My little brother put some orange seeds from an orange inside my mothers plant.The seeds grew and he didn't tell me until now.Should I take them out from the other plant and plant them separately in my basement in pots or leave them in there.Its pretty neat having an Orange Tree!I never thought of planting an orange tree, But I have 5 now I cannot put them outside I'm in Canada and it gets cold...or could I?
As a Master Gardener from FL I would hazard a guess on a couple areas. One, no, they can only go outside where you are in pots and be brought back into shelter for the winter. That said, my grandparents grew great little orange and a lemon trees in Chicago that way. As for the seeds planted from fruit. You never know what you're going to get. Most of our fruit producing citrus is grown on sour stock. So when our trees die down to the ground during a freeze and then come back, the fruit is usually not too good. With seeds, there is a chance that the fruit will be sweet or sour and in fact I've heard of both on one tree. But they are pretty and have fragrant flowers, so grown indoors for a good looking plant should be great. Good luck! Marshgirl
I don't think they will. The growing conditions are not optimum for one thing. Here is a really concise directions page for growing citrus from seed in the home. http://www.backyardgardener.com/masterg/g-73.htm Good Luck! marshgirl
Joey, actually because citrus have the ability to produce mainly nucellar embryos, most all citrus come true from seed. Just a very few citrus varieties such a Clementine, do not come true from seed. So chances are very high that what you planted is what fruit you will get. Actually, there are now very few citrus trees in Florida on Sour Orange rootstock because of a virus disease called Tristezia. Sour Orange, a variety of citrus used mainly for root stock, and not grown for eating, was and is, extremely susceptible to the tristeza virus and most Florida citrus grown on Sour Orange rootstock have allready been killed or soon will be killed. You don't say what variety of citrus your brother planted. If he planted some variety of an orange or a grapefruit your tree will not bloom nor fruit for 10 to 15 years when grown as a container tree in Canada, where it will spend most of its life indoors. If you would like to receive fruit quicker plant a mandarin or a lime. - Millet
Millet, Just curious.... Am I correct in thinking that the majority of citrus that would produce hybrid seedlings would be from fruit that would other wise be seedless due to self incompatibility/ self sterile.. that being cross pollinated with another variety causes fruit that would other wise be seedless to produce seeds and the seeds of that fruit would be hybrids???... Not to say ALL but just majority.. hope I worded it all right.. Gina *BabyBlue*
Hi Gina, because of nucellar embryos the hybrid thing really does not apply to citrus. A great number of citrus trees will come true from seed. There is a way that you can tell if a variety or particular seed will produce true by examining a few seeds from the tree. Peel off the outer and inner seed coat. If the seed is polyembryonic, i.e. has many embryos, it will come true. The various embryos would be convoluted upon each other. If the seed is mono-embryonic, there will be only one embryo with two distinct cotyledons. Almost any sweet orange will come true from seed, also true grapefruit, lemons, limes, hybrid tangerines, most tangelos, tangors (except temple), pure mandarins (other than king and clementine). Most pummelos do not produce true from seed. So if the variety is mono-embryonic it can produce hybrids that are not true from seed. - Millet
Thanks for the info!!! So if you don't check the seed before planting would it be safe to say that if only one stem comes up from a seed it is more than likely mono?? I have a bunch of seeds right now in a pot *(don't remember what I threw in the pot).. there are about 10 seedlings 3 have two stems per seed and 7 are single stem.. the ones that are single stem could be Mono (aka hybrid)?? It is quite possible that more than one type of seed was thrown in this pot.. my 8 yr old has been helping me with this pot of seeds.. and boooyyyy does he like to plant any seed he gets.. ( I'm surprised I didn't find peach pit in it!! LOL) Gina *BabyBlue*
If only one seedling comes up it certainly could be a momo. However, it still could be polyembryonic with only the zigote germinated or only a nucellar embryo germinated. - Milllet
My mom planted pink grapefruit and honey tangerines from seed and the trees are producing after about 10yrs.... We just had them dug and moved to the new property the Grapefruit required a tree spade! I have a Mexican Sweet Eating lime I planted from seed and all of them have produced well in 8-10yrs....IN POTS! I would pot them up and as they grow keep them pruned to control height. after 5 yrs or so let the pruning go to see if they flower... if you can't place them out for the bees be sure to pollinate them with a brush! Most of the oranges and stuff will give fruit that is edible... some will be better than others... depends on what pollinated the flower(same or different type tree) Always a blast!
I was wondering if you would have any tips for growing orange & grapefruit trees from seeds. Mine are about 1 foot tall so far, 2 years in the making, and I have them in large containers. I live in Volusia County and during the winter I bring them inside if I think we might have a freeze. I will be retiring in about 8 years, so I guess if I plant them in the ground the next occupant of my property will have 6 citrus trees that might bear fruit. I saw you are a master gardner so I figure It can't hurt to ask. Thanks.
From seed you can expect fruit in 8-12 years time. Towards the lower time frame if planted in the ground, and on the higher side if kept in containers. In Florida spend $20.00 and purchase a grafted citrus tree at any nursery, and have fruit in one day. A two year old containerized citrus tree should be approximately 4 - 5 feet tall with many side branches. Fertilize your tree a MINIMUM of once a month, with a fertilizer that contains trace minerals. Water only when the top two inches of the potting mix dries. Grafted trees produce much more fruit, than seedling trees. This is because with a grafted tree the entire tree is mature, and therefore the entire tree produces fruit. A seedling tree must grow for 8-12 years before the trees produces enough nodes to finally reach maturity. Therefore only the mature upper part of your tree will produce fruit. - Millet
