stuffradio, your comment reminded me of a question that escaped me last night. You or anyone else can answer this question: when the catalog gives a ripening period does this refer to when the fruit will start to turn orange or when it is at its peak? And what do you mean ripe enough? I ordered a Giant Fuyu because the catalog said it ripens in October but I have since read that it ripens in November. If the ripening time means it will have good color and will continue to ripening on the counter the fruit will still be tasty...right? Or does it mean the fruit will began to color up until November? We may not have the heat to ripen the fruit in November and I have made a mistake in choosing this one. Which variety do you have, is your tree potted or in the ground, and when is your fruit suppose to ripen? Thanks guys

Patents don't cover the seeds, but some licensing agreements do. I've got some haskaps on trial and had to sign an agreement not to propagate them even from seed. For Goldycots, the growing conditions and care of the tree makes a big difference in fruit size. Red Delicious is theoretically all one tree (all the same genes) but occasionally there are sports (genetic mutations on one branch) that are chosen because they are a bit different from the orginal in a way that is commercially more desireable. So most of the commercial Red Delicious trees do create fruit quite a bit different from the original and there are a number of versions of Red Delicious available today. But if you start from seed, what you get won't be any of them and probably won't even look like Red Delicious. If you want to grow big Red Delicious fruit like in the picture you should order a tree of a sport that is known for large red and dark fruit. If you want the fruit to be as big as possible you should keep the tree in plenty of water and nitrogen and thin off 95% or more of the fruit when the fruits are quite small. The remaining fruit will grow huge, bland and picturesque -- just what you are looking for.

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

thanks, I'll have to look into the seed method since planting fruit of plant (if I am able to resist eating any lol) will only work as long as the fruit is around. It might be kind of cool to see what cross breeds/hybrids would show up...I'm not super attached to this tomato for any reason other than that it 1) grows in my limited space/poor light, 2) hangs compactly rather than needs stalking and 3) tastes good! I'll try some more googling and calling the nursery I bought it from. I've had success in the past with Tiny Time and Red Robin tomato with seeds from Reimers, but this was in another location. Not sure if they would work in my current locale, with the light, in the container, and if they would drape rather than get tall....anyone have any insight on this?