True to Seed Fruits that You Can Grow:

When trying to grow a fruit plant/tree from a store-bought fruit’s seeds, one must make sure the fruits from that plant will taste like the fruit that you’ve purchased and not like absolute ass. Many fruits aren’t true to seed as they are a product of cross pollination where a few lucky delicious trees became the progenitors of most of the fruits that we eat to day. When a tasty non-true-to-seed variety is discovered, its branches are taken as cuttings and grafted onto rootstocks (main trunks) of the same genus so that thousands (if not millions) of the same tasty tree is duplicated via its scions (cuttings) instead of its seeds.

There are however, a large number of plants that do mature from seed that will produce fruit that tastes just like it’s parents… these true-to-seed species makes it possible for almost anyone to grow a viable fruit tree from your local grocery store fruit seeds. In addition, not all non-true-to-seed fruits will taste bad… just ones grown from mass produced hardy rootstock (most commercialized fruits). You’d be surprised how often the fruits from some non-true-to-seed species (many exotic fruits) will often taste good or just as amazing as the fruit the seed came from… it’s all a matter of luck. Lastly, there are fruit species that come from monoembryonic & polyembryonic varieties (one yoke inside of the seed vs many yokes)… the former is not true to seed and the latter is.

Below is a non-extensive list of fruits you can and can’t properly grow from seed… and some that are ok to try. I would still recommend buying grafted plants from a nursery or purchasing quality cuttings over trying to save a few bucks by growing fruits from seeds. The time to maturity usually takes 5+ more years over buying a plant/cutting outright and the grafting rootstock makes nursery trees much more resilient to disease and harsh weather. Fast growing plants like melons, tomatoes & berries are nice exceptions.

True to seed:

• Bush Cherry
• Cherimoya & Sugar Apple (not their hybrids)
• Citrus (polyembryonic)
• Coconut
• Cucumber
• Currant
• Dragon Fruit
• Figs (caprified)
• Goji Berry
• Guava
• Hazelnut
• Heirloom Berries
• Jackfruit
• Jujube
• Kiwi (male/female/both)
• Mango (polyembryonic)
• Mangosteen (not 100% true to parent but still 100% tasty)
• Most Melons (except for hybrids)
• Moringa
• Papaya (male/female/both)
• Passionfruit (Granadilla)
• Pawpaw
• Peppers
• Quince
• Squashes
• Starfruit (Carambola)
• Sweet Chestnut
• Tomato
• Wampee
• Wild Strawberry

Not True to Seed (fruits will taste bad):

• Avocado
• Banana
• Citrus (monoembryonic)
• Durian
• Grapes
• Hybridized fruits
• Mango (monoembryonic)
• Most commercialized stone fruits (apples, peaches, plumbs, pears cherries, etc…)
• Most fruits grown from hardy rootstock
• Non-heirloom berries
• Olives
• Pineapple
• Rambutan

Not True to Seed (fruits can taste good):

• Dates (male/female)
• Fruits grown on native rootstock
• Longan
• Loquat
• Lychee
• Persimmon
• Pomegranate