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Re: fruit seeds


>
>  My husband wants to try and grow an orange tree in our greenhouse.  He
>had some dried orange seeds along with apple, peach and cherry but after
>three weeks in soiland under grow lights nothing has happened.  Do they
>have to go right from the orange into soil?  Has anyone had luck doing
>this?
>

Denise, 

I hate to date myself.  This goes back a long time. However, in the 70's,
during an indoor plant craze, I remember a book entitled something like THE
AFTER DINNER GARDENER.  It was a humorous account of the author germinating
and rooting various plants in his New York apartment.  All of the author's
plants were from produce he purchased at the grocery store.  The book is no
great treatise on propagation, but it did provide instructions.  I tried
avacodo, papaya and orange seedlings in my first tiny California apartment. 

As I remember, I started the orange "plants" with the seeds from an orange
grown on a friend's  back yard tree. The parent orange had many more large
seeds than most commercial varieties and I believe I dried the seeds for
just a day or two in my kitchen window.  I just used  a yogurt carton filled
with commercial garden soil and left it in the kitchen window.    I am sure
they sprouted within a week or so or I would have given up.  I did get them
to grow more than 18 inches.  Then they were ignored when I was on vacation
(I guess they did not look that impressive to the person watering my
plants).    Of course, I believe most citrus is grafted onto a sour orange
stock so it is hard to predict how successful the plants might have been.     

The book described starting grapes,  papayas and even commercial variety
bananas from seeds.   I have no idea if it is still in print, but I doubt
it. I only had success with the orange. Based on this questionable
authority, I believe the seeds should germinate fairly easily and grow in a
sunny location.   

Judy Armer
San Juan Capistrano, CA
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