From Seed to Tree

If you think about it, the kitchen is a good place to find seeds. Just this past week, you might have eaten, beans, cucumbers, strawberries and apples. Soon you'll be able to eat cherries, apricots and peaches fresh from our local fruit trees. These fresh fruits and vegetables all have seeds. With some you eat the seeds and with others you don't. When you eat a peach, you might toss the pit into the compost bin after you gobble down it's delicious fleshy part. Next time, try saving the pit and growing it into a tree. The pit is actually a hard coat that protects the seed inside and is also called the stone. In nature the stone will eventually break open and the seed inside will germinate or sprout. This takes a long time, so you probably won't want to wait for this to happen naturally. You can speed up things by breaking open the hard coat and getting out the seed hidden inside. Next, get a pot and fill it to within an inch of the top with potting mix. Firm down the soil and water it. Then place the seed on top of the soil and cover it with half an inch of potting soil. Pat down the soil and water gently. Finally, place your pot in a warm sunny window and keep the soil moist until the seed germinates and grows.

Interestingly, a peach is called a drupe. They are fruits with a layer of skin, a fleshy middle, and a hard inner shell or stone. They usually have only one seed. All sorts of wildlife, including birds, squirrels and bears, eat drupes. Can you think of other drupes? (Some answers: cherries, nectarines, plums, almonds, apricots, avocadoes, coconuts, and olives.)