Question
I enjoy biting into a nice juicy peach or nectarine,but find them a bit expensive these days, so I would like to grow my own trees from the seeds I have. I've tried just pushing them into some potting mix and watering it to see if that would work, but no such luck.  Could you possibly give me some advice on how to get these seeds to grow?  Thank you for your time.

Answer
Hi Sharon,
Thanx for your question.  Peach and nectarine seeds require a cold period of one season or two in order to stimulate germination.  This is the same for apples, plums, pears and most fruit common to the U.S.  Tropical fruit seeds such as citrus do not have this genetic requirement.  The reason is because the areas that peaches and nectarines are native to have cold seasons.  If the seed were to begin to germinate in the fall when the fruit has fallen off the tree, winter weather would probably kill the weak seedling.  Instead, Nature has a built in system of enzymes in the seed that begin to be activated once the temperature drops below 40 degrees F.  When the weather subsequently warms up the enzymes begin to stimulate the embryo to grow inside the seed and germination occurs.  Also remember that seeds of most domestic fruit will not generate, in general a plant that looks like the fruit from which it came.  This is because of the extensive hybridization over the last 150 years.  Most fruit trees in the U.S. are weak grafts that are attached to hardy root stock.  The root stock is usually from a wild, more sturdy variety of the tree or even other trees that are stronger because hybrids tend to be weak.  I would invest in a couple of dwarf or semi-dwarf trees.  This way you can have fruit in as little as 3 years.  By seed, it will be at least 7 years and you don't know what you're getting.  Walmart usually has the trees at a reasonable price.  The mail order nurseries have some nice varieties ranging from 10-50 dollars.  I hope this helps.
Tom