In an earlier post, I shared with you my experiment with brussels sprouts. This is the post I said I'd write about growing date palms from the pit in grocery store dates.

I bought my dates on Amazon. And then I saw them at Aldi in small packages for less money. I assume those are unpitted as well. Most dates offered for sale will say on the package if they've been pitted, and most aren't, because they don't keep as long when they've been cut into. And pitted dates are usually more expensive because anything that requires an extra step before it goes to market just will be. Date palms are tropical plants and so you can't plant them outside in The Ozarks.

There are lots of videos on YouTube about growing the pits from seed. Most involve washing the pits well, soaking them for 24 hours or more, wrapping them in damp paper towel, then sealing in a ziplock bag. They said put in a dark, warm place, and wait 6-8 weeks, checking periodically to make sure no mold is growing. I didn't do the dark, warm place till just a couple days ago when there was still no activity. I think it's been since about right before Christmas that I've had these in the process. So at that point I just put the bag on top of the water heater in the utility closet. It's dark in there when the door is closed.

So here's what I found yesterday morning:

The people on YouTube say to keep it in the bag till a long "shoot" is produced off that little "toe", and I decided to try to do that since that way when I plant it I will have a part of the plant that will stick up out of the pot and I can more easily see whether it's still healthy. Date palms are said to be slow growers.

A year ago last spring I planted some apple trees from grocery store apples. The variety was "Delicious". The thing about fruit seeds from the grocery store is that everything is now hybrid, and grafted. So while you'll get an apple tree, the apples it makes might not come true to the variety. You should be able to get apples, it's just that they might be what are called "spitters". Or the tree may be a weak grower. But there's always the chance they'll be good. Let's look on the bright side, shan't we? At that time, I just planted the seed directly in the ground where I wanted them to grow, checking them every few days, keeping the grass pulled away, intending to gradually thin out whatever came up, until I had one nice-looking tree. Then last summer my husband had the electrician here to bring power to his new workshop, and the electrician strung electric line directly over that spot. So I had to dig them up and they had some roots that were every bit as long as the trees were tall, and then some. But I did still get a couple of good transplants and one of them is now about 4' tall. This year I germinated some Granny Smith.

I also found some nice Meyer lemons at Walmart around Christmas time, and I have one little tree up from seeds I took from those. It had "Helmet Head", but I tried to keep it moist and the cotyledons finally won over the seed coat.

Oh, and I guess I shouldn't forget to show you the tree that I grew from seed beginning back in 2009. I asked on the GW Seed-trading forum if anyone had seeds for quince trees. I had gotten an occasional quince from a flowering quince BUSH, which now I know isn't very common to have happen, but I wanted seed for the tree, Cydonia Oblongata, that IS supposed to make fruit. A woman in Tennessee responded to me and provided seeds. I planted them directly into the ground in the same manner as those apple seeds of a couple years ago. At that time, I didn't know we had a move in our future, and I sure wasn't leaving my little quince tree babies behind. So I dug them up in early July of 2010, and they struggled through the worst drought we'd ever seen, followed by the most horrific winter with deep snow and one morning, I kid you not, that registered on the thermometer as MINUS 20º. They said it was because we had such a deep snow cover. I thought my thermometer was broken, because temps that low are just unheard of here. I lost the littlest ones that year, but eventually I had it down to one healthy-looking plant. A couple of times I thought I'd lose it to being nibbled on by deer on the upper branches, and by rabbits on the lower part of the trunk. But it has soldiered on.

The sun has not come up yet, and I don't want to risk losing this long post while waiting to be able to see well enough to get a good picture. I will post a picture of the apple tree from 2015 and the quince tree from 2009 as a "reply" in this thread.