what will you be using for supplemental light ????

none of those listed are low light house plants

ken

I have two windows in my room and I'll be able to supplement with a growth light.

how big a grow light ... wattage ... it will have to be lit 16 to 24 hours per day ... will you be paying for electricity???

what direction do the windows face ...

what is the heating system.. and how will you provide proper humidity ...

what type of pots are you thinking about...

what media are you considering ...

do you already have the seed???

do or will you have a room mate who will put up with all this???

ken

i'd try a coffee tree. the kind that produce coffee beans. they are doable as houseplants, and quite ornamental.

if you are going to grow a tree indoors, go exotic or go home. ;^)

If you want an indoor tree, started from a seed, you will need something tropical (a temperate/winter cold hardy tree will be stressed out by the warm Winter temperatures indoors (has nothing to do with being 'exotic'...Acer palmatum is exotic in Guam). What about...?

Avocado tree
Mango tree
citrus (orange, lemon, grapefruits, pomelo etc,)
Banana

Coffee is one I have never had such good luck with.

P.S., these are Seville/Sour oranges. For whatever reason, I have had the fastest results with these from fresh fruit.

College students have to have an Avocado grown from a pit - it's the law isn't it? It least it was in my day.

None of the trees listed by OP are suitable for growing indoors. They can be started from seed indoors but will need to be moved outdoors as soon as they develop a few sets of leaves and the weather is appropriate. Plants that grow outdoors in any temperate climate do not make suitable houseplants - there is simply not enough light, humidity is too low and indoor temps not conducive. Temperate plants also need a period of dormancy that cannot be achieved indoors.

Tropical or semitropical plants will make much more suitable candidates, as mentioned by several responders. And some are dead easy to grow from seed, like the avocado.

my advice....bring with you as little as possible...this will make your life easier....less cleaning and less hauling stuff in and out....in my dorm I only had 1 weeks worth of clothing, tv, labtop, 1 blanket, 1 pillow, few towels, 1 bottle fo shampoo, and toothbrush/toothpaste....that was all it took my less than 10-20 minutes to move in and out while my other roomates took several hours to days. Also they had to clean a lot more.

Palm trees grow easily from seed - I find them in my yard all the time. I've seen coconut seedlings in the nurseries but have not tried to grow one indoors.

I've never grown an avocado indoors - only outdoors, and they still get a lot of bugs. Rubber trees do well indoors, but they are not recommended outdoors, as they will destroy sidewalks, streets, sewers, etc. and anything that gets in their way.

I grew a tamarind from seed, but that was outdoors, and so I don't know if that would work indoors, but you could try. I found the seed in some Indonesian tamarind paste that I had bought. They are pretty trees, but they also get very large.

Lars

at xmas time.. you ought to buy one of the disposable xmass trees they sell at bigboxsotores ... there are a myriad of different kinds.... even an herb trimmed as such

ken

OK I will take a guess at helping. Are you in an northeastern area or a more sunny area? I would say that Norfolk Island pine, those trees at Wal-mart and other stores around Christmas time, they have short needles usually with a few light x-mas ornaments on them. They are real green not like some of the other skinny bluish green plants displayed near them. There are Ficus Benjamin trees that do great indoors, but they shed leaves sometimes, and I would love to plant if I had a ceiling window (skylight) I am sure there are lots of indoor trees available, but having a skylight is better for trees than a side window.