Hello all,

I recently woke up one day with the desire to see a plant grow here in my house, a real miracle it will be.
I thought a lemon tree would be great and 3 days in a row, I searched the internet inside and out. The internet is a fun way to bone a subject but apparently not on growing lemon trees, found something on a website, the exact opposite on another and I'm a bit confused.
I even searched this forum a lot but couldn't find something as simple as what will follow. (this is my first time, bear with me).

Nevertheless, I'll plant my trees once I get my citrus soil but if you'll please review what I'm about to do then and point out any mistake I'll be very grateful:

1. First I'll buy a lemon from the store to get the seeds. (even if this is not recommended on many websites I'll do it to see the plant grow, not knowing what kind it is or how it will turn out)

2. Will save some tap water in a bowl or something for 24 hours to clear off the chlorine or whatever it is there and to have the same temperature with the surroundings.

3. I'll wash the seeds and won't let them dry until the planting.

4. The soil will go in the plastic cups (with the hole in the bottom for drainage) and plant the seeds at approx. 2 cm deep (0.787 inches) and water it (but not too much, just till the soil is moist)

5. From here on I'll keep them at the window and keep the soil moist till the miracle occurs. The temperature in this period here is 25 degrees Celsius (77 F) or even more during the day. Not sure about the nights but I'll keep all the windows closed and I guess it should be fine. Or until the winter kicks in bad, but I'll find some ways to keep them warm (in between 24-32 degrees Celsius (75 - 90 F)).

This should keep me busy for the next months, or so I've read. Please tell me if I'll do something drastically wrong up to this point.
Thank you,

Welcome to the forum. You don't need a citrus specific soil & you don't need to let the water sit for 24 hours. Lemons are very easy from seed & will only take about 7-10 days to sprout.

Keep the soil somewhat on the dry side, as seedlings have a tendency to damp off if kept too moist.

Thank you for your reply Laaz

So I'll use regular plant soil and the water can be directly from the tap? (different temperature).

And speaking of temperature are the ones mentioned above (24-32 C) ok for the plant to survive?

Thanks,

Yes that should be fine. You want to keep the soil temp between above 70F & below 90F.

Today, after 9 days I got impatient and search a bit in one of my cups. To my big disappointment I found the lemon seed and nothing grown

I watered them once a day to keep the soil dry as you said and the temperature was just right.

For the water to drain I used 3 holes in each cup the size of a pencil (or so).

Can you please tell me what went wrong or if it wasn't enough time?

Watering once a day will rot the seed.

I would wait a while longer. I recently sprouted a variety of seeds (several mandarins, a lemon, a grapefruit and an orange), and it took quite a while for even the first seedling to break the soil - perhaps three weeks, although I've had results more quickly on other occassions. They were in pots outside and exposed to all the vicisitudes of the weather, which until recently meant rain nearly every day, and they hadn't rotted, so there is still hope; I would give it a few weeks, at least. With fresh seed, the germination rates for most citrus seem to be very high with minimal effort.
Good luck,
ES

Thank you very much for your replies.

Now that I took the seed out and planted it back, is it ok to wait a bit longer or the seed needs to be replaced and start all over again?

And regarding the watering issue, to keep the soil dry I think I need to water once every 2 or even 3 days, is that the way to go?

Thank you,

========================

Update:

When I first planted these seeds I also placed 3 seeds in a paper towel and one of them sprouted a bit

Now I took another plastic cup and placed it in soil with the little sprout pointing up.

I have another question about watering please. I understand when to water the plant but what about the quantity? How much water should I pour? Just a little bit to have the soil dry again soon or reasonable to big quantities and then wait for the soil to dry itself?

Thank you very much for your help,

You want to keep the soil moist & warm.

"When I first planted these seeds I also placed 3 seeds in a paper towel and one of them sprouted a bit

Now I took another plastic cup and placed it in soil with the little sprout pointing up."

The root actually emerges first, so typically in this situation you would place the seed so that sprout was pointing down. That said, the seed "knows" which way is up, so it should be fine.

Yes, the sprout is the root, you want that facing down.

Thank you very much, I took the seed and placed it faced down. Hope it will work and my interventions didn't affect the plant too much.

Best Regards to you all,

Be patient !

Some seeds I planted at the begin of winter grew in middle of summer ...