Grow Your Own Oranges - Part 4
By Gus Kilthau
@Ceerios (4698)
Goodfellow, Texas
January 28, 2017 2:00pm CST
Grow Your Own Oranges - Part 4 -
Thought I had best do this with those orange tree seeds. The little guys are delicate critters, so if they are handled to much or to vigorously, they might break into little pieces - sort of like some chopped lettuce.
Chopped lettuce will not make for any reasonable sort of orange tree.
So, at this 6th day (144 hours) of starting growth on a damp paper towel inside of a sealed plastic bag the ten little struggling orange seeds were each transferred onto its own tiny (cut-out) piece of paper towel. I thought that letting each one grow onto its own new paper towel home would make any future handling of the forthcoming seedlings both easier and safer.
When it is time to transfer the germinated seeds - roots, stems, leaves and all - into small growing pots, the little rascals will go underground along with their small carrier paper towel pieces. I should have started them off atop those paper pieces right at the beginning - but this old man is just not that smart.
Image source - Gus Kilthau.
Grow Your Own Oranges - Part 3 - Germination is happening - maybe time for some penicillin? Here we are at 120 hours with the orange seeds on the damp paper...
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2 responses
@Namelesss (3364)
• United States
28 Jan 17
That's awesome Gus. I had no idea you could remove the outer shell first. I think I will give this a try. Thanks for writing a series of posts about planting orange seeds. Maybe I'll have some success using your method.
1 person likes this
@Ceerios (4698)
• Goodfellow, Texas
29 Jan 17
@Namelesss - Hello ( "..........") - Yesd. Start at the pointy end with your fingernails (or a substitute for fingernails) and gently peel the hard shell away. The shells come off easily enough, but try to avoid nicking the inner membrane deal. You don't need to put separate little pads down for each seed, but it seemed lile a good idea because the tiny seedlings
are very delicate. Good luck. -Gus-
@Namelesss (3364)
• United States
29 Jan 17
@Ceerios Good idea, I'll do that and then maybe separate them after they sprout up a bit. I have a notoriously black thumb but lately my endeavors are proving better than usual so I really want to do this. I'll try to remember to come back and let you know how they are doing after a month or so.
1 person likes this
@Ceerios (4698)
• Goodfellow, Texas
29 Jan 17
@Namelesss - Hello ( ".........." ) - Just today, I put the seeds onto their separate little pieces of paper towel that I had cut out for them. I lost two of the seedlings that had already sprouted some roots by being kinda rough on their handling - so if I do this again, I will start them next time on pieces of cut-out towel on top of the main paper towel. They will go into some dirt in small pots in just a little while now. -Gus-
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