are you saying clay is partly sterile

Yes

Steve

I don't know much else in plant s and I got a tough. question can I cross an Eureka lemon wit a Gibson lemon

Probably yes but you will need to do many flowers for many fruit. You will have to grow all the zigot seedlings to maturity and choose which one puts out desirable fruit. About 10 to 20 years in your environment.

Steve

It won't be necessary to wait that long as Howard is putting the potted seedlings outside for gene selection of the fittest in winter.

that is how you select what you want is by breeding and selection. you and I. both know it is a hard task. and to bring about. mutations but with difficult conditions mutations develope and we have to sometimes do the things that facilitate the speeding up the process. By growing things in unfavorable conditions. Plants grown in this develop genetic mutations to take those conditions that is the way of nature

Howard have you ever grown or cared for a citrus under favorable conditions? Just asking.....

no

because I am a. newbie to growing citrus

of any type

Howard Does the AA highway go near you.

Steve

not really that in green up county. Kentucky I'm further east

Maybe it would be a learning accomplishment to successfully grow Lemon seedlings to size as a hobby indoors/outdoors. Keep the best of the seedlings indoors as house plants and only use runts for your tests outdoors. The low height may even help them survive.

17 day update on seedlings

right now I m taking my best inside at night. and putting under a 60 lumens horticulture bulb as well with the morning and early?afternoon sun

I'm keeping my best seedings inside at night under a plant bulb

Its very strange to hear Howard talking big on how he can grow things in clay soil and will be breeding lemons that can grow in zone 6b. But at the same openly admitting that he knows next to nothing about citrus and zero experience in growing them in perfect conditions. How can you even pretend that you idea will work?? Many of us here openly struggle growing the exotic plants in perfect conditions.

Poncirus has been grown in zone 6 for hundreds of years but you'd think someone would've been growing them in zone 4 or 5 if your reasoning is right. But its not.

How do you really think you can breed lemons to be cold hardy with no ressources, only 9 plants and no real plan? Also, you keep posting upside down pictures of yourself, whats that about?

sorry about the upside down picture but my selection is going to be slow but I'm focused

and determined I'm a newbie and my citrus knowledge is very low from lack of experience clay is the only soil I know how to grow things in

I'm just being honest

and I'm just getting started my trees are too young to produce right now they just seedings

Howard do you have any plans for another type mix that I would send you or are you sticking with the one you use?

Just want to make sure I don't send it for nothing)

and now I'm using decaying leaves with no clay just to speed up the growth

clay is all I know and I have no plans for another type of mix maybe add some coffee grounds

and it will keep some pathogens at bay and insects hate it

Howard, I wish you wouldn’t clutter up this forum with your garbage position on citrus.

Your approach is kind of silly. We are here to help anybody, something you don’t seem to understand.

Howard, everything you say makes zero sense. You've been on this forum for months, surely you kust've retained some information? It doesen't have to be costly, clay is a terrible soil medium.

Also please don't give advice to other people, they'll end up causing more harm than

clay is all I know

and I will be the first to admit I'm no expert just trying to help

Howard, never mind. No worries here. Sometimes I wonder if you are not here to learn or to be open minded, but just to let us know what you are up too and hang out and that's fine. Gives you an opportunity to get to know us.

I had a feeling when you were not going to try a different mix when you didn't take a second to thank me and and say that you look forward to trying it. Glad I saved my postage and money. Thanks for being honest about it. Use what you are comfortable with and if you fail or succeed, you will know what to do then. As long as you enjoy your hobby.

I grew up with using clay soil maybe not the type here

but I will be th first to admit I'm no expert

lm trying to learn so I know some I dea what I'm doing and I noticed after I put half a teaspoon of bleach in my fertilizer my seedings are starting to send out roots better

BLEACH?????

MY dad use to use that to kill weeds in Puerto Rico and I yelled at him because too cheap to buy a product and he was killing the Coque frogs by accident. I'm shocked

and th amount I using with my fertilizer is 1/2 of a teaspoon and my trees are responding well

The only good thing about your clay soil and decaying leaf material was it had beneficial bacteria's in it. By adding bleach you just killed those bacteria's.

and the decaying leaves are in a different pot and it all decaying leaves and they in that pot and the leaves are much looser than the clay that is what they all in now

sm amounts of bleach is beneficial the seedlings weren't getting enough chlorine

Howard, I never heard of using bleach to water with. Interesting. Ken made a great point. Not sure if you understood what he said?

I have never applied bleach directly or indirectly to a plant, nor heard that recommendation.....ever. I have used watered down bleach spray to wash algae and dirt out of empty pots for storage, and to fill up a pail also diluted to pour over/wash my brick pathways in my garden to help hold down weeds. The solutions I use are so weak I usually end up bending and hand weeding anyway. I sincerely believe the purported addition of bleach to fertilizer (what fertilizer are you using) isn't benefitting one lick, and a half teaspoon of straight bleach to a seedling pot is quite a bit.

I added it too my fertilizer a small amount amount of bleach is beneficial for citrus especially if they not getting enough chlorine I checked this out first after I added the bleach my citrus seedings started putting out roots faster it in a 32 ounce spray, bottle with my fertilizer the brand of bleach is clorox my fertilizer

is the blue stuff in the spray bottle

Very interesting. Keep us posted Howard Hopefully they will be ok

I checked things out first

Howard how would you know that your 1" high seedlings are putting roots out faster after adding bleach?

I checked the roots and it started getting a new bud for leaves

but I'm not going to use any higher amount

Lemon seedlings coming

Clementine seedlings appear a tad more vigorous