fruit include cucurbits (e.g., squash, pumpkin, and cucumber), tomatoes, peas, beans, corn, eggplant, and sweet pepper. In addition, some spices, such as allspice and chilies, are fruits, botanically speaking.[6] In contrast, rhubarb is often referred to as a fruit, because it is used to make sweet desserts such as pies, though only the petiole (leaf stalk) of the rhubarb plant is edible.[7] Edible gymnosperm seeds are often given fruit names, e.g., pine nuts, ginkgo nuts.

Botanically, a cereal grain, such as corn, wheat or rice, is also a kind of fruit, termed a caryopsis. However, the fruit wall is very thin, and is fused to the seed coat, so almost all of the edible grain is actually a seed.[8] Many common terms for seeds and fruit do not correspond to the botanical classifications. In botany, seeds are ripened ovules; fruits are the ripened ovaries or carpels that contain the seeds and a nut is a type of fruit and not a seed.[6]

Fruit development

The development sequence of a typical drupe, the nectarine (Prunus persica) over a 7.5 month period, from bud formation in early winter to fruit ripening in midsummer (see image page for further information)

A fruit results from maturation of one or more flowers, and the gynoecium of the flower(s) forms all or part of the fruit.[9] Inside the ovary/ovaries are one or more ovules where the megagametophyte contains the egg cell.[10] After double fertilization, these ovules will become seeds. The ovules are fertilized in a process that starts with pollination, which involves the movement of pollen from the stamens to the stigma of flowers. After pollination, a tube grows from the pollen through the stigma into the ovary to the ovule and two sperm are transferred from the pollen to the megagametophyte. Within the megagametophyte one of the two sperm unites with the egg, forming a zygote, and the second sperm enters the central cell forming the endosperm mother cell, which completes the double fertilization process.[11][12] Later the zygote will give rise to the embryo of the seed, and the endosperm mother cell will give rise to endosperm, a nutritive tissue used by the embryo. As the ovules develop into seeds, the ovary begins to ripen and the ovary wall, the pericarp, may become fleshy (as in berries or drupes), or form a hard outer covering (as in nuts). In some multiseeded fruits, the extent to which the flesh develops is proportional to the number of fertilized ovules.[13] The pericarp is often differentiated into two or three distinct layers called the

exocarp (outer layer, also called epicarp), mesocarp (middle layer), and endocarp (inner layer). In some fruits, especially simple fruits derived from an inferior ovary, other parts of the flower (such as the floral tube, including the petals, sepals, and stamens), fuse with the ovary and ripen with it. In other cases, the sepals, petals and/or stamens and style of the flower fall off. When such other floral parts are a significant part of the fruit, it is called an accessory fruit. Since other parts of the flower may contribute to the structure of the fruit, it is important to study flower structure to understand how a particular fruit forms.[3] There are three general modes of fruit development:

Apocarpous fruits develop from a single flower having one or more separate carpels, and they are the simplest fruits. Syncarpous fruits develop from a single gynoecium having two or more carpels fused together. Multiple fruits form from many different flowers.

Plant scientists have grouped fruits into three main groups, simple fruits, aggregate fruits, and composite or multiple fruits.[14] The groupings are not evolutionarily relevant, since many diverse plant taxa may be in the same group, but reflect how the flower organs are arranged and how the fruits develop.