How do you plant them? Do you remove them from the protective coating? The seedlings look great!

Thank you I peel the seeds carefully and I put them in a peat moss pods the small ones, inside one of those mini greenhouse seed starters you get at walmart. A seed heating pad makes it faster.When they sprout and get too big for the little plastic green house and put them in a pot and take care of them.
Trace

Yeah, we collected some interesting 'hardy' citrus fruit from around the region last fall for a tasting....things like citrumelo, citrandarin, lemandarin, Citrus tawanica, citrangequat and the like. You can imagine how many seeds we got from these! And since it's very hard to find these plants for sale, it was tempting to start all the seeds.

"I will be 80 years old" It depends. How old are you now.

Steve

I'm 40 lol
Trace

What I do is wash the seeds, let them sit out so the waxy coat is easier to handle. I use a small paring knife to make a tiny cut and slip the shell of. I then put them in moist baggies at the top of my fridge. 4-6 days later when they've got 2 cm tap roots I plant them.

AT2013 - Intriguing seed starting method! do you make any air holes of any sort in the baggies? Do they just not get moldy/fungal? What size baggie do you use - sandwich-size or snack size? (or larger)? Thanks!

I use sandwich bags with the sliding zipper/sealer. I leave a third of it open so there's exchange of air.

In my experience, fungus or mold only appear when there's high humidity in the bag, such as a paper towel that's moist. I've never had fungus or mold grow when there's excess water in the bag. Seeds will not rot either unless they were damaged within to begin with. Either way, you can try combating fungus by spraying the seeds daily with a 1;3 ration of hydrogen peroxide 3% to distilled water or RO water.

Though I've found that if you check up on them twice a day, you interrupt the moist climate and fungus just doesn't grow.

AT2013 - interesting. thanks! and about how many seedlings per bag can grow without overcrowding?

Tcamp30144 - your citrus plants look great!

Really depends - as in I can't quite answer it.

Depending on the fruit you took them from and removing their waxy husk, it could mean either planing 30 to a bag or just 10. It would depend on how fast they send out their tap root. When I did mine I used a large freezer bag and multiple paper towel layers. Sometimes the tap root grows very fast, about an inch in just 2 days, and sometimes it takes upwards of 2 weeks.

Unfortunately at the time, the tap roots began branching out. So when it came to planting them in potting soil, I had to carefully rip the paper towels in pieces so the roots were intact.

Feel free to experiment. You just need to find someone to eat all the oranges. :)

I like keeping the seedlings/saplings covered for their first few months with a milk jug with its bottom cut out and the cap off for air flow. It protects the saplings from the hot sun, mostly California and Texas, since I believe your zone entails TX. I would keep them in Dixie cups for about 3-4 months and then schedule a few mornings, preferably 4-6 AM and do the transplants as carefully as you can. Water them and leave them inside for the day, then return them outside the next day early in the morning. It's a great way to reduce shock, IMO.

I took a look at my plants yesterday, and my biggest one has a new thorn that's more than an inch long! :D

This post was edited by AT2013 on Mon, Jun 30, 14 at 5:04