Growing Cherries from Seed : Orchard Set Up Part 1: Cherries

Orchard Setup for my Homestead

May to June 2017
To recap I have a few fruits planted already.  I bought them from home depot.
The tress and bushes and vines I have already that cost me total of $70 are:
1 cherry, 1 apple, 1 grape vine, 1 blueberry bush

Ok that's enough of that buying plants nonsense! Momentary Insanity. I am thinking ....If I buy all my plants I would be spending a fortune that i don't have

July - August 2017

I know that planting seeds that come from the grocery store are unpredictable and the usual case is they will not fruit and if they do the fruit may not taste good. But until I can find the seed packets to buy I will try the supermarket seeds. I will do this to practice and increase my Germination skills.

Cherries::Germination experiment

I ate a some yummy cherries ... and got 138 cherry seeds to play around with. ... ha ha ha
I started these in my apartment. I don't have a greenhouse yet

1. I cracked the seeds on half of them to take the seed out
2. Took 10 seeds and straight germinated then using a towel and ziplock bag and put the rest in the fridge:
• Results for the 10 germinated with no fridge time : 2 germinated the other 8 molded ...eww

• Lesson 1: Cherries need a period in the fridge  to sprout
• The picture shows the different stages i saw
• first the seeds (cotyledons) turned green and they split
• a tiny root emerges from the bottom and tiny first leaves emerge from the middle
• I then take it out the paper towel and planted them in a cup and cut out some drainage holes
3. After 8 weeks in the fridge (took me that long to baby the 2 that germinated not to die)
• Took 5 more seeds out the fridge and towel germinated those
• Results for the 5 germinated with 8 weeks fridge time : 4 turned green and are looking promising

To be continued:......... I will start naming them so I can keep track.