Hi,

this is my first post althought I have been reading the forums now and then the last few months.

I have a kaffir lime tree (c. hystrix) that unfortunately did not survive the winter. Because the winter (I am living in Denmark) was a bit colder that normal, I occasionally turned on a heater, but I have an idea that it was actually the changing temperatures that killed it, and not the cold itself.

Anyway, the rootstock is living and has started to shoot from just below the grafting point. So here is my idea...

I have a couple of fruits in the fridge from before it died. Would it be possible, with a little luck, to grow some seedlings from the seeds and later graft them back on the rootstock?

For the seedlings, should I just put the seeds in normal citrus soil straight from the fruit, or do they require special treatment first?

I hope that I can revive our beloved kaffir lime tree since it is not easy to obtain in this country. Had it shipped from Germany.

Thanks a lot in advance!

Martin

You will get true to type C.hystrix from the seed, which is a good start.
Freshly extracted seed needs a few good rinses under running water to clean all the juice off, until they dont clump together. Air dry a little, but don't dry out the seed. Then store in plastic bag, being careful about mould.
Probably best to plant soon afterwards, if temperature is warm enough.
What kind of pot mix do you normally use ?
You may want to consider seed raising type mixes instead.

Grafting/budding from the seedling onto the rootstock is a good idea.
You could possibly get other rootstock seed (Trifoliata) and grow that at the same time to give you more to work with.
It may take a while to get large shoots that you can use as budsticks, so you may want to investigate methods of microbudding/grafting with small propagation material.

Thanks for the reply.

How long time should the seeds dry. A few hours, or a few days?

For sowing I normally use a seed sowing mix.

Micrografting sounds interesting but also pretty advanced. I have had good results with bark grafting on my apple tree, but I have never grafted citrus.

Air drying means spreading the seed out flat and spacing them apart so that surface moisture can escape. With Citrus seed, it is important to never dry them out internally, so hours and NOT days is the time allowed.