I'm following up on a very old topic I started. I bought some dried apricots imported from Afghanistan a while ago, and wondered if the pits would sprout. It turns out, they do. At least, I cold-stratified 4, and 1 sprouted yesterday. Now I'm wondering what to do with this little seedling. Also, does anyone want some pits to grow themselves? These are of interest mainly as novelties I think, for people who want something straight from Afghanistan, and have room for a tree of unpredictable quality. Let me know if you'd like some seeds.
Otherwise, I'll probably just eat the seeds, since they're really delicious.
Oh, and thanks very much for all the great advice on peaches, particularly regarding rootstocks. I'll look into this further.
Melissa
--- On *Fri, 5/8/09, Melissa Kacalanos /<mijwiz@yahoo.com>/* wrote:
-----Original Message-----
From: Melissa Kacalanos <mijwiz@yahoo.com>
To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Thu, 7 May 2009 1:44 pm
Subject: [NAFEX] Apricots from Afghanistan
I was grocery shopping the other day, and found some interesting
things: organic dried apricots, whole with pits, and organic
apricot kernels, both imported from Afghanistan. Forgive me for
being surprised that at least part of Afghanistan has been
stable for long enough to allow an orchard to exist.
The apricot kernels are really delicious, similar to almonds but
more flavorful. The apricots are a strange color, off-white
rather than orange. They're very small, very sweet, lacking
tartness, and with only a subtle apricot flavor.
I wonder if the kernels inside the dried fruit are edible too.
If they're poisonous, will that be obvious, like they'll taste
bitter?
I'm also wondering what would happen if I tried to plant the
pits from the fruit, or the shelled kernels. They're not
roasted, but I don't know if the drying process killed them,
since I'm sure the importer didn't plan for anyone to plant
these things. However, I've been surprised at the things I've
grown from packaged food, like tamarind from a block of tamarind
pulp, which made a very pretty houseplant, and spices. Just for
kicks, what would be the best way to try to sprout these, if
possible?
Melissa
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