The Tropical Fruit Forum
Citrus => Citrus General Discussion => Topic started by: martweb on November 26, 2022, 09:36:21 AM
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Is NZL mono- or polyembryonic?
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I do not know about NZL exactly whether it is mono or polyembryonic but I can say this> Almost all lemons and pure mandarins are true to type from seed. NZL is a cross between a lemon and a mandarin.
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It's at least sometimes polyembryonic (I have a few sprouts coming from one seed right now). The seeds are not very plump (relatively good sign as to whether a Citrus is highly polyembryonic). I am not aware of any seedling variation however, but then again planting Citrus from seed seems to be a very rare occurrence here so maybe hardly anyone has grown from seed.
I have a neighbour with a big tree of Lemonades, and I will ask to buy some crop and then sow the seeds, and can give a better idea of how polyembryonic it is from the seedlings.
As far as I'm aware, we don't know with certainty the other parent of the Lemonade. It could be a clementine or one of the other monoembryonic "mandarins" for example (hence higher chance for the hybrid to have formed in the first place).
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I've heard it may have Meyer lemon in its parentage, which, of course, is not polyembryonic. So there's that.
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Just guesses, so nobody knows for sure.
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Would be easy enough to find out by planting numerous seeds, and see if you only get one seedling, or multiple seedlings peer seed.
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Sure, but currently I have no NZL.
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It is good to find out before hand if a Citrus is nucellar / polyembryonic, especially if you need to need to buy or import seed and really only want the real thing if you can get it.
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Just planted all the seeds from a shopping bag's full of Lemonade fruit into one pot. Surprisingly few seeds per fruit, but then again I picked the largest fruit, and in general the bigger the Citrus fruit, the less seeds (relative to the rest of the fruit of the tree).
I'll try and sprout them outside (no space inside at the moment), should be warm enough I think. Hopefully will give some good idea of how many seeds are polyembryonic :)
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Great, I am really looking forward to your results.