Hi plant fans (and everyone else, too). I decided to "move" (which in fact means "copy") all plant related posts to plants.mostlymaths.net, where I will post all plant related stuff from now on. All really weird projects (like Dragon fruit germination or The Earth day give-away project were) will be posted here in mostlymaths.net and in plants.mostlymaths.net, but I plan to post more plant related articles there than just the usual I post here.

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This is a dragon fruit, also known as pitaya or pitahaya. It is called dragon fruit because it has scales in the outside and has brilliant colours. They can be red skinned with white flesh, red skinned with red flesh or yellow skinned with white flesh. Dragon fruit does not grow from a tree, but from a cactus. Thus by growing dragon fruit seeds you will get cacti.

The particular type I used is red-red. Dragon fruit is not very tasty, you should not eat it with strong tasting foods. I found it very good, despite this.

To eat your dragon fruit, cut in half and eat the flesh with a spoon. The flesh is full of seeds, like a kiwi, and these are the seeds you need to get a dragon cactus. From a spoon of dragon flesh you can get plenty of seeds, more than you will need.

Dragon seeds have a high germination rate, with just 15 or 20 you can grow as many dragon cacti as you want. After eating your dragon fruit, you will probably leave a little flesh and seeds close to the skin of the fruit. Remove it with a spoon, and clean with water to remove as much flesh as you can.

The next step is really boring. Pick a paper napkin or something similar and one seed. Press it with your finger against the paper towel, rubbing it. Repeat until there is no flesh left around the seed.

Keep repeating until you have enough seeds. An interesting fact is that when these seeds sprout, they develop a hairy root which adheres to the substrate. This means that sprouting them with the paper tower method can be hard: when you have to remove the seeds, you have to pick also the paper, they are strongly attached to it.

I had better results by sprouting them in a glass with wet cotton. They will start sprouting in 3 or 4 days, and start developing two leaves, which will disappear as the cactus grows.

10 days after

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To commemorate this year's Earth day, I have started a little project: The big lemon tree giveaway.

The plan: germinate as many lemon seedlings as I can to give them to friends and acquaintances. I will sketch here the procedure you have to give lemon seeds in order to speed its germination. A year ago I was able to successfully germinate a few lemon seeds, which turned into 3 nice lemon seedlings. Sadly two of them died, but the other one is thriving. I want to share the experience of growing a little tree with everyone.

You can look at the pictures from the post I wrote a year ago. I hope you join me in this project and germinate as many lemons as possible to give them as presents to people you care about. Come on and join me! I am sure you still have plant one tree in your life's to-do list.


You will need some kind of pointy blade. You can use a cutter, or even a a pointy knife. With it you have to remove the seed coat from the seed: the woody part and the skinny one.

To do so, clean thoroughly the seed with water and dry it completely. Use a paper towel to be sure it is completely dry. Pick it with one hand, and with the other, try to make a really shallow cut to the outer skin, while you try to peel it with the point of the blade. You can also try to peel it lit you would peel a banana with a knife, starting by the point where the outer skin is thinner. Once you have something to get a hold, remove it by hand with occasional help with the tip of the blade.






Repeat with all your seeds. Once you are done, pour a little water over a paper towel, place your seeds over it and put all in a ziplock bag, airtight. I am also experimenting with putting them in plain water, and a glass with cotton. I'll tell you back which way is easier, but I know from experience that wet paper works correctly. Put it in a somewhat sunny place and wait. In around 5 days they will start making a small root, maybe even less. Mine have developed a small root in just one sunny day.


Let them grow a little inside the bag, and then move the seedlings to egg cartons, paper cups or some other bio-degradable small container (first make a little hole in the bottom, just in case you overwater) with a little soil. Keep in mind you have to water them regularly, but not that much that the cardboard gets wet. Now is when you should give them to your friends!
When they have grown more and it is planting time again (spring-summer), you can put them directly on a hole in your garden, or in a bigger pot and the cardboard should degrade naturally and the plant grow as a nice little tree. You can also remove it with scissors, beware of damaging the seedling.

Below you can find lemon tree from seeds related posts.

Related posts:
Lemon seed germination
Reader hints on lemon seed germination
Lemon seedlings (1)
Lemon seedlings after 7 months

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