rhubarb wrote:
liampenn;962343 Wrote:

I planted 17 lemon seedlings from some lemons I brought from the shop.
Amazingly they have all grown. And are now over 2 inches tall!
I have no prevous experiance in growing lemon trees so any advice would
be much appreciated.
(ps I live in england!)
Thanks,
Liam


Hi Liam,

I have good news and bad news! The good news is, you're very good at
growing things! Growing lemons from seed like that is not easy. The
bad news is that these lemon trees will never produce lemons. However,
you might be the lucky one.

In order to get lemons which are cultivated citrus fruit (that means
they were developed by humans) you need one of two things: either a
proven fruit-producing graft which you could graft onto your lemon seed
starts once they get big enough, or to start the new tree from a leafing
branch of a grafted lemon tree that produces fruit. The second option
takes longer and does not provide a strong root stock typical of most
citrus. Most citrus is made by grafting strong fruit producing stock to
what is commonly known as a strong generic citrus root stock. You can
tell the difference as the root stocks are leggier and thornier.
Sometimes, a grafted tree will sprout branches from the root stock below
the graft, these need to be cut back severely as they do not produce
fruit and will just drain the tree.

In any event, your little lemon plants can thrive and may even flower.
But the likelihood of them producing edible lemons is very slim, sorry
to say.


What you said would be true if we were talking about apples. Citrus
often grow true from seed. Sometimes you even get an asexual clone of
the mother plant.

Bob