Oz, Whether or not you leave them in the peat pellets is up to you. I'd base my decision on a couple of facts: 1) How soon they are going to go into the ground. If you are going to plant them out in March (and with our variable weather, that might be iffy), they should be able to survive that long in peat pellets. Once the plants are 3" tall or so, though, you may need to feed them with a water-soluable fertilizer because peat pellets are essentially "dead" and have no nutrition in them for the plants. You could use the fert. of your choice--I like using liquid seaweed or fish emulsion. 2) How warm the seed-starting room is/how quickly they dry out. One of the problems with peat pellets is that they hold too much water initally when you first add water to them to get them to "expand" and "fluff up", and then once they dry out, it can be very hard to get them wet again. So, water regularly so they don't get dry and hard, but don't keep them sopping wet. If you keep peat pellets too wet, then damping off, which is a disease that kills the seedlings, becomes a huge issue. 3) Potting them up into cups gives them a huge advantage root wise, so I always pot up into cups using a good, sterile soil-less potting mix. Look at the size of your pellets and the size of the roots you can have in those pellets. Then look at a 12 or 16-oz. cup and imagine what size the roots could attain in those. If your plants are going to be inside another 3-4 weeks, your plants could gain a lot of root growth in paper cups during that time. 4) Potting them up into paper cups makes hardening off a lot easier. With larger plants in paper or plastic cups, you'll find the hardening off process will be easier to achieve. Plants in very small peat pellets often dry out very quickly as you are hardening them off outside in the sun and wind. If it is especially windy, they can be blown out of the flat. Plants in cups have a little more weight and hold moisture better, so they are a little easier to manage during the hardening-off process. And, I've grown most of what you've started from seed and they've done well for me here. I haven't grown pilotus, though, and Texas Bluebonnets usually flower in April-May from a fall planting. I am not sure if you'll get flowers this year from seed if it was planted only recently. On the other hand, I have planted "Alamo Fire" (red-flowered) bluebonnet seed in the spring, and those bloomed in June-July. Dawn

Actually, all you need to do for a lemon tree is plant it in loose soil, water the soil lightly, and stick it in a ziplock bag. See this thread: http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/trees/msg111341588777.html That lemon tree is mine. I grew from seed. All I did was (STEP BY STEP leaving out absolutely NO information) 1) I grabbed the seed from a lemonade drink made from a lemon bought from a lemonade stand, this past summer 2) put the seeds in a cup of water. All of them sank(sadly, I have no clue where they are now) 3) Placed them in a container somewhere (except for 6) 4) took that plastic cup and cut some holes in the bottom 5) put soil (which turned out to be harder than rock when watered) inside the cup 6) stuck the seed in the cup 7) watered the soil lightly 8) stuck the seed in a plastic ziplock baggy 9) put it on the counter 9) Forgot it was even there About 2 weeks later, I said "OH CRAP! AM I TOO LATE? IS IT DEAD? I CAN'T BELIEVE I FORGOT ABOUT IT!!! OH MY GOSH, PLEASE DON'T BE DEAD! PLEASE DON'T BE DEAD!!!" After panicking and looking for about 20 minutes, I finally found it buried under a lot of crap. I looked into the bag and I'm thinking, "Awwwwww!!!! It's so cute!!!" There was a little lemon tree with it's first two leaves sprouting. After I saw that, I stuck it in the windowsill where it's currently working on it's 5th leaf while finishing up it's 4th. It's the most beautiful thing ever. I would've increased the germination rate though to all six seeds instead of 1 of 6 if I had followed the directions provided online though(nick the seed coat and all that other stuff). But really, just planting the seed and forgetting about it for about 1-2 weeks seemed to work fine. I probably just got lucky though.

Sorry this is so long, I have a few things to ask about, and give info on. I'll try and upload a recent pic of of the Sapling, to try and show what I mean by the branches are confusing, which makes it hard to count the nodes. So you start at the base and count upward only along one stem. But really, node count doesn't mean anything to YOU. Only the plant knows the magic number where mature growth will begin. The whole point is that the plant has to reach some certain number before growth will transform to 'mature' and then it will be ready to bloom. At that point the plant will probably be quite tall, like 6 to 9 feet or more. But once that node is reached, perhaps some kind of hormone is given off, for the plant will then begin to bloom further and further down in subsequent seasons. Unfortunately it is still in the same pot, as the original pic. I'm trying to repot it. It also looks bare in spots due to leaf loss, otherwise it seems happy and starting growth back nicely. Make sure you check for spider mites. Leaves look a bit silvery and mottled to me (from here). Generally you'd repot in spring or summer. Plants are traumatized enough with indoor winters. I also have a Navel Orange Seedling that I think is about a year old, I bought it last July, I also have 4 Bitter (Marmalade) Oranges, 3 that came up Monoembrionic, 1 of them came up Polyembrionic so I'm really curious how they grow side by side, and a Mandarin Orange seed I just put on damp paper towel with warmth yesterday. All those should grow true-to-type, but can take many, many years. I would not waste my money buying seedlings, personally. Orange tree seedlings will need to get at least 14 feet high before they will bloom. Plus my mature trees, a Eureka Lemon, a Ponderosa Lemon, a Calamondin Orange, and my most confusing the Meyer Lime. I have scoured the internet and I can't find any information on it, only cocktail trees which are equally as confusing lol There should be a lot of info online about Meyer lemon. Check YouTube as well. I have gotten fruit off it, they tasted like a mix of orange, lemon and Lime but the peel smells exactly like a Meyer Lemon but when I cut it open it smells like an Orange Lime, I was wondering if you have any suggestions for both the Sapling and the Meyer Lime? What kind of help or suggestions are you looking for? I currently have the Meyer Lime on a heated seed mat with a grow light set for spring, (it was on a table by a large bay window for winter for a few months [sept]) as its completely bare besides a tiny branch and 3 tiny leaves. If your Meyer was outside for the summer, it is dropping leaves because of the great change in environment. Most citrus are not very happy growing in a warm, dry home in winter. My citrus are wintered in the garage where the temps are in the 45-55 degree range and the humidity is 50 to 75%. They love it and are usually in full bloom by late March/April. I'm not sure your heat mat is helping. I missed watering it and it dropped all its leaves just before winter and it's been extremely slow to grow back so I'm trying to trick it into thinking its spring and send a flush of leaves, though I just put it there today so it needs time. Winter leaf growth indoors will be weak and prone to pests like spider mites, scale, aphids. So you'll have to keep aware of outbreaks. Don't overwater if the plants have no leaves. As long as twigs remain green, the plant is alive. I'm always reading and learning, mostly on amazing forums like this one, I've learned alot reading your comments with others about node counts, which is why I asked then remembered I had this post I can ask on

Can you grow citrus seeds in clay soil