How To: Germinate & Plant Apples, Pears & Cherries!

How To: Germinate & Plant Apples, Pears & Cherries!

 

     Okay guys, so this post is going to be exactly like my Citrus & Avocado post only this time it's going to be how to germinate and plant the seeds of apples and pears and the pits of cherries! 

     Basically, it's a very simple process, here is what you will need:

-Seeds (Apple, Pear or Cherry)

- Paper Towel

-Plastic Container

     Okay well, the first things first. You do the same steps for any of the seeds mentioned. First what your going to want to do is clean off your seeds to remove any fruit that may be on them. Next, open up your plastic container (make sure has a nice tight fitting lid) and roll up two squares of paper towel, run them under water and wring it out until it is damp and not wet. 

 

     Now, place your damp paper towel on the bottom of your plastic container. Gently place your seeds on top of it and take two more pieces of paper towel and do the same as the first and place it on top of your seeds, gently patting the paper towel down onto the top of your seeds. Now put your lid tightly on top of the container and put into your refrigerator. 

 

     Now, you won't need to check on your seeds for at least two weeks (I check mine way too often haha). It can take anywhere from two-six weeks before you start to see anything happen with the seeds. Within that time frame your seeds should be sprouting their tap roots. Once the tap roots get to a nice length (I'd say roughly about 1 inch long) then fill some pots up with soil and push a hole about 1/2 inch deep and place your seeds with the tap root pointing downwards and cover them up. Within two weeks you should see your new fruit tree sprouting up!

     Hope you enjoyed this post! Next post will be an update on all of my trees/seeds!

-Mathew

Just A Picture Update On Lemon Trees

Just A Picture Update On Lemon Trees

     Hey guys, not too much to report today except that my Lemon Trees are growing very quickly! They are getting so tall! I took some pictures of them yesterday and just thought that I would share them with you all! Hope you enjoy them! 

     P.S. I know the pictures are not exactly the greatest, but the lighting isn't perfect, especially when the flash brights up the nice and shiny green leaves. :-)

     Hope you enjoyed them! Next post will be about germinating Apple, Pear & Cherry seeds!

-Mathew

How To: Grow Citrus Trees!

How To: Grow Citrus Trees!

     Okay, so I told you a couple posts down that I would tell you how to grow citrus trees from fruit such as: Lemons, Limes, Oranges, Grapefruit, etc. So far I have planted Lemon which have sprouted, as anyone who has seen my previous posts will notice, Red Grapefruit and Oranges. I really want to try Lime but I am having a very hard time lately finding any limes that have seeds. Every now and then I will get them, but sadly not lately. 

     Citrus seeds are fairly easy to plant. The first thing you're going to want to do is be very careful when cutting your fruit open, making sure not to damage any seeds. The second step is to collect the seeds, wash all fruit off of them and let them dry for about a minute. After your seeds are washed and dried you can do one of two things. The first thing you could do, is what I've done with my Lemons, Oranges (half of them) and Red Grapefruit, is to just simply plant them in a pot of soil and water until the soil is wet (no puddles or over watering please). If you do this step, within 2-3 weeks you should see some of your seeds sprout up!

     The second option would be to germinate them in a plastic container. To do this I simply fold up two squares of paper towel and wet them thoroughly then ring them out so they are damp and not soaked. Then I place them in the bottom of the container and place my dried seeds a top of them. The next thing I do is to take two more sheet of paper towel and repeat the first step and place that on top of the seeds. I then place the cover on top of the container and make sure it's on nice and tight and place 3-4 tiny holes up at the top for air. Now place your container in a nice warm location, next to a sunny window or a heater. Check your seeds in two weeks and you should see the tap root of the plant emerged from the bottom. Once you see the tap root, feel free to plant your seeds (tap root down obviously). 

      Now, just to let you know, when you are planting your seeds using either option, only plant the seeds about 1/2 an inch into the soil. Within 2-3 weeks you should see your first sprouts for the first option and within about 4-7 days for the second option before you see any sprout.

     If you have any questions, comments, or anything else, feel free to leave a comment below. Until next time, ciao!

-Mathew

Update on Avocado Pit

Update on Avocado Pit

      Well, I'm going to wait to post on how to plant citrus trees for now, I promise I will post it soon! It's just a lot to type out right now and frankly, I don't feel like typing it all tonight ha ha. 

     So, instead I will update you on everything I have growing. The only thing to date that has sprouted up are still my Lemon Trees, but everything else is either a bit over a week or a bit under a week since I've planted/germinated. Currently I have some hopes to see my Red Grapefruit start sprouting up soon, should be within a week or so when they should sprout if they are as fast as a Lemon, which I imagine all citrus fruit are probably roughly around the same length before they sprout. I also planted my Orange seeds a couple nights ago and decided to try germinating them between damp paper towels in a container as well to see if that worked well for me. I currently have some Golden Delicious Apple seeds in my fridge right now germinating in their own container.

