Star Fruit from seed

[joneus]

Hello! I am new to this board, and hope you can help me. Out of curiosity, I planted the seeds from a Star Fruit (carambola) about 2 months ago, and just as I was about to throw the cups away, I noticed that they'd finally sprouted! Yeay! :lol:
I have 3 seeds each in two yogurt cups with clear lids sitting on a SE facing windowsill and the temp. in the house stays at a constant 72deg. The tallest plant is pale green, about an inch tall, with 2 big leaves and some smaller (?) ones growing out its top. I was surprised by how fast it had grown over the last few days. When I left for the holiday on Wednesday it was barely poking through the soil! Now its tall enough to touch the lid!
So my question: What do I do now? I dont care if it never bears fruit, I just think its neat to have one. Should I thin out the cup and just leave the big plant? Should I take the top off the container b/c the leaves are touching it? When can I transplant it to a more permanant home? Right now, they're growing in a mixture of sand, cactus soil and all-purpose potting soil and was initially misted with water from my fish tank.
Any advice would be much appreciated as I've never tried anything like this! Thanks!

[Newt]

Hi Joneus,
Sorry I didn't see this earlier. I hope you've taken the lids off by now. The plants need to harden off. You can either separate the seedlings into separate pots or just snip off the two weaker ones at soil level. Don't try and pull them out as that could disturb the roots of the remaining plant.

You don't say where you live, so I can't comment about a more permanent home for now.

You've got a great soil mix and you're doing a great job for your first time. The fish tank water is great too.

Here's a site that should be helpful.
http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/seed/

Keep up the good work!
Newt

[joneus]

Thanks for your response. I have taken the lids off, but have been a bit nervous about seperating them. There's 4 in one container and 2 (so far) in the other.
I live in SE Connecticut, so they wont be going outside anytime soon. I'm amazed by how fast they've grown in the last few weeks!
Is it normal for all of the "little leaves" to look droopy? The tree looks (to my untrained eye) healthy, but the leaves just hang there. Thanks!

[Newt]

I don't know much about star fruit so I can't say if the hanging leaves are a problem or not. I found this quote here:

The leaflets are sensitive to light and more or less inclined to fold together at night or when the tree is shaken or abruptly shocked.

http://www.floridagardener.com/pom/Carambola.htm

Here's some more sites I found.
http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/carambola.html
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/m...ml#Propagation
http://www.hear.org/starr/hiplants/i...thumbnails.htm
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/MG269

Hope this helps,
Newt

[nipahutgardens]

This will NOT GROW in your zone and they do not do well as potted plants.* It requires zone 8 and above

Peter - Nipa Hut Gardens and Gifts
http://www.nipahutgardens.net

[user=181]joneus[/user] wrote:

I live in SE Connecticut, so they wont be going outside anytime soon.

[maren]

what you're saying, 3 years later, is that the original poster should never have planted the seeds?

People will try to grow things that aren't right for the location they're in. I'm in zone 11 and have (among other things) an apple tree in the back yard. It isn't doing very well either, but we're not going to throw it out just for that.

Aloha,
Maren
(the same one whose old posts are labeled with $user_name)