Cherry Trees From Seeds

[submarinesailor]

Recently we purchased some delicious red cherries at Whole Foods.   My daughter is saving the seeds and would like to plant them.  Is there any chance they will germinate?  If so, what type of seed bed, soil conditions, when would you transfer them to our place in the mountains of Madison County, Virginia?  What about during the waxing or waning of the moon.  Someone made the comment that it should be during the waxing because the moon pulls the moisture up towards the surface.  Any comments on this statement?

[SwampDonkey]

Might need to stratify them a few weeks in the fridge. I have some wild Canada plum I collected last fall and store in the fridge, in hopes of germinating them this March.

Forget about the moon business, mostly a bunch of googly gook. It depends more on available soil water, soil texture/porosity, evapotranspiration pathway of the plant, and most importantly, the sun.

You may also have to consider frost free days during your growing season, more importantly, late spring frosts during flowering. Check your local climate against commercially grown cherry varieties.

[wesdor]

I can't say how to start them from your seed, but my wife and I are big fans of the Ranier Cherry.  Yellow with a red blush - and the sweetest we have ever tasted.

Last spring I planted 8 of them near our house here in Illinois as an experiment.  You might want to check with a reputable nursery in your area in addition to trying to get the seeds to grow. 

An old German custom is to pit the cherries and then pack them your choice of liquor.  We especially like Ranier Cherries in bourbon or rum. 

Good luck on getting the seeds to germinate.

[asy]

I'll be very interested in hearing how your project goes, sub!

I LOVE cherries!

asy :D

[clousert]

I tried this once, but no luck.  Alot of cherry trees are hybrids or something.  I even tried putting some of the seeds in the freezer for a couple of days, just like would happen in nature, to allow the seeds to "crack" open or whatever it is that they do.  I'd love to know if you are successful, and how to do it.

[SwampDonkey]

Yeah, I'm wondering if hard freezing might damage the embryo. And a couple days probably is no where near long enough to stratify the seed. I would think at least 4 weeks.

I just did a quick check on the web and found this for wild black cherry.

Seed germinate best after stratification at 41 degrees for 30 to 60 days (or even longer) prior to planting in the spring. Another method is to soak the seed in a diluted acid solution or vinegar can work for a short period of time before planting. Seeds germinate easier after passing through the digestive system of some animals.

I think I'll try some of my plum seed soaked in vinegar for 24 hrs.

[clouserfarm]

I tried this once, but no luck.  Alot of cherry trees are hybrids or something.  I even tried putting some of the seeds in the freezer for a couple of days, just like would happen in nature, to allow the seeds to "crack" open or whatever it is that they do.  I'd love to know if you are successful, and how to do it.

I think many cherry trees are grafted on rootstock and will not reproduce true

[SwampDonkey]

I think many cherry trees are grafted on rootstock and will not reproduce true

I think they (seed) would be true between the grafted material and what ever the pollen source was, thus the flowers and seed should have the same genes (or 50 %) as the stick that got grafted to the root. The root stalk doesn't change the genetics of the seed. It is done, I believe to keep the line true and also to get a flowering tree much sooner than from seed. If the seed does not represent the host branch (100 % true), that is because of cross pollination with another variety. Basically, it was crossed naturally with another variety of pollen that flew by on the wind or insect and not controlled pollination.

[ErikC]

  Many times fruit trees are grafted to hardier, disease resistant rootstock that does not produce desirable fruit. The rootstock has no effect on the fruit, only the health of the tree. Sometimes a sucker is not pruned that comes from below the graft, and it will produce the original rootstock variety. But many rootstocks produce nothing of interest. The best of both worlds I guess. In some climates the grafted variety won't survive, or may survive but not produce well on it's own rootstock. But it won't cost much to give it a try....


Erik

[SwampDonkey]

some times the root stock grows faster than the grafted top to and the bark splits letting disease in. Happened to one I had, and I'm not interested any more in buying grafted stock. I'm now trying to grow wild plum from seed. Tomorrow will be a week since planted. I don't expect to see anything emerge until mid March.

Prunus Nigra

[SPIKER]

awampdonkey:

we have lots of wild plum I got them from the DNR free some 200 seedlings (American Plum) is what they called em. but grow fast & will give lots of food for the pesky deer & bugs lol.   I like them for the spring flowers too and also a few good plumbs even if they are small iffin ya can keep the pests away..

mark

[SwampDonkey]

Probably P. Americana eh? These (P. Nigra) are native here, and are becoming hard to find in the wild. There were lots around my neighborhood when I was young, now all gone. Hopefully, I can get a little grove going. These ones are short shrubs and thorny as all get out, but I like the fruit in early autumn. Maybe the coons will be deterred by the thorns. :D
I got the seed on abandoned farm land, near a rock pile. I remember then being there when we planted trees on th eold fields up there.I call these the 'Foley Brook' provinance, since they came from there. ;D

The wood is bright red brown; heavy, hard, strong and close-grained, with a density of 0.6918 [Wikipedia]