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You can grow your own orange tree from the seeds of a ripe fruit by following a few simple steps. However, you will have to be willing to wait a long time for it to mature and it may never produce fruit. Orange seeds have an unusual characteristic that surprise and puzzle most people.
Know How to Plant Orange Seeds
The know how to plant orange seeds is elementary. Either take the seeds from a ripe orange and put them directly into sterilized seed sprouting mix at about half an inch deep or put the moist seeds in a plastic bag and put them in a refrigerator set at 1 or 2 degrees Celsius for a minimum of 30 days before planting them. If you refrigerate the seeds there is a better chance of the seeds germinating than the direct planting method but both have been known to sprout. Keep the mix moist but not wet and in a nice warm spot. Placement on top of heat generating machinery is ideal. Transplant the seedling as needed into slightly bigger receptacles as it grows. Regular watering, the right amount of sunlight, nutrition, protection from cold and pests can reward the grower with a 3 foot sapling after about a year. This may seem impressive until one learns that it takes an orange tree 7 to 15 years, depending on the variety of orange the seed came from, to reach fruit bearing age and at that time it is often an 8 foot by 8 foot bushy tree. Knowing how to plant orange seeds can be an interesting and very long term experiment resulting in a nice indoor foliage plant that gives off a pleasant fragrance.
Nucellar Seedlings
The surprise that growers may experience comes from the appearance of three sprouts where they know only one seed was planted. Like many citrus, orange seeds produce nucellar seedlings. These three seedlings are clones of the parent tree instead of being genetic in origin. This is called being vegetative in origin. Of the trio, two will be fast growing and may eventually become trees that are identical to the tree that the fruit came from. The weaker sprout, usually the center one, is the genetic or "different" seedling and needs to be removed.
Orange trees flower and produce fruit when they have the proper number of nodes. Node development has to do with the correct combination of light and warmth not just the age of the plant. Fruit production is not the primary goal of most people who want to know how to plant orange seeds. While one may know how to plant orange seeds, the probability of getting good tasting fruit from a seed grown tree is rather unlikely.
While you can grow an orange tree from planting orange seeds it is more of an interesting experiment that may end up being a long lived indoor plant for most people. When you know how to plant orange seeds, which seedlings to dispose of and the warmth and light requirements of the seedling, you do have a good chance of growing your own orange tree.
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Author Bio Box: Patricia Wainwright
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