It’s the Pits!

46°, rain, flood watch (down the hill), breezy

I mentioned yesterday that my friend who owns the land I’m renting saved some fruit tree pits. Various kinds. I soaked them in warm water with a few water changes yesterday and over night.

Some will try to crack the outer shell, but it’s very difficult to do without damaging the actual seed inside so I skipped that. In nature they find their way out of the shells on their own. I think it does speed up the process but I’m in no rush.

I also mentioned I would be doing winter sowing with these. So I cut a water jug container I’ve saved to plant them in leaving enough connected on the top to be a hinged top. Don’t forget drain holes on the bottom. It’s easy enough with a set of scissors to do this.

Fill the bottom with some light weight potting mix. Feel free to make your own up. There was an old small bag of it I found in the greenhouse here so I used that. Water it in and label it so you don’t forget what’s in there.

You’ll notice I’m repurposing a lot of things like plastic food grade containers and I used a canning jar lid (used, can’t reuse for canning again) to label the container.

Flip the lid over to close it. I removed the blue cap so rain can get in there. Some tape the containers up. I don’t have the proper tape to do that so I haven’t. I’ll leave it in the rain for now but if it gets too windy I’ll move it into the cold greenhouse just so it doesn’t blow away. They are perfect to keep outside if you have calm winds, through rain and snow.

I have the pits container sitting on my huckleberry stump (the stump in the yard I planted a wild huckleberry in, their preferred places to grow).

This technique is supposed to mimic more closely what Mother Nature does outside and for a lot of seeds, it’s just what they need.

I’ve had some luck starting perennials this way in the past I didn’t want to fuss over too much like liatris. They take more time to germinate but there is no need to harden off like you would with seedlings started inside so it does have a plus side. some people use this method for vegetable plants too.

I’m a bit of a control freak when it comes to growing seedlings so it’s never been my preference. But for something like this I can deal with the uncertainty of Mother Nature.