Valencia Seedlings FREE (forum)

Gumnut starts with ...
Hi all,

Due to having our first baby a few weeks ago i need to scale down my hobby. Saying that i have about 50 Valencia seedlings in 32mm peat pellets all very healthy and also there are about 30-60 lemon and Honey Murcott Mandarin seedlings to through in aswell. There all around 7+cm high.

Pick up is in Cameron Park NSW outside Newcastle.

Craig
Pictures - Click to enlarge

Picture: 1
Picture: 2

Time: 30th March 2013 8:18am

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About the Author Gumnut
 
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Brendan says...
Are they from grafted citrus trees Gumnut? If they are, they may not be true-to-type? Just a thought.

Time: 30th March 2013 9:01am

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About the Author Brendan
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Gumnut says...
Not sure, when we juice oranges or lemons i keep the seeds, same as when eating a mandarin.

Time: 30th March 2013 9:03am

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Brain says...
I'd assume gumnut brought his valencia oranges from shops, so they are most likely to be grafted and known varieties. The question then is, would the seeds grow true to type and identical to the parent and that would depend on a lot of factors.

As far as I am aware from the literature, most citrus varieties and then majority of the seeds are poly-embryonic - hence true to type. But you could also end up with some genetic variations and even a 'new' variety.

In a genetic stand point of the plant, it's not a bad thing to grow from seeds as that's how they propagate and evolve. The only catch is you need patience and luck - quite a few years before fruiting and the fruiting quality is unknown.

I also grow a bit of lemon from seeds - it's great fun - so I know how Gumnut feels. But have found the mortality rate of seedlings to be quite high. So if you are planning to take one of Gumnut's seedlings, I suggest take a few. :)

Time: 2nd April 2013 11:13am

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About the Author Brain
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MaryT says...
Well said, Brian. I also know how you feel, gumnut, as I tend to stick seeds straight from my mouth into a pot and end up with numerous seedlings. I think these are excellent educational tools and if you have a primary school nearby you ought to take them to a show and tell and give each child a tiny tree. Most of them will die within days/weeks but aha some years later a writer will recall the day Mr Gumnut arrived with a moveable forest; a member on this forum will post a picture of the fruit from his/her tree and who knows, they might even present you with a box of fruit. :)

Time: 3rd April 2013 10:06am

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About the Author MaryT
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M Nash says...
Hmm, Im about to pick some Yuzus that are grafted. I was going the propergate the seeds mainly to give away. Worth it?

Time: 3rd April 2013 10:51am

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MaryT says...
Yes, M Nash. Definitely. Propagate!

Time: 3rd April 2013 11:17am

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Brain says...
Splendid idea MaryT. Only catch is, in the current climate of the nanny state, citrus has lots of thorns and so it needs to be managed. Or maybe even a mini orchard on school grounds.

The 2 part docu "Botany of Desire" has some facinating insights on plants relationship with humans, well worth a watch.

As for the Yuzu, last time I checked, Yuzu plants are in high demand, so yes it would be worth the effort and you will be forever well thought of by serious citrus growers.

Only catch is, if you are in Qld, you can not ship any citrus plants anywhere outside Qld.

Time: 3rd April 2013 11:17am

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Original Post was last edited: 3rd April 2013 11:24am

About the Author Brain
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MaryT says...
True, Brain. We must not expose children to thorns on trees! OH NO. Citrus are incubated in plastic orange nets in Woolies, of course. It would break their hearts to know how long it takes for a tree to grow and bear fruit.

Time: 4th April 2013 7:34am

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Brain says...
I have had experience where my lemon grown from seed, flowered after 4 years and fruited at 5th year. So in the grand scheme of things, it's not that long. Besides it teaches kids patience and that after some 'hard' work, one can enjoy the fruits of one's labour. Obviously it flys in the face of the value - "it's all about me, I want everything now", espoused by our society.

Time: 4th April 2013 5:53pm

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About the Author Brain
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Jason says...
In my experience the time to grow a seedling tree into a good fruiting tree is equal or less than the time required to grow a grafted tree into a decent tree 90% of the time.

Grafted trees might fruit in the first one or second years but it's only 1 or two fruit (who cares) and they loose most of the best part of the growing season either flowering or growing fruit rather than properly growing like a seedling.

So by the time a grafted tree is at a decent size and fruiting worth while amounts of fruit, the seedling is twice the size and a much stronger tree with no graft compatibility issues.

