Topic: Cherry stones - will they grow?

[Debs]

Have been de-stoning cherries & putting in brandy.

The cherries were sweet & delicious, so i wonder whether the stones would grow & (eventually) produce cherries.

Is this wishful thinking or has anyone got experience of trying this

Debs  :)

[pigeonseed]

I don't know, but if they did, you might have an enormous tree. I've heard cherry trees used to be too big for most people's gardens, till they developed dwarf rooting stock.

But if you have the room - go for it! They might need some processing in order to grow like chilling or soaking or sanding. i don't know I'm just guessing.  :)

[Russell]

I agree with pigeonseed. Although I have never tried it, I have various gardening books from 30 or 40 years ago which confirm that a cherry tree from seed will become at least as big as an almond blossom tree. The worst of it is that you would need two trees for pollination (i.e. to get any fruit) as cherries used not to be self-fertile. The cherry tree breeders have done rather a good job for us, I think.

[Debs]

Cherry stones now binned :(

[jennym]

Not really relevant now, but I get very large amounts of fruit stones and pips from all the fruit I grow and process. Many of theses seeds are viable, so if you put them straight on the compost heap, they have a tendency to grow when you don't want them to. But it seemed like such a waste to put them in the rubbish, that I bung them all in an old pyrex dish, and when the oven is on for something else I put them in to kill them off so I don't get forests growing all over my plot.