I've got a C minneola seedling which is just 1 year old which has a flower on the terminal bud.Comments please!

A early bloom is rare, but does happen from time to time. More often than not, this type of bloom appears on grapefruit, and frequently on the variety Procimquat. Almost never do these flowers develop into fruit. In fact, the only time I ever heard of an actual fruit develop, was on a grapefruit grown by Citrange (Mike), who is a member of this forum. - Millet (1,351-)

Hi there
Update the flower has set,self or other i don't know ,but will see what develops
Cheers Nigel.

Yes, I did once manage to grow a small fruit from a year-old seedling.
As Millet says, it is usually grapefruit or pummelo seedlings that flower in this way. Minneola is a tangelo with grapefruit as one parent, so it is not too surprising that it could have inherited this trait.
If the fruit develops, I would feed regularly and support the fruit in some way to prevent strain on the plant.
Unfortunately, it will be the last fruit you will see on that seedling for about ten or twelve years!

Unfortunately, it will be the last fruit you will see on that
seedling for about ten or twelve years!

Pretty much true for most Grapefruit, the old form Pomelo
and the Shaddock. Debatable that this is true across the
board for the mixed blood Pummelos from what I‘ve seen
of them.

A lot depends on whether the tree will be grown in ground
or not. Many years ago an uncle of mine bought cutting
grown Grapefruit that came to him as bare root plants
(yes, in the days of old it was not uncommon to see
bare root Citrus come into nurseries). Actually some of
the earlier Grapefruit groves here in the Central Valley
came to the growers in this manner. As a matter of fact
our Washington Navels and our Orlando Tangelos came
to us for a commercial planting, not as container plants
but as bare root trees.

We've tried without much success to tell people that
some seedling Grapefruit can yield fruit before those
plants are ten years old. Used to be much more common
in the past than today for some unexplained reason.
In other words, take a three year old bare root tree,
plant it in the ground and by the seventh year it had
fruit, if not sooner in some cases like our Marsh
Grapefruit seedling did which was a seedling that
came from a rooted cutting grown Marsh Grapefruit
that came to us as a bare root tree back in the early
80's that also bore fruit at a young age.

Years ago it was not unusual to see rooted cutting
Grapefruit flower and set a few fruit by the third year.
Nowadays it seems like those of us that saw this
stuff happen much more frequently than we see
today have to stay silent or get pounced on by
the people that were not around Citrus 30-50
years ago. There are some people around at
the University and Cooperative Extension level
that still know some of this.

At any rate, it is rare but not totally uncommon
to see a Grapefruit seedling yield a flower on a
terminal tip. For some cultivars this was a good
sign that the tree could yield fruit at younger ages
than those trees that did not do this. In defense
of Mike I've seen cutting grown old form Meyer
Lemon yield flowers at terminal ends, perhaps
produce one fruit and then not produce another
flower for the next three to five years. I have also
seen the same parent line offspring trees yield
fruit on a terminal tip yield fruit from then on
year after year also. I've seen it in one such
seedling pink Grapefruit that a tree that yielded
a terminal tip fruit at one or two years of age
yielded fruit the following year and so on
thereafter. I have to admit this is a rare scenario.

I do feel this could be an inherited trait and know
of one, perhaps two, Citrus nurserymen that used
to select seedling parent line plants for propagation
that did indeed set flowers at one to two years old.
Feeling that if the prospective rootstocks could
flower young that this trait could be passed on
to the scion parent, meaning that we may or
could impart earlier flowering potential into the
host plant. In one operation some of this thinking
did pan out for some select Citrus varieties but
not as much or as often as he was wanting but
it did give some credence to the notion that it
was possible, although unlikely at the time to
be across the board true for several Citrus.

Jim

Wow! Cheers lads for all your info I'll keep you posted as it grows
Regards Nigel.

Snickles - I'm sure with your background in a citrus-growing area, you know far more than I do about this. It would be great if there were an 'early-flowering' citrus gene than could be selected as you describe.
Here in England, we have the added disadvantage of a very limited period for optimum citrus growth. Comparing reports from California etc. with my own experience, I estimate that seedlings here take at least 50% longer to flower, and possibly even double.
Nigel is growing his plant in the UK. I was maybe being rather optimistic to suggest 10-12years. It sounds rather depressing, but I've several 20 year old citrus seedlings that still only produce leaves.
Global warming - if it exists - may have one advantage!
Mike aka Citrange

Hi there,
Ive been growing Citrus for about 10 years mainly in the area of the North Pennines I'm living near Filey North Yorkshire at the moment but I'm trying to get back up north to Weardale so the flowering/growing times in the Citrus literature are a little flakey to say the least so wish me luck
Cheers Nigel.