How to Grow Orange Tree from Seeds: Orange Seeds Germination at Home

The orange trees grow quickly from seeds, even from orange seeds from oranges bought from grocery store, but may not reproduce true to type from seed. The orange tree grown from a seed may produce fruits  of better taste or inferior taste than the parent tree, whereas a orange tree grown by grafting or from a stem cutting will produce exactly the same quality of fruit as from the parent tree.

Following are the steps for growing orange trees from seeds. You can follow the steps to grow other citrus fruit trees like limes, lemons, grapefruits, mandarins, etc. 

Orange Seeds

Start growing orange trees from seeds in early autumn.

Seeds Preparation

1. Buy fully ripe range trees from the store and remove their seeds.
2. Wash the orange tree seeds in water to completely remove any pulp. You do not need to dry orange seeds before planting. In fact, fresh orange seeds germinate best and must not be allowed to fully dry out.
3. Soak the seeds in water for 24 hours to soften the outer hard covering.  
4. After 24 hours, throw away any floating seed as these are not viable for germination.

Sowing the Orange Seeds

You can sow the seeds directly in soil or first germinate the orange seeds and then sow them in soil.

How To Germinate Orange Seeds

The procedure for sprouting and germinating orange seeds using a paper towel is good for other citrus fruit trees like lemon, lime, mandarin, grapefruits, etc.

1. Take a plastic box and lay a kitchen paper towel in it.
2. Place the soaked seeds on the paper and fold the paper to enclose the seeds.
3. Spray some water on the folded paper and close the box. This will create high humidity inside needed for seed germination, thus act as a mini green house.
4. Alternatively, you can enclose the folded paper in a Zip lock bag or wrap in a polythene sheet.
5. Place the bag in a dark warm place. Open the bag and check the seeds every week to see if the orange  seed germination has started. Change the paper if mold develops, also throw away any seed that has developed fungus.
6. The seeds will take 1 to 3 weeks to sprout.

Germinated Orange Seeds

Planting Germinated Orange Seeds in Soil

1. Next step is to plant the sprouted seed in soil.
2. Take a small pot having several holes for excess water drainage.
3. Fill the pot with seed raising soil mix or make your own by mixing some perlite or coarse river sand in potting mix. Sand will make the soil free-draining, standing water in the pot is not good for the seeds.
4. Plant the germinated orange tree seed half inch deep in soil.
5. Place the pot in shade at a warm place. Keep moist.
6. The orange seedling will grow in a few days.

Orange Tree Grown from Seed

Sowing the Orange Seeds Directly

1. Fill a small pot with soil as mentioned above. Plant the soaked seeds half inch deep in the potting soil. Water the soil to moisten it. Sow more than one seed, so that some orange seeds will grow seedlings.
2. Cover the pot with a plastic wrap and place it in a warm place. Keep the soil moist.
3. The orange seedling will grow in a few days.
4. Transplant the seedlings in larger pots (how to grow orange tree in pot) or ground when they grow strong roots.

Videos on how to grow citrus fruits

How to grow orange tree from seed youtube video
How to get lots of lemons on lemon tree video