Growing dried citrus seeds

General Discussions
1

A discussion from the seed swap page (US) was about seed saving tropicals. The general consensus for citrus seems to be that it must be planted fresh, and that if the seeds dry out or get cold they won’t germinate.

I tend to make up my own mind through testing rather than accepting what I’m told, even by experts.

I have always dried citrus seeds. I have 10 in the refrigerator from last year’s lemon harvest from my Meyer lemon.

I pulled 5 seeds and opened them. The two tiny seeds were dead, which was expected. The others looked healthy.

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I soaked them overnight and planted the remaining three in the same pot.

I will put half of the remaining seeds (5) in the freezer and plant them when I think about it.

Maybe there are other processes in play, but it seems to me that seeds that can’t endure adverse conditions would ensure over time that the species dies out.

(As a side note, I found a single seed in a seedless mandarin and I’ll be planting that as well)

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2

This is interesting and helpful.

If you see good germination that is great information to have. If you have a reduced germination rate compared to seeds that are not allowed to dry out then that is a trait we could potentially select for in citrus.

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The last 5 are in a plastic bag, without removing the shell as I did with the soil planted batch.

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Two of the five have sprouted so far. One I think wasn’t viable in the first place (long slender seed) but the remaining two are still firm. So 40% emergence to this point after 1 month.

The potted group hasn’t emerged yet, but they may have dried out. I forgot to water them.

I will give these seeds more time, then start the batch I put in the freezer.

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5

Starting the next set. 5 seeds, in the freezer for the last (2?) months. I will soak for 24 hours and then put them in a bag. Currently all are floating, but if I remember correctly the first group did as well.

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6

That’s great news! I’m thrilled to hear they survived being dried!

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Frozen two months, soaked 24 hours. If I made a guess as to which survived, the one on the bottom looks healthiest.

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Control, never frozen, never refrigerated. All less than 2 weeks old. These are from a supposedly seedless mandarin

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The frozen seeds look much healthier.

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8

Excited to see the results of this!

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I’m interested to see if this confers any cold tolerance on the eventual trees. Don’t know how I’d test that, though.

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I guess if each set grow and you keep the mature plants labeled you could see if there are any differences between cold tolerance in the winter months.

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I would need a much larger population size in order to get accurate results. It’s fun to speculate, though.

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12

Very fun!

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First of the frozen seeds has germinated and is in soil. Three of the “control” seeds have rotted.

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None of the “control” germinated. 2 of the frozen group have now germinated, which puts that group at 40%.

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15

This is very interesting! I just put a slew of lemon seeds and a glut of lime seeds into soil. A previous set of lime seeds have started to sprout. I made key lime pie for Easter, and collected all the seeds I could from all the key limes I juiced for that pie!