I was just curious. Are there any citrus that do not have to be grafted; meaning they can grow and maintain their life on their own roots (grown from seed)???


Thanks

Depends on soil type and cold hardiness though. Most citrus in the tropics can grow on their own seeds. One of the reasons why we select rootstocks is for general soil adaptability including soil disease resistance, drought tolerance, tree size control, fruit quality improvement, fruit production efficiency and early production.

Among the citruses that can bear fruits early are key limes some lemons and the Fortunellas including their hybrids such as calamondin, just off my head, there are others too. they can be grown from their own seed and bear fruits within 2 to 3 years if you have good growth.

Almost all citrus can be grown true from seed with a very few exceptions and most have more than one sprout per seed. Some that can't are pummelo and clementine. The ones that don't are often used to make hybrids. In fact most citrus are extremely difficult to hybridize. Seed grown trees are large and can be extremely thorny. Some don't do so well on their own roots like kumquat. You may have to wait a while for fruit but 5 years is about average vs 2 years for grafted. I have had seedling citrus fruit in 1(trifoliate, 1 seedling out of a thousand), 2(sunquat), and 3 years(mandarin), however a friend waited 17 years for a cocktail grapefruit to fruit!

Thanks guys.

Will Key lime and Meyer lemons have thorns if grown from seed?

I just planted some of each on April 4th.

Thanks

My key limes definatly have seeds and are about 2-3 months old now and around 2-5 inches tall. its only a few that do, but I'm sure they all will eventually.

My seed grown key lime that I just purchased yesterday has monster thorns. some readhing over an inch long. Imagine my fun in transplanting it. can you say OUCH. bandaids stock went up!!!

My goal tomorrow is to clean all the leaves and clip off allll the thorns. they are just a hassle I do not want to deal with.

From what I read though... the more mature a tree gets... the less thorny. So... lets hope

Both will have thorns as will all citrus grown from seed. Meyer does not come true from seed.

Once in a while you will get the oddball that is thornless. I have a Lisbon lemon grown from seed that has no thorns...

Thanks. I hope so too. I also plan to clip off any and all thorns that come my way on them. Just think, then it can concentrate it's energy elsewhere, instead of growing longer/stronger and more painful thorns.

I also planted other lemons, ( about 1 week or so before the Meyer and the Key ) not sure if it is Libson or Eureka. It was a Sunkist brand lemon and according to their website, they have both.

I also planted some sort of "Mexican" lime, don't know what it is.

How does the Eureka fair in the true from seed / thorn department?

What is the average germination time to see the little seedlings?


Thanks

Mexican & Key lime is the same.

Reasons for budding and grafting citrus,
#1 early production, if the scion is taken from a bearing tree the grafted or budded plant will normally bear fruit in two or three years. The vicious thorns on seedlings trees are eliminated.
#2 Different root stock are more tolerant to different soil conditions, example Flying Dragon and Trifoliata orange will not tolerate a High PH.
#3 In marginal temperature localities some root stocks, Trifoliata orange or Flying dragon may make a differance whether the plant survives or dies from a light freze. In the Port Arthur Texas area in 2002 there was a late frost. Trees that were grafted on to Swingle were lost. Yhey were in active growth. The ones on Flying Dragon and Trifoliata orange survived.

The University of Arizona has excellent information on budding citrus trees. Probably as good if not the best instructions. They give a lot of excellents tips.

Of the 3 trees I bought in Fl., only the ponderosa & persian lime have thorns -some an inch long, but I LOVE it as it will keep squirrels off!
With the other trees, including my figgies, I'm tempted to wrap some barbed wire around trunks LOL!!!
Squirrels do a lot of damage here. They will pull a tomato off, take a bite & leave it! I've seen them in my pots digging to bury their nuts. I saw one climb my 7 ft sunflower, taking the WHOLE flower right off.
I keep a loaded pellet gun at back door at all times for those little "tree rats" as we call them.
Patty

Hey Laaz My lisbon has a very few thorns and is about 5 ft tall she has fruit all yr long ...

how big will this tree get ?
she is just now dropping her leafs and gaining new ones ? Tammy

Disney to me the lisbon is a great lemon for your sea food its bitter lemony.. and my meyers is sweet Well the first one i had was id get 1 full cup of juice out of each lemon and once 1 1/2 I was like Holy tomatoes ( they grew good that yr too)...

I just picked up a Bearass line they say seedless but im wondering if i let one fruit go and go until its ready to rott maybe ill get some seeds.. Tammy

LOL Tammy
If the lime has no seeds when it starts growing, it never will. They don't 'grow' seeds if you leave them to over ripen. If you want a new bearrs (I like bearass LOL), take a cutting & root it or graft a bud.
I think it was Malcolm that said there might be 1 seed per a million fruits (or so?).

The thorns on citrus trees do not deter the squirrells. There are two good places for squirrells-in a frying pan or a stew pot. They are just too destructive.