citron seeds

[artisanoo]

hey guys -
I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this (I want it to maybe be a bonsai one day, but the question has more to do with planting seeds, which may be more of a gardening thing...)

anyways, I have a fruit, a citron 'etrog' fruit - looks kind of like a wrinkled lemon - a type of citrus fruit. I want to start up a few seedlings if possible, ive been told the tree has a nice smell to it, and I have wanted to try citrus for a while.

can I just plant the seeds in bonsai soil?

does it matter how long the fruit has been out for? its not dried up or anything but it has been unrefrigerated for a while ( few weeks). still looks nice and yellow though.

do I have to do anything special to plant them?

ive never done citrus before so any advice would be be great.

[Gnome]

artisanoo,

A little quick research indicates that the only requirement as far as germination of citrus in general is that the seeds be planted as soon as they are removed from the fruit. Other than that I have nothing further to add as I have not done much with Citrus.

Norm

[artisanoo]

thanks for the info - that is similar to what I found in my own searches -- I was wondering if any of the more experienced people here, yourself included, had any more personal experience that would be to able to help me.
but I guess thats all I need to know -- I just need to find something to pot them in and ill post if anything comes of it.


thanks,
Gabe

[alexinoklahoma]

I do know that most citrus like a more-acidic soil when beyond seedling-stage, but not a worry when germinating. I had a run-of-mill supermarket lemon I tried to germ seeds from (at wife's suggestion, of course) and went 0/5 with just sticking them in 'dirt'. It is possible there is an inhibitor in the 'juices' of the fruit - so you might want to wash-well one or two of the seeds to see if it makes any difference. Who knows?

Good luck!
Alex

[arboricola]

[img]https://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e188/coloradus/baggieSmall.jpg[/img]

Here's one way that I've found that works well. Place seed on a damp paper towel, fold in half, and put in a sealed baggie in a warm place. They should sprout in about 2 weeks. You may get 2-3 sprouts from one seed like in photo on left.

[img]https://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e188/coloradus/lemon-1Small.jpg[/img]

Here's some that are about 6 weeks old and in training. Using sticks and light to put a bend in the trunk.

Phil...

[artisanoo]

hi, arboricola, I was just wondering how your citron trees are doing - any pictures?

[arboricola]

Hi Art;

Here's a very bad pic of the the lemon and two key limes. The lemon is about 18" tall and the limes are about 15". Nothing has been done to them except keep them alive thru the winter.

[img]https://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e188/coloradus/Lemon-1.jpg[/img]

[bonsaiboy]

artisanoo,
The most important thing you must remember when growing citrus seedlings is that they require full sun. If not given ample light, they will stop growing at about 2 inches high until they start receiving full sun, and if you take a mature citrus plant out of full sun and place it in a location where it doesn't get full sun, it will die.

And, just out of curiosity, does anyone else who grows citrus here get thorns on there plants? Just about all my citrus plants are thorny.

[artisanoo]

I have my 2 plants near a window, but also near my plant stand which houses 4x48" sunlight bulbs

the larger one is about 3 feet at this point, pretty similar looking to the taller one in the pic. the bottom-most leaves are slighlty yellowed on the edges but otherwise its doing ok.
the second one is only a few inches because it was left in too small a pot for too long, but is now startting to grow again -

I'm wondering, how long to wait until I should cut it back (taper/branching)
does citron take well to agressive chops or not so much?
also, how is its back budding (for branch inducing) on after a chop?

[falcon]

Does anyone know what is wrong with a lemon tree that is flowering, but the blossoms just dry up and fall off, rather then produce fruit?

[The Helpful Gardener]

Citrus are finicky, and blossom drop can be temperature, humidity, or light requirements. Change them one at a time (gradually) and see what works best...

HG

[artisanoo]

just to get back on topic again, anyone know anything about the backbudding/branching habits of these guys, or citrus in general?

I'm wondering, how long to wait until I should cut it back (taper/branching)
does citron take well to agressive chops or not so much?
also, how is its back budding (for branch inducing) on after a chop?

