Citrus seeds should be planted fresh.

Re >>Citrus seeds should be planted fresh.I've always planted them fresh in past, and that's what I'm doing now with the kaffir lime seeds. But I'm also doing a little experiment. About a week ago I started germinating four batches of citrus seeds--the kaffir lime seeds, some red grapefuit seeds, a batch of fresh key lime seeds, and another batch of old key lime seeds from 2004.

So far, two of the kaffir lime seeds have germinated, along with two of the fresh key lime seeds (nothing yet on the grapefruit), but strangely enough at least one of the old key lime seeds ALSO appears to be germinating! I'll know for sure in a few days.

Go figure...

--Linda

Linda, you've sowed a couple seed from your neighbors tree?
That's one way to check. If they germinate/d, they should be okay. But it's true fresh seeds should be used.
For the time being keep fruit in a cool spot. Did you remove the seeds from their fruit?
Also, seeds from fresh, juicy fruit are best..shriveled fruit rarely produces seed that germinate. Toni

I have used old seeds and had no problem with germination, but i do soak them, then crack the outer shell off, then pt them in tissue paper inside a plastic bag, in the heated propergator, most germinate, just not as qickly as fresh seeds, fresh you are talking a couple of days treated like this, ones i bought a year ago from tradewinds, take about 3 weeks , on delivery they were dry and looked quite old, they took about a week to 2 weeks back in march.

If you have any realy old ones you need to germinate, you can soak overnight in a solution of GA3 to give a very good chance of germination

I have some calamondins i have just cut off the trees, they have shriveled a bit, they were going orange in june..... on the tree still yesterday,....far too over ripe, inside the seeds are all germinating, i have 180 fruit, all 3 seeds in each i have opened, just now the task of planting them all

Seeds of most rootstock varieties can be stored for quite a long period of time. They're removed from the fruit, washed, surface dried (over night or 2 days), sealed in plastic bags, and refrigerated (not frozen). They should keep for at least a year, possibly substantially more, under those conditions.

Starloc and everyone,

Thanks for your replies--they are very helpful.

Re >>I have used old seeds and had no problem with germination, but i do soak them, then crack the outer shell off, then pt them in tissue paper inside a plastic bag, in the heated propergator, most germinate, just not as qickly as fresh seeds, fresh you are talking a couple of days treated like this, ones i bought a year ago from tradewinds, take about 3 weeks , on delivery they were dry and looked quite old, they took about a week to 2 weeks back in march.That's basically the same procedure I'm using with the seeds I'm testing now. I don't have a heated propagator, so I'm keeping my zipper baggies with the seeds in them (folded into wet paper towels) on top of my cable box. So far 7 out of 10 of the kaffir lime seeds have definitely germinated and been planted, along with 6 out of 10 key lime seeds.

It's hard to tell what's going on with the old seeds. They have been swelling up and they aren't getting moldy, and something seems to be emerging from them, but it's thinner and more threadlike, not thick like the roots coming out of the fresh seeds. That's why I can't be sure if any of the old seeds have germinated or not--I can't tell if what I'm seeing is a root or part of the inner seed coat.

Re >>If you have any realy old ones you need to germinate, you can soak overnight in a solution of GA3 to give a very good chance of germination.Could you please explain what GA3 is and tell me where I can get some?

Thanks again,
Linda

I googled it and it is Gibberellic Acid. Link to google page is inserted.

Here is a link that might be useful: Google search result

Its a growth hormone, i get it in little capsules from on ebay, If your carefull you can do many strange things to plants with it, can be funny on some flowers it `supersizes` them

Use it to make seeds germinate,by soaking the seeds in a dilute solution of it, good for difficult to germinate plants or old seeds you want to germinate with a higher percent success.
You can also use it to make plants grow much bigger, its used on roses for example the stems go longer and stronger and the flowers larger , you need to be carefull not to use too much
Use it to spray on the flowers of plants to make them set fruit such as citrus, apples etc, they wont have seeds in but will form fruit as if they were polinated, without polination, also like when you spray with potasium nitrate on citrus it also makes the plants drop less fruit for a bigger crop.

I sprayed a fuscia bush with it this year, quite a few times, i ended up with the plant doubling in size and the flowers went from about 1 inch across to about 2.5 inch across, the effect is rapid, spray the plant, within a week they start very rapid growth.

starloc and mpabner,

Thanks for the information...I'll look for it on eBay.

--Linda

Progress report: 100% success with the kaffir lime seeds! 10 out of 10 have germinated and have been planted, and about four of the seedlings have come up so far. 9 out of 10 so far on the fresh key lime seeds, and also one red grapefuit seed from a local market, along with a pink grapefruit seed from another neighbor's tree.

The old key lime seeds have been disappointing. Five out of 10 have rotted and the rest don't seem to be doing anything. I decided the cable box was too hot and put the baggies on top my hot water heater instead. I seem to be getting better results there.

Also, I finally got my pictures of the mother kaffir lime tree and a close-up of the fruits posted in my Webshots album, so now it's show-and tell time!

Besides the kaffir lime tree and fruits, there are also three pictures of a citrus trifoliata at a different location. I didn't know what it was until after I read about this tree here on GardenWeb and on the Citrus Forum. That's when I recognized the distinctive three-part leaves. At first I thought it was an orange tree with small oranges (about the size of a gold ball), but I cut one of the fruits open and tasted it. I promise you, those things are NOT oranges!

I'm hoping someone can tell me exactly what kind of trifoliata this is from the pictures, although I realize I may need some close-ups of the foliage and fruit. I understand there are only a few kinds of citrus that have the three-part leaves.

--Linda

Here is a link that might be useful: Citrus 2008-2009