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Fruit Seeds
You might have read poems describing the beauty of fruit seeds, which gives fruit and flowers every season. The fact that trees provide both fruit and flowers make it very demanding in terms of commercial purposes and for gardening. Here comes the importance of preserving and using fruit seeds for plantation and for future use. Many species, such as crabapple, cotoneaster, prunes and cherry, are beauty themselves. Even though there are other methods like cutting to reproduce fruit trees, their use is the best option in terms of nurturing healthy plants. You can buy or collect them. The best time to gather fruit tree seeds is in fall, when leaves are starting to drop. The fruits are mature; hence the seeds are good to be picked. Some species have more than one seed per fruit. After cleaning, they are preserved carefully. For fleshy fruit, such as cotoneaster cranberry, crabapple or cherry, fill a bowl of hot water, but not boiling water. In the water, gather fruits and rub them with fingers till the flesh is fully removed from the seeds. Sterilizing them is another option for longer preservation. This can be accomplished by laying them on a paper towel on a cookie tray. On a sunny day, leave the seeds in the biscuit tray under the sun, for at least 4 hours and till they become dry to the touch.
Since seeds are the agents for future growth, many have defenses against predators to ensure some will be left untouched to germinate. Sprouting seeds from fruits purchased at the grocery can be particularly disappointing, since many of these fruits have come from different growing areas. These plants may not be able to withstand growing conditions. Effective plantation of fruit seeds is important to get results. Seedling offspring of these nursery-grown trees will not have the advantages of that dwarf rootstock. Standard size trees, particularly apple and pear, are very large and will quickly become unmanageable for the average gardener. Fruit seeds are not actually digested along with the fleshy part of a fruit. The seeds are spread out by the animal after the fruit is digested and the animal poops. The seeds are then deposited, along with a little bit of fresh fertilizer, and can grow into a new plant. This is called seed dispersal, and is only one strategy that plants use to spread out seeds and make more plants. Fruits and vegetables are good for planting. By making fruit that is sweet and tasty, plants can lure animals to eat the fruit and disperse their seeds. You might think that all fruit-bearing plants would pack as many seeds as possible into each fruit to maximize the number of new seeds that will grow. But in fact, different plants each have different strategies for seed production. Some fruits produce many seeds, to make sure that some of them will grow even if others fail. Other fruits put all of their resources into producing and protecting one very large seed.