I guess no one told my eureka it couldn't grow on flying dragon.

http://www.australiancitrusgrowers.com/aspdev/resources/documents/Poncirustrifoliatascreenpdf.pdf

http://www.australiancitrusgrowers.com/aspdev/resources/documents/Eureka9-02.pdf

The reason it is so difficult for a chance seedling created by a private hobby citrus grower ever becoming a standard citrus variety grown around the world are because of all the criteria that a new variety must meet. They include:

appearance of fruit
Fruit size and shape
TSS/acid ratio
Juice content
Flavor/color
Ease of Peeling
Seedlessness
Season of ripening
Handling for fresh market
Economic and cultural importance
Processing quality
Storage life
Juice content
Juice composition.
Tree performance
Crop yield
Cold hardiness
Adaptation to adverse climatic and soil conditions.
Adaptation to mechanical harvest
Disease and pest resistance
These are a lot of conditions that a chance seedling must meet or surpass in order to become a commercially viable variety - Millet

How about kumquat hybrids, do they come true from seed?

Like;

mandarinquats, limequats, citrangequats etc...

I recently planted a bunch of key lime seeds and have a few questions. For a tree to come true from seed it must come up polyembryonic right? I here key limes come true but the ones I have seem to be coming up mono? Any thoughts?

Yes, Key limes come true from seed. Further, Key lime seedling tree can begin to produce fruit in as little as 2-3 years. - Millet (1,255-)

I think that you're missing the question Millet (either that or I am). I think what Brancato's asking is: If I only see one sprout from a usually polyembryonic seed, does that mean I've gotten one of the rare monoembryonic seeds?

I'm Kinda wondering this too, most of the illustrations I've seen for polyembryonic seeds have one large sprout coming from the seed, and then a multitude of smaller sprouts coming from the same seed. However even from the polyembryonic seeds I've planted (valencia orange and lemon) I've only seen one sprout grow.

That's exactly what I'm asking about Sludge. I have heard that Keys come true, but it appears as though the seedlings are all coming up monoembryonic. They are all seeds from the same bag of key limes (a particularly good batch) I got from a grocery store and it is not just one seed that is doing this, so far about 7-10 of the 20 that I planted a few weeks ago have come up, all mono. The calamondin seeds I germinated all came up with two mains sprouts (what I'm assuming means polyembryonic). It just seems odd to me that they are coming up mono. Can a monoembryonic seed come true? Could this also be a specific type of key lime that is designed to not come true from seed? Just curious because I was going to give them away to friends and family and I just want to make sure they are all actually key limes.

Joe

They do come true. It is possible they were cross pollinated with something else. I have grown many from seed & some will come up mono, but most have come up poly. I have one I have grown from seed about 5 years ago, it has produced great quality fruit every year since it's second year.

So it is possible for a monoembryonic seed to come true then? Lazz, have you ever noticed any differances in the key limes that came up mono? Even if they are cross-pollinated with something else I am still pretty interested in growing one since they flower pretty quickly from seed. Thanks for all of the help on this folks!

Joe

I am no expert on this subject but I can repeat what I have read elsewhere. Obviously monoembryonic means one embryo and polyembryonic means more than one embryo but when people ask about monoembryonic and polyembryonic varieties here they usually want to know which varieties produce mostly zygotic embryos and which varieties produce mostly nucellar embryos. The most easily observable difference between the two is that varities which produce multiple embryos per seed are most likely or entirely nucellar embryos. A zygotic embryo is a fertilized embryo with pollen and seed parents. There is nearly always exactly one zygotic embryo per seed (to start with). A nucellar embryo is not fertilized and is a clone of the mother tree. It originates in the nucellus of the seed in response to GA or other plant hormones. There can be multiple nucellar embryos per seed. In many citrus varieties, zygotic embryos are weaker and do not grow as vigorously as the nucellar embryos and get crowded out and die. These varieties produce nearly 100% true to type which is great for producing new identical plants from seed but useless for plant breeding as the seed parent. Some citrus varieties like clementines generally do not produce nucellar embryos. For that reason, clementines are often used as the seed parent for breeding new citrus varieties. Just because there is only one embryo per seed does not mean that it won't produce true to type. If that one embryo is a nucellar embryo then it will be true to type. Key limes are one of the few citrus varieties that are still mostly propagated by seed so they have to be true to type. I haven't grown very many key limes from seed but all of the seeds I have grown have either one or two embryos per seed. The seeds are rather small so it would be hard to get very many embryos in there. All of the key limes I have grown are very uniform and show no difference from one plant to the next. I have read that "twin" zygotic embryos have been rarely observed in some citrus varieties so multiple embryos per seed is not an absolute guarantee that at least one of the embryos is nucellar. Using human terms, both identical and fraternal twins have been observed before although both are rare. I hope I got this explanation right. If not, someone please correct me.

Most plant types do not behave like citrus so this explanation does not apply to other plant types.

Actually, I believe Clementines never produce nucellar embryos. The reason that the zygote embryo normally gets crowed out is because the nucellar embryos start their growth a week or more before the zygote does. Therefore the nucellar embryos are much larger in size when the zygote's growth begins. It is an "unfair" battle of embryos. However, when a seed produces only one seedling (mono) their would not be a lot of crowding go on. Perhaps, Dr. Manners can shed some more light on this subject. - Millet (1,254-)

Jrb, what you said is perfect. You're not an expert, but you will become one quickly!