I have a lemon tree I grew from a seed from a grocery store lemon just for fun. It is 4 years old now and doing pretty well. I did some reading and found out it probably won't grow any lemons, which is fine because the tree itself is nice to look at. I since got a Meyer lemon tree hoping to get some lemons but have been having a lot of problems with it. I have a separate post for that whole issue. I read that lime trees do pretty well from seed and grow fruit after a couple years. Is it only key limes or is that any lime? Seeing as how I did pretty good with the lemon tree I grew from seed I would like to try a lime tree. I don't want to mail order again because of all the problems with my Meyer lemon tree and don't mind waiting a couple years. I had fun watching my seed stared lemon tree grow! My main questions are, will it grow fruit if I start from a grocery store lime, which is the best to start with, and should I grow two from two different limes in order to cross pollinate? Are lime trees harder than Meyer lemon trees or easier? Thank you in advance for any help given.

First your lemon tree WILL produce fruit, when the tree reaches maturity. The amount of time from seed to maturity for a lemon all depends on the growing conditions the tree has been subjected too, especially the year around temperature. On average, expect 8-10 years from seed to fruit. A key lime (Mexican lime) from seed will fruit in 2 to 4 years depending on how well the tree has been grown, and again at what temperature. Key limes are self fertile so the tree will not require a pollinator in order to fruit. Key limes are an easy tree to grow, but require a warm environment.

Seeds in the larger grocery store limes (Persian/Tahiti/Bearss cultivar) are exceedingly rare to non-existant. If, by a less than 1 in 1000 chance, you were to find a seed in one of them and succeded in growing it, it would not produce true to type since it only produces zygotic embryos. However, I find that those large limes are the easiest and most productive citrus type to grow indoors. They are completely parthenocarpic and do not require cross pollination or pollination of any kind. If you want that variety you will have to purchase the tree.

The small limes in mesh bags (Key/Mexican/West Indian cultivar) do have many seeds and they produce true to type since they produce nucellar embryos. They can produce fruit in two to three years from seed in an optimal growing environment -- about the fastest of any good to eat citrus. If you want to grow those I would plant a number of seeds and then select the best one or two trees after they have grown for some time.
They do not require cross-pollination either.

i bought some keylime seeds off of ebay and have planted them
they came from malaysia.....

A person should be able to purchase Key Limes from just about any supermarket anywhere. Normally they come in a mesh bag. - Millet (757-)

Thank you for all the advise. I think I will try the key lime, I should be able to buy one at a grocery store. Should I fertilize it from the beginning or wait till it gets bigger? I have Osmocote which I think is 19-6-12 and its a slow release. I also have Citri-tone which is also a slow release. Is one or the other better? I also have Osmocote for azaleas which is more acidic, do citrus prefer the acidic soil? I also have miracle grow which is 24-8-16 which I use as a more frequent fertilizer.

I was also thinking about clementines. This is the time of year they are popular in the stores and my daughter loves them. I forget if they have seeds or not. I think I may pick up some at the store when I go grocery shopping and see. Does any one know if they will fruit and how long it takes, and also if they are hard to keep or not. Any other suggestions on relatively easy citrus plants to grow inside in containers that will produce fruit?

One of the attractions of clementines is that they do not have seeds. At least not the commercially grown ones. From what I understand, if you do find a seed, it will not grow true to type. I have been told that calamondins are one of the easiest to grow, but this was my first tree and I killed it. I have not gotten another yet, but I have one seedling from the one fruit I was able to salvage.

Good luck! Barbara

Well I 'm a little confused , why? , well because I always hear about the citrus seeds --" not true to seed"-- but something does germinate in the soil , what is the new name od my seedling ? :
1. something from the citrus family (in this case I could have been discovered a new type)

2. nothing near a citrus family ( in this case what is the name of my new seedling)

Taking for example a self fertile citrus tree ... a calamondin grafted onto a meyer for a more compact tree ....if I take a seed from the tree and plant it in the ground what do I have after germination occure? A meyer , a calamondin or a Meyer-calamondiin ?
Afterall the seed propagation method was the base of the new species of any fruit tree so why not in the citrus family.My mother told me that back then(long time ago) any apple tree have been improved only by the apple who have fallen on the ground and from them have they had the new trees . Of course there was a lot of differences but in a good way.

Bastrees you said about clementines but what about the mandarines (citrus reticulata blanca) do they grow true to seed?

Danero, as it turns out, now I believe that the Chilean "Clementine" were not true Clementines, even though the box was identified as such, much like California citrus being marketed under the name Sweeties. As the season advances California's Sweeties brand citrus changes to various small size fruit, depending on what is maturing at the time. - Millet 764-)

Dietrich Bonhoeffer 1906 - 1945

Danero2004,

Most citrus, but not all, produce poly embryonic seeds. When this happens, it is taken as a definitive indication that the tree that the seed came from produces true to type. The multiple seedlings from the one seed are almost always identical to the mother tree, but there is always a chance that one of the seedlings is zygotic, a result of pollination, resulting in traits from both the mother tree and the pollen source tree. Clementine is one of the few that do not produce poly embryonic seeds, and when grown out to maturity, the resulting fruit will be different from the original fruit from which the seed was obtained. It will be a citrus, it will likely have many traits of the parent, but it will not be identical.

If your calamondin that is grafted onto a meyer flowers from the calamondin scion (and not the meyer rootstock), you will have a calamondin fruit and a poly embryonic seed, and eventually a calamondin tree identical to the scion from the parent tree (barring the very small chance of only a zygotic embryo maturing). The meyer will contribute nothing to the reproductive genes. I am certainly not an expert, but I believe that I have this fairly accurate.

I do believe that most mandarins are true to type, but like I said, I am not an expert. I didn't search for it, however I think that a similar discussion on this subject resulted in at lease a partial list of true to type varieties on this forum.

Barbara

ok so you say that only when I see a 2 head-seedling germination then I'm sure that I have a true to his parent seed but what about the other seedlings , what are they ? I guess not a poncirus trifoliata or a sour orange relative ?

The fruit that produced the poly embryonic seedling will have seeds that may or may not produce multiple seedlings. The tree that produces this fruit is true to type if it produces poly embryonic seeds. If one or more of the seeds does not result in multiple seedlings, this could easily be the result of seed vitality, damage or some other factor which influenced the germination or seed development. It will still be a calamondin seed, not a trifoliate or anything else.

Fofoca posted this on 10/8/09. Sorry, I don't know how to link his post and am in a hurry.

http://lib.ucr.edu/agnic/webber/Vol2/Images/Table4_2a.jpg
http://lib.ucr.edu/agnic/webber/Vol2/Images/Table4_2b.jpg


Also, look at the FAQs sticky that Laaz posted, which explains some of the terminology.

Barbara

Thanks Barbara , this is what I wanted to know , that at the end will something "close to" the fruit I've just eaten.

thanks