[The Helpful Gardener]

Don't have a lot of experience with citrus (I drink Tropicana...) but budding to establish branches seems to get a lot of mention, so perhaps this is a good way to develop branching...

[url]https://ag.arizona.edu/pubs/crops/az1146.pdf[/url]

plus you could add oranges to your lemon or limes to your citron if you wanted...

Tipping send a chemical message that the plant is under attack, so shrub out, and back budding occurs. But that response is very different from species to species; in some strong and in others not so much, and I have not grown citrus. Who has?

HG

[Gnome]

artisanoo,

I'm only beginning my second year with any form of Citrus so I have some of the same questions you do. Recently I have begun to get some answers. I have some Clementines that are just starting their second year and I am beginning to see spontaneous branching forming at the junction of leaf to stem or axils.

From this I conclude that Citrus, or at least Clementines, should sprout pretty easily after pruning. Whether or not they will back bud on truly old wood, or wood that lies below the location of the first leaf, I cannot say.

Norm

[artisanoo]

hm, that is good news - but I'm curious, how tall is your clementine that is branching on its own?
my bigger citron is 3 feet or so, about 1.5 years old, but no branching has yet happened. I suppose it could be a species difference, or perhaps yours had better conditions in its first year than mine has had.

do you plan on pruning yours any time soon? or are you just letting them grow out for a while

[kdodds]

I'm going into my second year on Kumquats grown from seed and I have to say the same, they've "branched" readily, but I've waited for 6-8 leaves to appear, then cut back to two. I've not seen any back budding or budding not from axils.

[artisanoo]

awesome - any pictures?

I think that may have been my mistake, not cutting back early to get some low branching out. so it may just be the best option now to leave it alone for the trunk to do its thing and grow/thicken, and then eventually start chopping for taper etc.
only question I have is how far down can you chop one of these fellas and not kill it? also another thing I'm worried about is, when it eventually gets chopped, there arent nice green leaves down low enough where id want to chop it. think it would survive a chop that left a few leaves that were mostly green but yellowish around the edge? doesnt seem like a great idea -

perhaps my best course of action would be to chop not as low as id like (to make sure it has some healthy foliage on it), and hope that spurs on some branching lower down, where I could eventually chop again.

[Gnome]

artisanoo,

but I'm curious, how tall is your clementine that is branching on its own? do you plan on pruning yours any time soon? or are you just letting them grow out for a while

Only about 6 inches or so and the branching is just getting started, just new shoots really. No pruning for now, still way too small.

only question I have is how far down can you chop one of these fellas and not kill it?

I have seen no evidence of buds below the first original leaf position, that does not mean that they wont if they were forced to. I have not determined that for myself yet.

also another thing I'm worried about is, when it eventually gets chopped, there arent nice green leaves down low enough where id want to chop it. think it would survive a chop that left a few leaves that were mostly green but yellowish around the edge? doesnt seem like a great idea -

Maples have a strong tendency to sprout at the location of previous nodes, the same thing we are observing with Citrus. Even if the leaf is long gone Maples have latent buds waiting to sprout should they be required. Hopefully the same holds true.

Norm

[artisanoo]

6 inches and branching already I guess yours is happier than mine was

as far as the sprouting at previous nodes, I agree - I have another small citron that wasnt doing as well, and when the top of it (when it was small) started to die down, it sprouted a new branch at the highest leaf (once it started returning to health)

by the way, I just realized (I'm sure its been said but I havent seen it, as I am fairly new around here) that your avatar is david the gnome! I used to love that show

[The Helpful Gardener]

Norm have you tried just rubbing out a new bud on citrus? I have found this a good technique in maples as it doesn't scar a delicate barked tree with a pruning scar and you often get a new bud back later, on apical meristem anyway. Is it enough to trigger latent buds in citrus? Seems to be in maples...

HG

[Gnome]

Scott,

My plants are still very small, just entering their second summer. As such I have not really done much with them except let them grow freely last summer and try to keep them alive over the winter.

Norm

[The Helpful Gardener]

Understood...

HG