Which varieties of citrus do best for own-root, grown from seed? I think there's something to be said for being natural. And I refuse to believe it is absolutely impossible to grow any type of decent citrus fruit without having to use grafting. Edit: Another discussion in this forum says that many citrus varieties can be grown own-root, but some maybe less sweet, and the roots require more frequent irrigation and are more vulnerable to disease. http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/citrus/msg012036217931.html And for some citrus varieties, the fruit resulting from the seedlings may be significantly different from the parent. It's all luck of the draw with the genes, and once the breeders found a winner they simply resorted to clonal propagation. For planting citrus seeds, one of the really helpful things is to carefully peel off the slimy covering over the seed, it helps the seed begin to grow much sooner, otherwise it takes time for this protective layer to rot away in the soil. This post was edited by Socal2warm on Mon, Feb 2, 15 at 21:14

What will happen if you try to save and propagate propriatary seeds is the seed police will show up and arrest you, the seed police are related to the mattress tag police who are all related to Yahootie... You know him, he's the little guy that lives in your fridge and turns on the lite when you open the door. In all seriousness do save your seeds and try the ones you get with dried peppers I've found a lot of the peppers that I get from the Mexican markets up here are air dried and sprout just fine. I save seeds by air drying them on paper plates. I like to use the closet our water heater is in as it's warmish but not hot and there's good air flow in there due to the venting so I never get mold on the seeds. I'll leave them in there for several weeks so they get good and dry. To store them go and find some paper coin envelopes, they are about 2"x 4" and put your seeds in them, plastic will work but if there's any moisture in the seeds you'll get mold and it will kill them, paper mo betta bro. :) What works great is a good size Mason jar with the wire top and rubber seal, use silaca gel in the bottom and put your clearly marked and dated envelopes in the jar and have Yahootie store them in the bottom back of the fridge right next to that freeze dried something in the tupperware where it's cool and dark. If you can't get the silica gel pour 2 inches of fresh rice in the bottom as it will also absorb the moisture. I've kept seeds this way for years, I had some pepper seeds that were at least ten years old kept this way and had better than 60% germination from them.

The issue is are they hybrids or heirlooms/open pollinated varieties. If they are hybrids then the seeds you save won't breed true. Hybrid seeds in the packet are the result of manual cross-pollination of at least 2 parent varieties. The seeds saved from those hybrid plants once grown, will revert to the parent stock or some strange combination of them. If your seeds planted and grown are heirlooms or open-pollinated plants, not hybrids, then yes you can save the seeds and re-grow them. Depending on what the plant is - self-fertile like tomatoes or insect pollinated like most flowers, they may or may not grow true. In some cases, like hollyhocks you will still get lots cross-pollination by insects so your saved seeds may change color etc. It all depends on how much you care whether or not the seeds you saved breed true or not. Many don't care, many do. Some research on cross-pollination will explain this in more detail. ;) Dave

I had never heard of 'Upland Cress' so I Googled it. It seems it is Barbarea verna a hardy N American native. It is a biennial so if you plant your plants outside they will overwinter and flower next spring. It is very quick to grow from seed so I'm not sure planting out your bundle would be worth it. but what do you have to lose by trying?