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| I have apricot trees and my little granddaughters wanted to plant the pits. I read about stratifying and had a bunch of the pits in sand in a baggie in the refrigerator like they said. I now have one with a quite firm little sprout about an inch long. My question is, is this a root or the actual little tree growing? Do I plant the pit with the sprout down in the dirt or sticking up out of the dirt? The sprout is coming out of the pointy end of the pit, not the rounded end. Don't laugh, I know its probably a stupid question, but the only stupid questions are ones that aren't asked, as my mother used to say. thanks much |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by ken_adrian z5 (My Page) on Tue, Sep 11, 12 at 19:50
| if you are putting them in a pot.. get some potting MEDIA ... dirt isnt for pots ... as for your specific question.. i always solved it the easy way .. and you might smack your forehead... plant it on its side.. get this.. the roots will go down.. and the sprout will go up ... lol ... and i have quoted your mother a number of times ... lol the hardest thing with trees in pots.. is drainage .. they are not like houseplants that like soggy roots ... if i were you.. i would get a bag of cactus mix .... wet it completely.. insert the pit ... sideways ... and then put a gallon plastic bag over it until some leaves sprout ... just some extra humidity for a while ... there is a fruit forum.. and they might have other more specific suggestions ... all that said.. do you understand that the peach you eventually get.. in 5 or 10 years. may or may not be as good as that which the pit came from ... and that is why most fruit trees are grafted.. and not seed grown ... but your little tree would be good understock.. for when g-ma decides to teach grafting to the rug rats.. lol .. then the last issue is what the heck you plan on doing with it in z4 for winter.. it is not a houseplant ... good luck ken |
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| When a pit starts to germinate it begins by putting down a radicle ie a little root. So the first thing you see is a root. So it plant that downwards. The second shoot will be the stem. |
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| It is normal for most pit type seeds for the radicle and the cotyledon, that is the root and and the stem, to emerge from the same location on the pit. For this reason the pit is best laid on its side, but no matter the orientation, it will still work. Al |
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| Here is a fair explanation of what happens in the link.Like Al wrote,no matter,it will still work. I planted some Pawpaw seeds and checked for germination.Some of them had the root that came from the top of the seed,curving 180 degrees downward. Brady |
Here is a link that might be useful: How Roots Know How to Grow Down
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| calistoga - the OP's pit has already produced a shoot and this is almost certainly a radicle which generally come before the stem. If sowing pits from scratch obviously putting them on their sides would work fine. But I was responding to the question as to which way up to plant this particular, already rooting, pit. If she planted a pit with an existing root on its side, or heaven forbid, upside down, assuming it was a stem, there would be a real risk of losing it. |
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