I recently lost a tiny freebie tree which I stupidly put some apple cider vinegar on to kill the fruit flies and their larvae (which I saw wriggling around in the top of my pot!). This ingeniously stupid idea, however, spurred me into trying the whole growing limes from seed thing. I want to get some key limes (or any sort of lime really but the key lime was what I had and it smelled so nice even though it was only about 4-5 inches tall when Gurney shipped it to me) going, but the seeds I got out of my key limes from the grocery store appear to all contain a standard single sprout type of seed. Should I be buying limes at an organic store in order to get the ones that will grow more than one seedling from the seed? Also how do I tell which one is the zygotic seedling if/when they sprout? I've read a few posts on similar topics and have been searching the internet since I first noticed my poor little tree's overnight transformation from lush greens to sickly yellow. Losing this one not even a month after getting it was disturbing to me, so I am trying to find out what I did wrong by growing my own (that way if a few of them don't make it past my little Chinese takeout trays with holes cut in the bottoms I don't feel as bad about losing it). Anyone have experience doing this and wish to share? I could use all the help I can get in starting this off because I would like em going before winter hits and we replace the laundry room fluorescent lights with grow lights to keep some fresh veggies growing. Also any ideas on keeping those pesky fruit fly larvae out of my pretty plants that won't hurt the plants? I've tried the soapy water baths before on my violets and it worked temporarily, but I'm pretty sure without even trying it this time that our current dish soap would probably have the same result as the vinegar because it has oxy clean in it. Thanks, Fen
Yep I've definitely seen some of those roaming around and I don't like them. I stopped buying anything from the local Walmart last year because everything I owned got em and most of it died shortly after...before I could find the problem. Can't even buy the little peat starting pellets from Walmart anymore. Thanks for the link I'm going to see if I can budget in some insecticides/pest control to kill the little buggers off.
