You have tasted a juicy and sweet Apricot Kernel. Did you like the fruit and would you like to grow the same variety in your garden? Nothing could be easier: all you have to do is grow enough seeds. Here are all our tips.
How To Prepare Stones For Germination?
the apricot pits are usually very hard. They are surrounded by a waterproof and airtight envelope that is meant to protect the actual seed locked inside: the almond.
Moreover, in the garden, some fruits are not eaten and end up falling from the tree. In the following days, their flesh is often the delight of birds and insects: therefore it disappears first.
Afterwards, the core remains, which softens over the weeks thanks to moisture. If conditions are good at ground level, it eventually germinates at the end of the following winter.
This natural process can easily be reproduced by the gardener: it is called layering.
To save time and avoid stratification, some gardeners are tempted to recover the almond in summer by breaking the pit and then immediately sowing it in a pot or bucket. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work! In this case, the absence of an essential factor that makes it possible to break the dormancy of the seed: the cold!
It is therefore necessary to recover the seeds in summer and keep them dry until autumn or winter to sow them. Of course, layering will take more time but it is a guarantee of success in return!
How To Layer Apricot Kernels?
The technique is simple and does not require large means. All you need is an old container or terrine and some sand. here’s how to grow your cores:
- Start by wetting the sand by pouring water on it. Mix well.
- Place a layer of this wet sand on the bottom of the terrine.
- Place several pits flat on the surface. Separate them a few centimeters, they should not touch each other.
- Cover with a new layer of wet sand, then pits… and so on until you reach the top of the container.
- Then bury this box in a corner of the garden where the soil remains fresh.
- To prevent rodents, feel free to surround the terrine with a very fine wire mesh.
- Next spring (April, May), you can collect stones that for some will germinate and for others will already have formed young plants.
- Transplant the prettiest ones into containers immediately so they develop a strong root system before planting them in their final location next fall.
Caution ! The cores must be obtained from perfectly healthy apricots without any trace of moniliasis.
Does This Seedling Work For All Apricots?
To tell the truth, yes and no, because it’s a bit of a gamble with the trees that come from seeded cores. If seeding works very well with many old varieties of apricots, it gives more uncertain results with other apricots, especially in terms of the quality and quantity of fruit produced.
Nevertheless, young apricots are very vigorous and provide excellent rootstocks for the propagation of nursery varieties. So we can keep sowing them!
Finally, all stone fruit trees can be propagated in this way: this is especially true of the peach tree, all varieties of heirloom plums, and the cherry tree.