Hi all. I am looking for flying dragon seeds to establish rootstock for my grafting attempts. I am in Florida.

Thanks for any help.

He Moa Kane, I too am from Florida and am looking for FD seeds, but we can only get them from Florida since Florida has banned import of seeds unless they go through certification.

I am currently trying to find out if Trade Winds ( a mail order co in CA) is an approved source. If so they have FD as well as a wide variety of other citrus varieties in seed.

If you do get any from an individual in FL, I would reccommend a short 5% bleach treatment to make sure there is no disease (canker).

Skeet

Skeet, are you sure that citrus seed cannot be imported into Florida. I have never heard of ANY citrus disease being transmitted by seed. - Millet

Let me know if you find out that they can provide them to Florida. I will place an order with them also. I have been having a hard time finding them. You would think it would be easy.

Skeeter, also an item of interest regarding certification. I was speaking to one of the ladies at the Florida Budwood Program because I wanted to know when the Gold Nugget (available in December) and Yosemite Gold (available next year) were going to be available and she mentioned that Florida and California are working together on their certification programs so that Florida residents would be able to order budwood from California. It apparantly is in the not to distant future. Just an FYI.

None of my dried up "Flying Dragon" seeds from
Trade Winds Fruit germinated.

You might want to read what is posted on
Garden Watch Dog about them.

He Moa Kane, Thanks for the info about the CA link for budwood. I got my budwood from FL DPI this fall. I have been comunicating with them regarding the ban on import of seeds and got the info directly from FL DPI. I have not heard back from them on whether it is OK to order from Trade Winds.

Millet, As for disease in seeds, I think there is a possibility that canker can be tranported on the seeds (on the outside of the seeds-- not actually infecting the seed).

Skeet

Skeet, I guess in the realm of all things are possible, even when extremely minute, canker being spread by citrus seed, has some sort of distant possibility. Here is Dr. Manners thoughts on the subject.

>>>"Seed on the inside of the fruit will not have any canker bacteria, since the bacterium is not systemic. But if the surface of the fruit is contaminated, there is some possibility that it could be transferred in the process of extracting the seed. Even so, the seed are going to be planted under ground, and I would not expect the bacterium to move up onto the growing top, as it emerges. The bacterium is not always killed by surface drying; if that were the case, it would be an easy disease to eradicate."<<<< Millet

Skeet and I both looked into the issue of shipping citrus seed. As far as we could determine, you cannot ship seed to Florida, but you can to all other states. I too read that the reason was that canker could be transmitted via seed. That doesn't make a lot of sense to me, because Florida is where the Canker is - seems like the regulations would stop shipment of seed out of Florida. Go figure! Then again, it may be something at issue that we are not aware of.

Another thought is that you may be able to get seed through the people who run the state budwood program. Have you contacted them? I think their objective is to keep diseased material out of the state, or to avoid it's spread in the state, so they may be happy to provide a little rootstock seed to the public.

I would send seed, but I must follow Florida's regulations. Not only is it the correct thing to do, but there is the possibility that I could have my nursery liscense pulled for knowingly violating existing regulations.


Ned

Thanks Ned, I understand and would not encourage anyone to break the rules, eventhough I agree with you -- the concern should be with seeds leaving FL.

I have contacted the people at FL Dept. Of Plant Industries (the budwood source), they do sell seeds-- $100/quart --primarialy for nurseries, but all they have right now is 2006 seeds. I am on a waiting list for leftovers for 2007 that they sell to homeowners at $10 plus shipping for a few dozen.

Skeet

Not cheap seed huh?

I just noticed that the discussion we had earlier, regarding seed, was under "Forum for propagating citrus", under "Citrus seed to CA". The links to the pertinate regulations are there.

updated below

Skeeter,

I just spoke with Mike Kissinger -sp? (863-298-7735) at the budwood program and he said they are harvesting the Flying Dragon seed right now and it is available. The price I received was $10 per hundred seeds plus shipping for the homeowner. I put in my order and he said they will call when the shipment is ready.

I just got an email from them saying that they would be shipping soon. I have been on their list for a few weeks.

Thanks-- Skeet

PS let me know how yours do.