lemon trees

[mrs potato head]

My Mother grew lemon and orange plants from the seeds in the fruit.

Iremember mine growing a grepfruit tree from seed. It had the most fragrent smelling sap.

[Spreadsheet]

Hi all

Thanks Tai Haku for the post on Lemon Meyer - it was just what I was looking for. I'm about to be bought a lemon tree for my birthday, so (lucky me) cost is not so much of a problem.

Any body have other suggestions on varieties of lemon or reliable suppliers to try? This needs to be a variety that is happy outside in the UK (although I intend to have a greenhouse by the winter so will be able to bring it in overwinter).

All ideas appreciated.

[Trilby]

Concerning your Olive Tree I have had mine for Four Years, Put it in Compost that contains grit I belive it was Number 3, they really like the the worst compost , if you have been to Greece, you will know.

They do not require a lot of water, in fact I never water, they only get water when it rains. I have repotted it twice it it now in a 20"x 20" pot now, will stay there for another few years, no fertilizer, in fact best left to get on with it.
But I do tidy it up a touch, in winter, after the Birds have pinched the Olives., but as yet I cannot start to press them for Oil., will be hundreds of years before that could happen.

[lindylupin]

Hi. I have grown a lemon tree from a seed out of a lemon from the supermarket. It is now about 9 feet tall. I just stuck a seed in a pot of multi purpose compost and it grew well. It is in the conservatory and likes the heat in there. It also seems happy being watered frequently-even though most people say to leave until dry (I didn't know any different at first). Mine will wilt if not watered for a couple of days. It doesn't like being moved---even moving to hoover makes it droop for a couple of hours. Not had any flowers/fruit yet. It is only about 8 months old so I live in hope.

[olive tree]

Thats given me some hope,thanks.I did plant a couple of seeds about a week ago though nothing yet as is early days,although at the same time i planted a peanut,a plum an orange and a "pink lady" pip,the peanut has germinated much to my excitement but i am still waiting for the others to follow suit!
Netty

[lindylupin]

Of the 5 lemon seeds that I planted 4 grew-mine doing well--as above---but the others I gave to friends. All but one died and that not looking very well. They were all kept in living rooms that were rather dark. So I'd definately recommend a conservatory/warm green house if possible.
Also had success with 1 peanut growing. It's now in a growbag as all info I have read says they like to spread out sideways and a growbag works well. Here's hopeing. Good luck with lemon. Lynn

[redadmiral]

i was searching through the forums for a thread like this as i have grown a lemon tree from pip and it's one of my favourite plants!
a few things to consider though, i've read a lot of debate about whether lemons grown from pips from supermarket seeds with produce flower/fruit. the general consensus seems to be they will, but as they aren't grafted, will take anything up to 15 or 20 years. i think mine is about 10 years old now - so i'm starting to let myself hope!
also, this year the leaves on my tree started to go yellow leaving green veins, after i researched it i found it was a nitrogen deficiency. this must be because it hadn't been fed in it's entire life - reading about it now i can't understand how it survived! apparently they are very hungry plants, so for anybody starting out with a pip, i would feed regularly. you'll probably raise your chances of earlier flowers.
as for those of you who have grown olives, i'm very jealous, i would love to. unfortunately i can't afford to buy a tree, and i've heard growing from pips is rather hit and miss? would you reccommend trying to obtain a cutting from someone?

[memyself_and_i]

the best thing to do is to look for the ones with not fruit here they drop from £30 to about £9.99 because they cant sell them with out fruit

[bobleponge]

i was searching through the forums for a thread like this as i have grown a lemon tree from pip and it's one of my favourite plants!
a few things to consider though, i've read a lot of debate about whether lemons grown from pips from supermarket seeds with produce flower/fruit. the general consensus seems to be they will, but as they aren't grafted, will take anything up to 15 or 20 years. i think mine is about 10 years old now - so i'm starting to let myself hope!
also, this year the leaves on my tree started to go yellow leaving green veins, after i researched it i found it was a nitrogen deficiency. this must be because it hadn't been fed in it's entire life - reading about it now i can't understand how it survived! apparently they are very hungry plants, so for anybody starting out with a pip, i would feed regularly. you'll probably raise your chances of earlier flowers.
as for those of you who have grown olives, i'm very jealous, i would love to. unfortunately i can't afford to buy a tree, and i've heard growing from pips is rather hit and miss? would you reccommend trying to obtain a cutting from someone?

15 - 20 years
Bother, so I shouldnt be hoping for too much from my 2 year old tree then?
How annoying, was hoping it would be a bit quicker than that.

[starloc]

15 - 20 years
Bother, so I shouldnt be hoping for too much from my 2 year old tree then?
How annoying, was hoping it would be a bit quicker than that.

They make a good tree without fruit though i have seen the leaves used in cooking , often they flower about 7-10 years in the right growing conditions , but in the uk often 10 to 15 years as its a short growing season unless you have a heated greenouse with lights and grow all year long, the main thing is never to prune it, never at all! , they count and remember how many leaf nodes that have grown upwards , once they get the required amount they will start flowering,
they get quite big on there own roots as well 20+ foot, usualy if you want lemons its best to get a 4-5 foot `farmers whip` grafted tree for about £18-30 on ebay that will look good in a few years, or get a 2-3 foot fruiting one for about £30-60 that has fruit on it already

[frias]

I bought several orange and lemon trees in Spain. Cost 3 euros each (Just under £3) Funny about the pruning 'cos as soon as you by them the seller chops them back for you! he said they need to make root and become more bushy. The lemons don't do too bad here but the oranges take forever to get ripe enough to pick. The best citrus I have is a lime bought years ago reduced at Homebase. It's covered in fruit. All the ones I have are grafted. The same for olives. I have one olive tree here that does bear fruit although the squirrel has tried to eat them, even he found unpickled olives foul. There is nothing that tastes worse!

[starloc]

A seed grown tree should never be pruned or cut back , but young grafted trees can though , the grafted ones are grafted from mature fruiting age wood grafted onto a young rootstock, they will need pruning to shape the tree and make it branch, but you do loose some fruit the year you prune it as most citrus only fruit mainly on new growth that year, the severe pruning is to cause the tree to grow roots when you first plant it

if you prune a seed grown plant even slightly and even though it branches when you chop the top, it still only couhts in leaf nodes going upwards so even though there may be 4 branches gong up, each leaf grown upwards is counted once for each level so each leaf upward on 4 branches is only counted as one leaf node, so not pruning wll generaly mean a taller tree quicker as its only growing one stem for the energy supplied by the roots they generaly grow to a decent shape on there own wth no pruning if seed grown and after a couple of years forming the basc shape from grafting an orange,lemon or other grafted one will grow well on its own and loose no fruiting due to pruning

In general in this country it is difficult to get good oranges, we dont get enough hours of high enough heat to form the sugar levels in the fruit, this doesnt effect lime or lemons though, the col weather ripens them in the winter generating the acid of the fruitand givng the fruit flavour the problem is that the cold is too cold for oranges so they often do not get enough flavour if the summer was not hot enough or if kept inside a greenhouse in the winter or they get frost damage and loose there flavour
Often oranges in this country are ripe when green in december or january , they just dont look ripe it does depend on the variety, clemantines are often ok in november but again by the time they are orange they are often a nasty/low flavour

Our squirrels steal the lemons and throw them round at the house and next doors car to set the alarm off, funny things squirrels