Planting a plum stone/tomato/pepper seeds from the vegetables

kelloggs36

Hi - I am very much a newbie as far as gardening and growing this is concerned!

I have just made a plum crumble and have a lot of plum stones which I am loathed to throw out if it is possible to grow a plum tree from them. I have established that they need to be cold to germinate but do I need to do anything else to them before I plant them? ie soak them, or dry them out? Will these stones even be suitable for growing into trees for my garden??? Can anybody help?

Same question for tomato and pepper seeds????

olly300

Growing a plum tree from a plum stone would take years. If you really want a plum tree buy one from a tree nursery.

You can grow tomatoes and peppers from seeds.

With both you need to dry the seeds and put them in an air tight container in a cool dry place until next spring. Then next spring follow the guides here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/basics/techniques/growfruitandveg_growingtomatoes1.shtml
and here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/basics/techniques/growfruitandveg_growing_aubergines_chillies_peppers1.shtml

Davesnave

Plum tree from seed = probably a huge waste of time, due to the odds that it will be inferior to its parent.

Keeping seed from toms and peppers etc is a different matter, especially if they are not F1 hybrids. Even F1s are OK, if you don't mind exactly what you get. The investment of time & space compared with growing trees is, of course, much less.

Lotus-eater

While it's true that the investment is less in growing tomatoes and peppers, it's still a long old job growing them from seed.
I would suggest getting some proper seed, especially when you are just starting, otherwise growing peppers and toms for months, then finding out you don't even like bland fruit, or that the plant grows badly, isn't a good way to start.
Even really good tomato seed is cheap. (ish, depending on your thoughts on the matter )
Sweet pepper seeds everyone always says that you should get the ones designed to grow well in the UK, I've not found that much difference between these and ones from supermarket ones.
Chillies you can get some wild and wonderful seeds, most of the time better than ones from shop bought ones.

Farway

There are cheap & reduced seeds in Wilkinsons and Wyvale, plus others no doubt as they clear out for Christmas

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1910321

Maybe not a wide choice, but at least named variety that you can be sure will not be inferior

Having said that, always worth an experiment, I have long sweet red peppers ripening in the conservatory, grown from seed harvested from a Lidl long red pepper

Agree about the plum stone, not worth the effort & time, wait five or ten years to find pea sized sour plums. If you have space & time worth a punt, but do buy a named tree on named rootstock in the meantime

Jake'sGran

Things like peppers and tomatoes and many other smaller fruit/veg can do well from saved seed but I wouldn' bother with a plum stone. Last year a tomato plant I grew from a seed from a tomato bought at Morrison's was one of the best I've grown.

ktpie

You can always try it. Don't set your hopes on having loads of fruit anytime soon or possibly every but you could end up with a decorative little tree.

I've just sprouted an avocado stone, not expecting to be harvesting my own avocados but it will make a nice little house plant and it's free!

I've got Alys Fowler's Thrifty Gardener book (I got it from The Works and it was cheaper than Amazon) and it talks about doing stuff like this. She plants all sorts of stuff including chick peas, goji berries, lemons and chillis.

Davesnave

ktpie wrote: »

You can always try it. Don't set your hopes on having loads of fruit anytime soon or possibly every but you could end up with a decorative little tree.

I've just sprouted an avocado stone, not expecting to be harvesting my own avocados but it will make a nice little house plant and it's free!

I've got Alys Fowler's Thrifty Gardener book (I got it from The Works and it was cheaper than Amazon) and it talks about doing stuff like this. She plants all sorts of stuff including chick peas, goji berries, lemons and chillis.

With respect, there's a world of difference between planting some lemon or chilli seed on your windowsill and growing a tree which, not being on a dwarfing rootstock, could soon take over a significant area of garden......and for what?

Fifteen years ago I bought a plum from a very reputable source which was supposed to be on Pixy rootstock. After about five or six years, its roots began pushing a dwarf wall over and it was still heading upwards, so I brought in the chain saw! I think it had produced a few pounds of plums; no more.

Where I live now, some plums/gages in this garden have done really well and others are simply a waste of space. I didn't pay for any of them, so it won't hurt when the saw comes into play again soon. One thing's for sure though, experimenting with different varieties proved pretty expensive for the previous owner.

The best advice I can offer, is ask around and find out what grows well in your locality when it comes to choosing fruit like plums and gages, which can be fussy.....unless you live in the Vale of Evesham, or somewhere like that!

Incidentally, if you want to have fun crossing flowers and seeing what turns up, dahlias are good and quick, though they do take up quite a lot of space.

Farway

ktpie wrote: »

I've just sprouted an avocado stone, not expecting to be harvesting my own avocados but it will make a nice little house plant and it's free!

It will make a nice LARGE house plant, I did same as you years ago, they grow into trees, big trees that reach the ceiling if not kept in check

ktpie

Davesnave wrote: »

With respect, there's a world of difference between planting some lemon or chilli seed on your windowsill and growing a tree which, not being on a dwarfing rootstock, could soon take over a significant area of garden......and for what?

I did think after I posted earlier for a plum it would depend how much garden you had to spare!

ktpie

Farway wrote: »

It will make a nice LARGE house plant, I did same as you years ago, they grow into trees, big trees that reach the ceiling if not kept in check

Alys says something about pinching it out when it gets to a certain height so I'll have to remember to do that!