The PIP (PIT) Box

The range of exotic fruit available from supermarkets is increasing all the time. Sometimes the expensive purchase turns out to be a bit of adisappointment, possibly because in our ignorance it is eaten before it is ripe or because, like the fig, it is really only nice when eaten straight off the tree.

Planting the stones, however, can be very rewarding. Children, and adults too for that matter, can plant orange, lemon and grapefruit seeds in pots of moist compost. Lemons are easiest to raise, and then grapefruit, but I have had least success with oranges. All will make shapely shrubs that can be grown in window box or tub; they may even bear sweetly scented white flowers but are highly unlikely to bear fruit. Pomegranate makes first a shrub and then a tree with tiny reddish leaves and in a very hot summer it might even produce flowers, though not fruit. My four year old pomegranate is now in a 10 inch pot and spends the winter in a heated greenhouse because it is both delicate and partly deciduous; if I had no greenhouse I would overwinter it indoors, where it would drop all its leaves but still survive. Kiwi fruit contains hundreds of tiny black seeds that germinate well if spread out on top of, rather than under, soilless compost. They will eventually grow, with the minimum of fuss, into attractive climbers with rather hairy reddish leaves. They need some support and if you take out thetops you will encourage side shoots. Passion fruit have quite large seeds; the plant has large leaves cut like a fig leaf when mature, and attractive curling tendrils. The flowers of this Passiflora edulis are not quite as showy as those of the more commonly grown P. caerulea and the chances of fruit are not high, but it is nevertheless a super plant to have produced in this way. Peanuts taken from carefully crushed shells can make quite an attractive show in a window box. The leaves are clover-like and the flowers like tiny yellow sweet peas. A bonus for children is that the plant can often be persuaded, if it has enough room, to produce a further supply of underground nuts.

Grape seeds germinate readily into tiny vines but it must be said that these rarely produce luscious fruit, despite what you may hear to the contrary. However, a grape vine from a seed planted in a tubv at ground level can be trained up trellis and will eventually produce flowers and fruit of sorts. Before this, of course, it is a source of colour, particularly in autumn when the leaves turn, and also a source of leaves for dolmades and other Greek dishes.

Date pits should be chitted to encourage germination and this means soaking them in warm water forty-eight hours, then popping them into damp peat in a polythehe bag and leaving this in the airing cupboard or somewhere equally warm. Inspect the bag every week and water the peat if it seems at all dry, extracting any stones that are starting to show roots. Pot these and keep them moist and warm, but in the light. Eventually a few spikes of sharp leaves will appear, and although these are not very exciting to look at a child might be thrilled with his own homegrown date palm. A better subject for a pot than for a window box, as it will have to be brought indoors for the winter.

Avocados can make 60 foot trees in the wild so these too are better for a pot than a box. The snag is getting the pits to germinate, as many seem to fail for no good reason. I find it best to soak them for forty-eight hours in warm water in the airing cupboard then stand them, round side down, on one of those glasses sold for growing hyacinth bulbs in water rather than in soil. The idea is to keep the root end always just into some warm water, and if you are in luck the first roots will appear within three weeks or so. You can let these develop into a well-branched mass before transferring them into compost in a pot, as the pit itself contains plenty of nourishment. The rooting pit should be buried half in and half out of the compost, then a shoot will appear and develop a topknot of leaves. Now comes the hard bit. When this is 6 inches high you must snip off the topknot and 2 inches of shoot; this encourages the plant to make a bush rather than a single-stemmed tree. The 4 inch leafless twig looks a bit sad at first but will soon break again with new shoots and tufts of leaves. From then on you will have to prune the plant occasionally to encourage further bushy growth and leaf, rather than stem, production. Avocados like a fair amount of water and plenty of light and the leaves should be sprayed or sponged to keep them glossy. With luck and a following wind, the plant will have been repotted until it is in its final 10 or 12 inch pot within a few years. No likelihood of fruit in our temperate climate unfortunately, but the plant itself is very presentable as a patio subject.

Less exotic homegrown fruit will also come from pips (pits). Apples are not very likely to produce good fruit and tend to go back to the original crab apple. Peaches on the other hand do come true and stories about richly fruiting trees that came from stones are often genuine. Apple seeds should be planted when ripe, that is usually black or dark brown, and germinate fairly easily. Peaches and other stone fruit take longer, and attempts to get them to germinate in pots often fail because enthusiasm for watering wanes long before the poor thing has a chance to show signs of top growth. Children, particularly, like to see results quickly, so it is perhaps unrealistic to expect them to take an interest in stone fruit. One gardener I know buries an assortment of stones in spare soil in a greenhouse that is always kept well watered for other crops. Those stones that do germinate he plants in pots and gives away as presents, having long since filled his own sunny, sheltered garden positions.

As discussed before, fruit grown in pots is unlikely to produce a worthwhile crop. But to raise young plants for your own or someone else’s garden, a container or other planter pot is ideal.

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