And yes even kids in the most remote places in the world no longer no how to grow seeds!. I taught some young kids in a very wild part of Mexico (no electricity) how to plant seeds, specifically mangos rather than rely on good luck for a tree to self seed and they were all over the idea!:)

I'd love to go back and see how many mango trees the village has now :D


Time: 4th April 2013 6:39pm

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About the Author Jason
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MaryT says...
Good story, Jason. Yes, we should all grow more from seeds. Such good value. Seedlings also make the best gift.

Time: 5th April 2013 8:48am

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Jason says...
Keeping genetic diversity is also Veeeeeery important. If you only kept the 5 "best" humans and cloned them for all time you would be stuffed come bird flu season.

Not only that, cloned people just like grafted plants are genetically old, very old. Some varieties of plum are hundreds of years old and have all the DNA deformities that come with age, they just don't perform like they used to. Even the Hass avocado already underwent a shift from an upright variety to a ball shaped tree at some stage and its still genetically fairly young. There been a project to try and find a surviving early graft that's still upright.

All worth thinking about :).

Time: 5th April 2013 3:22pm

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Original Post was last edited: 5th April 2013 4:37pm

About the Author Jason
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amanda says...
Hadn't thought about grafts and cuttings in that way b4 Jason...interesting!
Some backyarder probably has that upright Hass - but wouldn't know that..there may have been all sorts of treasures lurking in the backyards of the really old suburbs in cities..


Time: 6th April 2013 12:30pm

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MaryT says...
Yes, so much is said about animals becoming extinct but not much on lost cultivars or even species...

Re Hass, Jason - would the solution then be planting losts of Hass seeds hoping that you'll get a 'throw back' ? Why did they breed out the upright variety and why do they want it back?

Time: 7th April 2013 10:15am

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Jason says...
Mary the didn't breed it out, I guess originally there was only ever one graft taken from the parent tree. Then at some stage not long later more grafts were taken from a single tree that had undergone a mutation and the rest if the world/time were that material.

After the original Hass tree died they realised (because it looked nothing like the grafted trees today or the old pictures of grafts). That something changed somewhere along the line. So they were looking for one of the original shaped Hass.

Fuerte still looks and grows to the exact same shape as its parent though.


Time: 7th April 2013 3:36pm

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mtyr says...
It seems as if some of the material presented is distorted. A "sport" is a somatic mutation in ONE tree . It cannot "contaminate" the whole genetic line of ,say, plums. Any mutations in grafted plums ,again for example , will be somatic as no meiosis occurs. Therefore nothing is "lost" as one just needs to go back to an unmutated plum to recover the original genotype.

Time: 7th April 2013 3:51pm

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Jason says...
Yes but when there is no known unmutated Hass tree you have a problem.

Most varieties are still genetically old worn out material, nothing has unlimited cell divisions. Nothing that sexually reproduces anyway



Time: 7th April 2013 4:40pm

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Gumnut says...
So i guess no1 wants them : ( to the bin then.

Time: 12th April 2013 9:37am

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MaryT says...
Gumnut do you know of anywhere you can do some gorilla planting? It is quite fun just walking around sticking plants in places when no one is looking. :) It's surprisingly difficult to find new home for trees, even mature ones, I find.

Time: 12th April 2013 12:20pm

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Original Post was last edited: 12th April 2013 1:06pm
About the Author MaryT
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Gumnut says...
Its very difficult lol. Id love to do some gorrila planting but due to having a neck injury adventuring cant be achieved : (. Throwing away all them citrus plus a few hundered pomegrante seedlings aswell as a few hundred passion fruit seedlings isnt what i want to do but im struggling with my garden with our new bubba.



Time: 12th April 2013 2:32pm

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MaryT says...
Ah Gumnut; bubba is worth a thousand trees. He's the most important seedling. You'll have to tell him this story one day.

Time: 12th April 2013 4:29pm

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About the Author MaryT
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Gumnut says...
Definatly have to tell her : ) Ive started growing Natives like Euclypts Banksia, Bottle Brush and grevillea from seed and selling them and giving them away and all the money i make goes to Legacy since i love the germination process and i give neally everything i grow away anyway i might aswell do something good with my hobby and im pretty sure my new daughter will love to help me : )



Time: 13th April 2013 12:41pm

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M Nash says...
Id love to have some of your valancia seedlings but Im a way off yonder. :(
Congrats on the new darling though :)

Time: 14th April 2013 7:40pm

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