Hello all,

From reading many of the excellent posts on this site, it seems that the key lime is a great citrus to grow from seed due to the relatively short time to fruit and because it grows true to seed. I picked up a few key limes from the market and collected the seeds to grow (after first enjoying the lime of course ). I am trying the baggie method described on this site, with the seeds in a moist paper towel and then placed in a ziplock bag in a warm area. I have had a number of the seeds begin to germinate, with the tap root emerging from the seed.

My question is when and how to plant the seeds once they reach this stage. I planted one that was just beginning to germinate. After about a week, I could see that the root was fully out of the seed and the seed was rising above the soil on the stem. The seed was very dry and hard so I tried to break it open but ruined it. There was another seed that germinated so I left it for much longer in the baggie for the root to come out more. I then removed the seed by hand to expose the leaves and have planted it this morning. We'll see how that one turns out.

Is there a better way to do this? Thanks to the creators/contributors of this forum for all of the great information so far.

I usually just leave the seed coat on the plant, eventually it dries out and breaks as the plant grows. i myself germinate seeds in a converted aquarium and don't need to transplant from a baggie.

i am jealous of you with your key lime cause everytime i buy limes around here to get seeds they are all seedless!

-smiley

Key limes are much smaller than persian limes. You can usually get them at wall-mart in a mesh bag. Key limes are not usually sold as singles, most often sold in a bag of 10-15 fruit.

As for germinating the seeds, just use the 20 oz drink cups with potting soil. They should germinate in a week or two.

Thanks Smiley and Laaz for the replies.

Perhaps I was too impatient with the seed that had sprouted and still had the hard seedcoat on it. I'll let the next ones go for much longer. Hopefully, the ones I removed manually will do well also.

Smiley, most of the key limes I've seen in the stores are in a mesh bag of 15 or so as Laaz said. I was able to find them individually at my farmers market though and got 2-3 for about 5 cents to experiment with.

Images of the seedlings from the key lime experiment. I've tried a couple of methods to see if there is much of a difference. Thanks to the advice from Laaz, most of my seeds that were just beginning to germinate were planted but I've tried some different things with a few of the others.



This is one of the seeds that I removed the seedcoat from after the root was clearly out of the seed. It seems to be doing pretty well and I believe that there are multiple seedlings here.



Another seed which I assisted in the seedcoat removal. This one was not as far along in the germination (both done using the baggie method) which may explain why it's not as far along as the one above.



I have a number of seeds from the baggie that were just beggining to germinate, so I've planted those to see how they do as well. All look like the above image and haven't broken through the soil yet but I've got my fingers crossed. Thanks again for the suggestions. I'll likely post updates to show the progress of my new seedlings.

Every citrus seed that is planted in Brazil, (the world largest commercial grower of citrus) has its seed coat peeled before planting. Benching or badly curled roots restricts the flow of nutrients to the seedling and stunts the tree's growth. This problem is especially common in cultivars such as sweet orange and citranges, but also on other citrus seed. The new root grows around the inside of the seed between the cotyledons and the outer seed skin before emerging outside the skin. A useful but time consuming technique which prevents this problem is to peel the seed before germination. Peeled seed germinate in two days without bent and curled taproots. Peeling involves carefully removing the straw colored hard, fibrous outer skin called the testa, leaving the delicate papery, brown skin around the cotyledons. The fine skin is very easily disturbed and the seed may fall apart. Carefully plant the seed in the growing medium, or better, do as commercial citrus nurseries do, and carefully place the successfully peeled seed on a paper covered tray and germinate. By spacing the seed in one layer of a paper covered tray; cover it with another sheet of paper followed by a dampened hessian bag or cloth cover. Completely wet the whole lot to settle the seed against the paper and drain the excess. At the optimum germination temperature for citrus seed, 80F (27C) to 86F (30C). Be sure that the coverings do not become dry. Seed will germinate in two days with straight tap roots. - Millet

Thanks for the information Millet. I don't have any more ungerminated seeds to try this on but I'll have to try that technique the next time I get some key lime seeds. Hopefully, I'll get some healthy seedlings from this group.

Here's an updated photo from one of the key limes I planted. This one seems to be progressing pretty nicely. I have a few others that are sprouted but I don't really see any new leaves just yet. Hopefully those will do as well as this one.