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Gardeners are experiencing a shortage of quality plum planting material. When buying a seedling from a private owner or through a nursery, you can never know with certainty whether it will correspond to the variety. After yet another disappointment, the thought of growing seedlings on my own comes to mind. A plum grows from a seed faster than it seems at first.
Is it possible to grow a plum from a seed?
It is quite possible to grow a plum tree from the seeds remaining after eating or processing fruits. But this requires compliance with some rules, which will be listed below.
Plum seed propagation
A strong seedling grows from a plum seed in just 1 year. If it is immediately grown in the place where the plum tree will subsequently grow, this will be a great advantage.On the contrary, after frequent transplants, the root system of the plant is injured, and it has to adapt to new conditions each time. This takes from 2 weeks to several months. Precious time can be used for the development of the plum.
Growing plums from seeds must begin with choosing a variety. Another important aspect is the question of where the seedling will grow. This may be a permanent or temporary location. You can use a schoolhouse, a shady place or an ordinary flower pot as a temporary shelter.
Once the location has been determined, the rootstock variety should be selected. This is important from the point of view of the winter hardiness of the seedling. The seeds should be local varieties that are adapted to the conditions of the region where the tree will grow in the future. It is on this seedling that the desired variety will be grafted.
The rootstock for a plum can be not only a plum.
Can be used:
- plum;
- cherry plum;
- damson;
- thorn
The most suitable rootstocks are listed here, although plum can be grafted onto other stone fruits: peach, apricot. But they do not grow well in all regions. Sloes are also rarely used for growing from seeds, despite its unpretentiousness and winter hardiness.
Will a plum tree bear fruit from a seed?
A plum from a seed will definitely bear fruit. The question is: what fruits will it bear and when will it bear fruit?When grown by seed, maternal qualities are not transmitted (there are exceptions, but they are rare).
That is, to obtain a full-fledged, regular harvest, you need to graft a varietal plum onto a rootstock grown from the seed. The video will tell you how to do this:
Of course, there are cases of obtaining a successful combination of yield and taste of fruits. But this is the exception rather than the rule. Usually, a seedling grown from a seed does not begin to bear fruit early enough and has fruits that are different from those whose seeds were planted.
How to grow plums from seeds at home
Where it is better to grow a seedling: on a plot or at home - everyone decides for themselves. It has long been noted that when plums are grown with seeds on a plot before winter, all planting material is destroyed by rodents. This does not always happen, especially if appropriate measures are taken. But the safest option is to grow the rootstock at home.
Is it possible to grow a plum from a seed at home?
A plum grown at home has several advantages over open-ground seedlings:
- planting material will not be eaten by mice;
- the root system will be formed by spring;
- constant monitoring of the growth and formation of the seedling;
- the ability to fertilize on time;
- the root system in the pot will not be injured when transplanted to a permanent place.
In order to grow plum trees, you need to prepare planting material in advance. It is better to do this in advance, taking local unpretentious varieties. The seeds must be thoroughly cleaned of pulp by rinsing in water; the hard shell must not be removed. Then dry and store in a cool place until planting.
How to grow a plum in a pot from a seed
It is best to plant no earlier than February, as the plants need sunlight. Before this, you need to carry out stratification and preferably scarification. The stratification procedure involves keeping seeds for a long time at sub-zero temperatures, which increases their germination.
Under natural conditions, the seeds of fruits that have fallen from a tree germinate naturally in the spring. In an apartment or house, conditions are created artificially by placing a pot of seeds in the refrigerator or freezer. Scarification - helping the plant to get rid of its hard shell. Sometimes the bones are rubbed with sand, even with a file, to make it thinner.
What does a plum sprout look like?
Watching the germination of seeds is always entertaining. The cotyledon leaves appear first. They are round and similar in all plants. The two cotyledons are followed by true leaves. Plum leaves have the shape of an ellipse, that is, an oval. The edges are finely toothed, the surface of the leaf blade is shiny.
Growing plums at home
Growing takes place in several stages:
- Preparing the soil and pot. Take a small pot for planting so that the soil does not become sour. The soil for germination is mixed with river sand 1:1.
