Growing Fruit Trees from Pits and Seeds

I love planting, but sometimes it can be hard to find the plants you want to grow at the store. Today I’m going to show you some plants that you can grow from their pits and seeds after you eat them!

For most of the plants below, it is best to start growing the seeds in a small pot and transfer it into the ground once the plant has grown about 12 inches tall. Additionally, if you live in a climate that has harsh winters that drop below freezing, you might want to consider leaving your tree in a large pot and bringing it indoors during the winter season.

Tangerines

Tangerines are delicious citrus fruits that grow on 10-15 feet tall trees. The trees thrive when placed in a well-lit spot but not in direct sunlight. The seeds grow best when planted in spring or early summer. The tree will take somewhere around 4-7 years to flower and produce fruit.

Peaches

To prepare your peach pits for planting, wrap them in a damp paper towel and place them in the refrigerator for 8 weeks. To ease this process, you can get seeds out of the pits and place each seed into a separate plastic bag. Peaches grow best when planted in a deep and sandy soil that ranges from a loam to a clay loam with a lot of sunlight. It will take peach trees grown from seeds about 3-5 years to produce fruit.

Mangoes

Mangoes have very large seeds that may seem unusual to plant in a pot, but they create beautiful trees with delicious fruit. To prepare the seed for planting, slit the hard husk surrounding a fresh mango pit. Remove the seed inside and plant it in a large pot with ¼-inch protruding above the soil surface. For best fruit production, plant your mango seed in a location with full sunlight during the summer. It will take at least 6 years for your mango plant to start producing fruit.

Cherries

Cherry pits need to be stratified before they are planted. Stratification is a process of treating seeds to simulate natural conditions that the seeds must experience before germination can occur. To stratify cherry pits, put the dry pits into an airtight plastic container and store it in the refrigerator for 10 weeks. When the sprouts are ready, plant them in fertile, sandy soil with plenty of sunlight. The trees will start creating fruit in about 7-10 years.

Lemons

Lemons are citrus fruits that can be grown similarly to tangerines. It is best to plant 5-10 seeds at one time in case some of them do not sprout. Plant the seeds in damp soil in a location that has 10-14 hours of sunlight daily. Once the trees have grown, they will need about 8 hours of daily sunlight. It will take around 5-10 years for your lemon trees to start producing fruit.