     Now the only thing that has shown any development as of right now besides my Lemons is my Avocado pit. I just went in to check on my planted seedlings when I noticed a very faint crack down one side of my Avocado pit. This is progress! I am hoping to see the pit widen within the next few days and hopefully get the tap root out! This would be a very quick germination for an Avocado indeed! My fingers and toes are crossed that this is a speedy germination and not just some little tease that my Avocado is playing on me.

     Anyways, that is my update, although short, and possibly boring compared to my last posts. But I will post more tomorrow or the day after. 

-Mathew

P.S. ...I'm trying to convince myself not EVERY post needs a picture... haha.

How to: Grow Avocado Trees from Pit!

How to: Grow Avocado Trees from Pit!

     Alright so today I'm going to explain how to grow your own Avocado Tree from an Avocado pit! Here are a list of things you will need.

- Avocado Pit (Obviously)

- Mason Jar

- Toothpicks (4)

     Okay, so now that you have your supplies the first thing you're going to do is make sure not to damage the pit of the Avocado when cutting it open. Once you have the pit removed, carefully clean the fruit off of the pit under the tap. 

     The next thing your going to do is dry the pit off with a piece of paper towel. After you dry your pit off carefully insert the four toothpicks into the middle sides of the pit, you'll only need to put very little of the toothpick into the Avocado. So now you have four toothpicks in your avocado, one on each side. 

     The next step is to fill your mason jar with luke warm water and place the Avocado pit on top so the bottom half of the pit (The larger, rouder side) is submerged in the water and the pointed side is above the water. Make sure you place your Avocado pit in a nice sunny window where it's warm. You will have to top off the water in the jar everyday and every second day you're going to want to completely change the water. If you continue doing this for 3-4 weeks you will notice the top of the pit start to dry up and peel away. Shortly after your pit will start cracking down the side and you will finally have your tap root come out of the bottom of the pit. 

     Once your tap root is out, it will start growing fairly quickly until around 1-2 weeks later you will see the budding plant emerge from the top of the pit. Now, a lot of people find Avocado's to be very slow growing plants, but in my experience they are very quick. Within 1 week after the actual sprout came up from the top of the pit, the plant reached roughly about 3 inches tall. This is when you are going to want to plant the pit into a pot. I like to use the terracotta pots myself. So take you're pot, fill it up with soil to about 3/4's of the pot is full and make a nice long hole so you can easily fit the tap root and the bottom half of the pit in the soil. Keep the top part of the pit outside the soil with the rest of the plant. Make sure to never let your soil go dry, but remember never to over water! Over watering can be a lot more harmful to the plant than under watering. Luckily with Avocado Tree's they let you know how they are. If your leaves start to go brown, then you are over watering it. Let it dry out for a few days and it should be okay. If your leaves start to go yellow it means that you are not watering the plant enough. 

     So that's all you need to know about the basics of growing an Avocado Tree from pit! If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment below and I will reply back to you!

     I think the next post will be an update on the many trees I have planted as well as a "How to" for citrus fruits!

-Mathew

For All You Fruit Tree Lovers!

FOR ALL YOU FRUIT TREE LOVERS!

     Hello, my name is Mathew and I decided to create this blog for everyone and anyone who has an interest in fruit trees. The first fruit tree I ever tried to grow was an Avocado. I had met a woman who grew and sold her own Avocado trees and I must say, it perked my interest. So what did I do? Well, I went and bought an avocado, strictly for the pit sadly, due to the flavor and texture of the fruit not being anything to my personal tastes.

     Once I got home, I researched online how to germinate the pit to grow into a tree. Once I had all the info I grabbed the pit, cleaned it off, and carefully put a tooth pick on all four sides, filled up a mason jar of water and set the bottom half of the pit into the water, keeping the top above it and in a nice sunny window. It took a few weeks before the pit began to crack, but crack it did. Within roughly 5-6 weeks I had a little avocado tree sprouting from the top of the pit. I then planted the pit into some soil and it had gotten to be about 2 feet tall within only a couple of months until my usually very good cat decided to kill it. 

     Now I have a nice sunny warm room where my cats and dog cannot get into to start my hobby up again! I have started to plant several different seeds within the past month. The first things I planted were my Lemon seeds. As of right now, they are the only thing that I have planted that have grown so far. I am up to about 11 Lemon Tree sprouting up. Here is a picture of them as of today:

       There were a couple odd plants that are in this picture too that I realized were not Lemon Trees that I just recently took out. These guys I planted on May 13th 2013. They are now just a couple days over a month old. 

     The other seeds I have planted this far are: Red Delicious Apple, Peach, Red Plum, Red Grapefruit, Kiwi, and I just planted some Orange seeds today! I also have Golden Delicious Apples and an Avocado pit germinating at the moment as well! As soon as there is any change in any of those I will post some pics! And of course I will post the growth of my baby Lemon Trees as well!

     I will also make a post later on explaining how to germinate several different seeds and how to go about planting them and growing them yourself!

Until next post, au revoir!

-Mathew