blood orange as a pot plant?

[jocelyn]

Anybody tried a moro seed as a pot plant?  Hubby and I both ate a blood orange, a moro, and each got a seed.  I, grin, planted them............never met a seed I didn't like.

Any green being in the winter time is encouraging, so I don't mind if it doesn't get enough light to fruit, just want a pot plant.

Anybody tried one?  Got tips?

[walt]

Never tried a blood orange, but I've grown kumquat, mandarine, lemon, lime, and some complex hybrids.
Citrus generally make good pot plants, if you have room and your house is warm enough.  I had a lemon grafted on a trifoliate orange.  My house got too cold and the lemon scion died leaving me with just a trifoliate orange.  Lemons and limes are the least cold-tolerant of the common citrus.  Oranges can take a light freeze with no trouble, if they are used to being outside..
Most citrus, including most oranges, come true from seeds.  The seeds have more than one embryo, and at most, only one embryo will be the result of the pollination and vary.  The other embryos will be clones of the mother plant.  And usually, almost always, the sexually produced seedling will be much less vigorous than the seedling produced from maternal tissue, so the sexually produced seedling will usually die quickly.  So your seedling will likely be a true Moro.
The seedlings will have an immature period, lasting 5 or more years.  Pruning off the top growth is like pruning off the age of the plant, i.e., it is the number of leaf nodes from the seed to the growing tip that decide whether the plant is "old" enough to bloom and bear fruit.  If the tree gets too tall to manage, you can graft the top low on the trunk and the mature scion will remember that it is mature and produce.
Most citrus can be maintained in 3 gallon pot.  5 gallon would be better for an orange.  Outside in full sun will be best after frost is done for the winter.  Let it adjust slowly to the full sun, of course.
It needs good drainage.
It needs a long hot summer to produce the best fruit.
Good luck.

[blueadzuki]

Mostly agree. Blood oranges are generally most to all orange in their DNA so they will tend to come fairly true to seed (some of the more complex and exotic mixes such as the Ugli and the Yuzu, have a tendency to throw a lot of messed up embryos, so you often have to plant a lot of seeds of them to get one that is free of some mutation that makes it non viable, such as albinism or an inability to develop leaves or branch).

In fact I am planning to plant a pair of blood seeds myself in a few days. Not Moro (they came from a blood orange that surprised me with it's flavor by actually being edible (I consider most of the non-moro mixes popular now to be too sour to be pleasant, give me a good bronzy brown anyday) along with pips from a mango orange I managed to dig out from under the bloods (an odd orange notable for pink pith, pink segments (actually the segments are a perfectly normal orange (visible if you juice one), but since all of the skin and inner integuments are pink the wedges look pink too) and a really odd taste (some of the bloods raspberry notes, combined with a sweet lemon's total lack of acidity). I'll probably get them going as soon as I see what other seeds I can extract from the bowl of odd lemons and limes I have accumulated (it would be interesting to grow a non key/mexican lime from seed, if for no other reason than it is a rare thing to find a "normal" lime that HAS a seed!)

[templeton]

Hints on planting citrus seed?
T

[blueadzuki]

None really I can offer. I tend to get better results sowing them directly in soil than giving them their own peat pots, though whether this is due to some advantage other than the fact that I am not great at cleaning all of the fruit juice traces off the seeds and the peat pots tend to be much more inclined to foster mold spores I do not know.

[steev]

While citrus likes heat, it also really likes water; here in the East Bay, where many homes have a tree or two, I've seen many getting puny these drought years, but with this year's exceptional rain, they're roaring back.

[walt]

One thing about starting citrus from seeds.  Don't let the seeds dry out.  Most seeds store well dry.  Not citrus.  Dry citrus seeds are a waste of time.  Plant promptly for best results.  Second best, a poor second best, is store slightly moist and very cool.  I don't know if they can stand freezing.  But planting fresh from the fruit, or fresh from your mouth while you are eating the fruit, is best.  

[jocelyn]

Thanks guys, most informative. I'll let you know how they do.

[templeton]

Thanks Walt. My limes (Tahitian and West Indian) and my Chinotto occasionally get seeds. 'nuther project...
T