hey everyone its Rob the backyard gardener and I'm super excited that I'm
starting a new series it's gonna be my citrus trees from seeds series now I've
had a lot of viewers ask me to please start trying to grow some citrus from
seed and other things like cherries and pomegranates and I just I don't have a
lot of space for more trees but you know what I've given it a go before with
citrus trees from seed and I've not done too well so I figured why not go ahead
and document this series for you all and get started so what I did was I took
some store-bought lemons and some oranges and I believe the lemons were
Meyer lemons and the oranges were like a naval hybrid we all know navel oranges
don't produce seed but if they're a hybrid then they might have some seeds
that's what I found in these hybrid navel oranges and we're gonna give it a
go so let me go and get you start on the series this video is their progress from
day zero through day 34... pretty simple process to start guys all you really
have to do is separate the seeds from the lemon now
at this point you have two choices
you can let these dry out in which case
you'll peel the shell off and I'll show you that method here later in the video
or you can go ahead and just wipe these off and see if you can get them to germinate
nut we're gonna go ahead and let these dry out for a little bit and we're gonna
go ahead and start growing our citrus trees from seed (in this case Meyer lemon)
alright guys once you have your lemon seeds dried out like this or at
least the way I like to do it is dry them out like this now I'm going to fill
this up with water because I want to rehydrate these seeds the reason why I
like to dry them out and then rehydrate them with water is because I want to
peel off this protective seed coating underneath this white coating this
little thin skin on it is the actual seed and I have found that when you
remove this coating you really speed up the germination time when I planted
lemon or orange seeds like this before it's taken me more than a month to
germinate them it's like it has to dissolve this shell
or the skin and then the roots have to bust through it and it just seems to
take a lot longer by doing it this method I seem to get germination between
two and three weeks at the most so now that I have it like that let's go ahead
and add some water now I just wanna add a little bit of warm water to it because
I find that it softens it up not hot water you don't want to boil it but see
just a little bit of warm water in here and you'll see that initially the seeds
will float now don't worry about that it's not because they're not viable
that's because they've dried out and so what I have found is if you soak them
like this for at least 8 to 12 hours don't all be at the bottom by then and
fully rehydrated the ones that aren't at the bottom within 24 hours of the most
those probably are non viable seeds let me go ahead take you to the next step
after you've done this and you've let them soak for 8 to 12 hours
so once the seeds have soaked overnight then the show gets a little bit soft and
you'll want to use your fingernails if possible or any kind of tool to remove
the seed from the shell and then you will have a seed that looks somewhat
something like this ok now that they've soaked overnight you remove the thin
seed coating you'll want to put them in a web cover towel now I'm gonna fold
this over but this paper towel is not saturated with moisture guys it's just a
little bit wet the reason why you only want a little bit wet is when I put it
in a ziplock bag like we got here it's gonna act like a mini greenhouse and you
don't need much water for that this bag is labeled oranges 611 it's the exact
same process I showed you with orange seeds as it is for lemon seeds soaking
and peeling off the skin you do want to make sure that you leave a little bit of
air in this bag because if you don't you're gonna be able to some mold you
don't want that so here we have both bags June 11th for oranges and lemons
and at this point guys it's the waiting game I'm hoping for 2 to 3 weeks until
we get germination so checking in on my lemons that I put in a paper towel
method on 6 11 and today 625 and we have one of the
three seeds has sprouted so at this point I'm gonna take all my seeds and
put them into some soil and give it a few weeks more to see how they perform
it for my lemons and oranges I'm going to be using the 2 cup method we've got a
Red Solo Cup here which goes into another cup that doesn't have any holes
punched citrus trees prefer loamy well draining soil like you see here this is
a mixture of potting soil my homemade compost and I've eaten even added some
additional perlite about 10 percent of more perlite add it in now what I'm
gonna do is I'm gonna take my inner Red Solo Cup this guy's filled up pretty
good so much like that we'll add a little bit of water I'll put a little
hole here and I'll drop the seeds in and then just sprinkle some soil on top by
doing this and allowing this draining method here I'll be keeping the soil
moist but after about an hour I'll drain all of the liquid back out and I'm gonna
keep this watered about every 2 or 3 days again after an hour after each
water you're gonna dump the remaining of the water out I don't want water sitting
in here and drowning the soil so that the plant can't get the oxygen that it
needs so today is July 15th it has been 34 days on the citrus from seed we had
the lemons from 611 as well as the oranges from 611 I don't have any action
on the oranges yet didn't have a lot of action on the lemon seeds but in the
last few days we're really starting to get some sprouts now I put one seed into
every container but this one I put two and I'll tell you these were the two
newest seeds of all the seeds I used for the lemons I had some from the beginning
of the year so I don't know if the timing of the seeds makes a big
difference it usually would if it's older than a year but less than a year I
don't know if it should make it difference but these two have sprouted
so we've got the beginnings of some Meyer lemon seedlings again nothing in
these ones yet and then the oranges guys I just there's nothing but these seeds
are about a year old so bottom line is there's nothing going on in these right
now we're gonna give it a little more time I think once I transplant these
into individual ones probably when I get back next weekend I'll transplant these
that they look healthy enough but I want them to establish some roots and then
get a few more inches of height on them and then we'll transplant them into
individual pots I'm hoping by then we've got some sprouting on the other citrus
if I don't then I plan on starting fresh out of the orange some orange seeds as
well as some more lemon seeds just to kind of give a test to see if they
perform better when they come straight from the fruit well there you have it
everyone that's the first 34 days on the citrus from seed series that I'm just
now starting we're hopeful and optimistic that a lot can happen over
the next two to three weeks I'll keep you updated at least every two weeks
especially while they're young as they get older hoping that they survive
obviously then I'll give you updates probably less often unless there's some
action if you're enjoying the series so far please give it a thumbs up and as
always thanks for watching
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