Growing from scratch

[Suninfrance]

Never having been much of a gardener in England, I now find myself with loads of space and would like to start gardening from scratch.

I'm OK with shrubs and flowers etc, but what I would really like to know is how to grow peaches from the nut inside and melons from the seeds.  In fact anything that I buy, apples, pears, etc. 

Has anyone done this or know how I go about it.  I'm sure with the peaches, you don't just stick the nut in the ground.  Do you need to dry them out then take the seeds out?  What about other fruits?

As for other things, we had our first lettuce from our veg plot the other day - very tasty and satisfying knowing that "I did that" rather than buying it from a shop.

Anyway - back to cultivating fruit and stuff from the pips, seeds, etc left over after eating said fruit - any tips gratefully received.

Jan

[Duckalaronze]

Judging from the number of peach, chestnut, walnut, hazel and cherry tree seedlings that appear every year, I would think that just sticking them in the ground is a good way to go! I should imagine that it would take some time for the shell to break down, particularly with walnuts and peaches, so perhaps cracking them gently before planting might help (this is just a guess!). They probably need to be exposed to the cold before they will germinate. Apple (etc) pips will just grow if you plant them, though depending on variety, you may not get such good fruit.

Melons etc, let the fruit ripen as much as possible, dry the seeds and plant them in the spring (probably best to start them off indoors as by the time it warms up enough outside there won't be enough time for the fruit to develop and ripen). I'm in 23 (Creuse) and growing melons outside for the first time this year - time will tell if they succeed!

Last year I started everything off indoors, but this year courgettes, squash, sweetcorn, haricot, runnerbean, carrots, onions and parsnips have all been sown straight into the ground. I save most of my seed (sweetcorn, beans, courgettes, broccoli) each year but you have to be careful that they're not from F1 hybrids or you could have unexpected results, on the other hand, rules are for breaking...

I'm in the same boat - growing all my shrubs & flowers from seed - anyone want to swap anything?

If you want a peach tree, I can let you have a baby one...but perhaps it's more fun growing your own

Gill

[Suninfrance]

Hi Gill

Sounds like good advice.  By the way, I'm in Correze (19).

It's really "muggy" today and the barometer says humidity is just under 80%.  No wonder the veg plot is going beserk - all that moisture.

Whilst clearing brambles last year, we discovered a huge stone lined pit which is deep at one end and shallow at the other.  Good "starter kit" for a swimming pool was one idea, a pond was another, but in the meantime, we are using it as the veg plot.   It works quite well as being below the normal ground level, it's sheltered from the wind and on cool, breezy days, it's still quite warm down "in 't' pit".

I'm certainly going to have a bash at growing my own foodstuff from seed.  I did sun daisies, nicotiana, stocks and night scented stocks from seed this year and they haven't done too badly.  My sweet peas didn't germinate though and my wisteria died.  Still - its all new and a beats sitting behind a desk all day getting shouted at.

Jan

[pattsie]

Most fruit of  apples, pears and such like are not grown from seed but are clones the reason is that no seed takes on the quality of the fruit from which it came because you can imagine the different pollen coming from the millions of different flowers even from the same tree   good trees have individual attributes and are cloned and mostly grafted onto either dwarfing rootstocks  or semi dwarfing rootstocks that is not to say that it can not be done  the best to try are mellon pips because they are so easy to get the best result let three leaves develop and then pitch out the leading shoot this causes many laterals to develop we have about twenty Charante melons growing from a tiny fraction of the seeds from a nice melon we ate and it is quite amazing how big the plants have got I have put a piece of fence up next to them and they are climbing it like mad melons have gone dearer because of the water shortage but we have made home made growbags out of thirty litre binbags with some cheap super U(less than 1.50 euros for fifty ltrs) peaty like soil in them with a hand full of "Engrais pottager" (super U cheap fertiliser) with a small nick in the bag and the small pre grown mellon plant placed in and a upside down empty bottle of water with the bottom cut off so that the water never evaporates we have found we use a fraction of the water we would normally use we are trying this method out with cucumbers aubergines and chillis and peppers and so far it seems to work great .there is a book called the after dinner gardener which I bought second hand from amazon and it is amazing I am trying at the moment with Passion fruit , advacado, pomegranate , and kiwi fruits all which have sprouted but wether they bear fruit is another matter