Ok here is one that amazed me. I bought this house 6 years ago. A year later I started a grapefruit from a store bought pink grapefruit. 5 years later it is starting to produce it's first blooms. Hopefully it will hold some fruit. The blooms are at the top of the tree probably 12 feet up.

For a seeded grapefruit, 5 years is the fastest time from seed to fruit, that I personally am aware of. - Millet (1,028-)

I am jealous! 10 years and 20 feet and still waiting on mine. Hope you get a fruit to taste.

with your grafting skills i am surprised you did not graft onto it a long time ago to start getting fruit.

Because your grapefruit was grown from seed, as a seedling tree it should be more hardy than if you planted a grafted/budded tree. Millet (1,018-)

so why is it said that a citrus grown from a seed would be more cold hardy that one grafted/budded. i understand if a sever freeze were to kill it, the roots could survive and regrow the tree but that would not mean it is more cold hard.

i thought one of the reasons to graft/bud onto flying dragon is to increase the cold hardiness.

Lazz, now you should take some of the mature buds from the top of the tree, and T-bud them onto the lower branches. That way your entire tree will produce fruit, and you won't need a ladder to harvest. - Millet (1,018-)

You've grown it nice and fast, to have wood 12 feet up in the air. Congrats! 5 years to accomplish that is, indeed, very fast.

As for the grafting ideas -- I'm unaware of any good published literature to support the concept that budding seedling wood onto a rootstock will bring about early flowering; that's definitely true in grapes, some apples, and various other fruits, but if true in citrus, it apparently remains unpublished, and generally unrecognized within the citrus industry or citrus research circles.

Also, I would not expect a seedling grapefruit to be as cold-hardy as one grafted to a known hardy rootstock such as Poncirus or one of its hybrids, or sour orange. Those stocks will give several degrees more hardiness than a seedling would have.

One thing you will notice on a seedling tree is that the fruit may be unusually large, but will tend to be very mild tasting. I happen to like that, but some people consider it bland. I grew up eating the 'Duncan' fruit that grows on the "wild" seedling trees in Highlands Hammock State Park, near Sebring. What a treat! But they are far more dilute-tasting than would be a 'Duncan' grown on a high-quality rootstock. Probably at least as good as on rough lemon or volkameriana though, and better than if on macrophylla.

Exactly, I have always considered a seedling tree to be about as cold hardy all by itself, as a tree intentionally grafted on Poncirus to achieve extra hardiness. At the moment I do not recall the name , nor am not going to search it, of the famous southern seedling grapefruit that has been mentioned on this forum time after time by Ned, Lazz and Stan, that has with stood many freezes. - Millet (1,017-)

Millet, I don't doubt that that tree has survived, and I don't know how. But I do know that seedling grapefruit in central Florida are highly susceptible to cold, and are frozen to the ground in even a moderate freeze. The same cultivar on a hardy rootstock will be much more hardy.

Millet the tree you are referring to is the Croxton grapefruit. It is in Columbia, SC.

There are however many here in the Charleston / Summerville area that were grown from seed and are huge & producing excellent fruit. Most are pink, but there is a white variety around the corner from my house that never has damage from the cold. Most likely a seedling Duncan.

Laaz, seems like you have something special in your soil!! Of course all of your potted trees are great too! Must be nice!