- The plum pit is deepened by 3–4 cm, watered, and sprinkled with earth. It is better to plant several pieces at once for reliability.
- The pot is placed in the freezer for 4 months.
- After the pot is removed, place it in a bright place and make sure that the soil does not dry out.
- After the sprouts appear, you need to ensure that the seedlings do not stretch out. In the first month they need sufficient watering and good lighting.
- If several sprouts appear, leave the strongest one, the rest are removed by cutting them with scissors (without pulling them out).
- After a month, you can start feeding the plum. The best mineral fertilizer is ammophosphate, which combines 3 components: nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium. Before planting outside, you need to regularly fertilize the seedling.
Transplanting a plum seedling into open ground
Before planting in open ground, the plant needs to be hardened off. Gradually, the seedling gets used to the change in night and day temperatures, wind, air humidity, and precipitation. You need to start hardening from a few minutes, gradually increasing the time to 24 hours. It is necessary to ensure that the plant is not exposed to direct sunlight.
How to grow a plum from a seed in the countryside
If conditions at home do not allow, you can grow a plum from a seed in the country. To do this, you need to choose the time, place and method of sowing.
When and where can you plant plum pits?
The seed can be planted immediately in the place reserved for planting plums at the end of September - October. In this case, you need to plant at least 10 pieces at once, taking precautions to protect yourself from mice. For example, bury paper soaked in tar around the perimeter around the planting site. You can also put it in the planting hole.
A hole is dug in advance, measuring 60*60*60 cm. Manure, branches are placed at the bottom, then a small layer of sand and humus or compost. Over the course of a month, the soil settles and is topped up if necessary. The seeds are planted to a depth of no more than 10 cm. There is no need to water from above, just cover it with soil. The landing site is marked with pegs.
How to germinate a plum pit
Outdoors, the seed germinates on its own, going through the process of scarification and stratification naturally. To do this, it is planted in the fall, in mid-late October. If there are a lot of seeds, then they dig a trench 10 cm deep. The hole is not filled with any fertilizers.
The seeds are laid out at a distance of 20–30 cm. If planted immediately in a permanent place, it must first be fertilized. Some free the stone from its dense shell. But this is not necessary, and is detrimental for autumn planting. This method is only suitable for planting in spring.
How to plant a plum from a seed
Plum is planted in autumn or spring. If planting is postponed to spring, then the seeds must undergo stratification in the freezer, refrigerator or outside in the cold. In the spring, as soon as the snow thaws, they can be planted in a prepared place.
After a year, the plum is ready for grafting, which must be done with any variety you like. Without grafting, a tree can produce any unsuccessful ancestral qualities. By grafting a seedling, the gardener protects himself from all sorts of risks of inconsistency with the variety and brings the time of fruiting closer.
How to grow a seedling from a plum pit
At the dacha, it is better to grow a seedling for a rootstock right in the place where the plum tree will grow. This culture is shade-tolerant, but the shade should not be constant. For abundant fruiting, plums are planted in the sun. When choosing a location, take into account that plum trees love loose, fertile soil.
If there is a single planting, then you need to dig a planting hole of 50*50*50 cm in advance. You can dig more, depending on the future variety. The pit is filled with completely rotted compost or humus, ash and sand for looseness.
If all of them sprout, then the weakest ones need to be pinched, but in no case should they be pulled out of the ground, damaging the root system. In good indoor conditions, a seedling for grafting can be grown by early summer.
Is it necessary to graft a plum grown from a seed?
To get a full-fledged tree, a seedling grown from a seed must be grafted. It is very rare for plums to retain their variety from the pit. It’s better not to hope for this, but to plant it only for rootstock. You need to graft with a high-quality variety that has decent characteristics and suits your taste.
You can graft in spring, summer and autumn. If the seedling grows at home until spring, then it may be ready (depending on the intensity of growth) for grafting already in mid-late summer. It is better to sow several plums so that you can then choose the most successful grafting.
Conclusion
Plum from the seed can be obtained at home or on the site. You can grow a full-fledged fruit tree yourself: the rootstock and grafting will then reliably correspond to the variety.
