Anyone Grown Limes From Seed?

[SundayAfternoon]

I've got a bunch of limes that I didn't get around to eating, and would love to plant in the garden.

Anyone have any tips or ideas?

Thanks.

[cooked]

Most lime trees are hybrids, aren't they? So you will never know what is going to come up. I seeded a bunch of limes and lemons when I was a kid in UK and it took a long time for them to get to a meter height, I never got them to flower. To be honest, unless you are doing it for fun, I wouldn't bother. Otherwise, just sow them like any other seed and transplant.

[mike123ca]

My wife bought about 20 lime trees ( about a meter tall) and they are growing limes about the size of a golf ball. She said they will only live for a year or two and then they die.

A couple of weeks ago, I've bought a lemon and removed the seeds. I took an egg carton and filled it with the local topsoil. It has been water each day. Now, I have 8 tiny plants about an inch tall. I hope something becomes of it.

I used to ask Thai people if some things were possible. If they aren't doing it, then they would tell you it is impossible.

Now, I just go ahead and do it, if it fails, I can at least be satisfied in knowing that I tried. If I succeed, there will be many

Thais who will want to copy your success.

[wolfmanjack]

I sprouted about 100 lemon seeds from the sunkist lemons. Most of the trees did not fruit. Out of those that did only a couple of the trees have fruit that taste like a lemon should. I do not know if the limes are the same way but I have had lime trees that i purchased at khamtien market last for over 10 years.

[HeijoshinCool]

Bought lemons at Makro, planted the seeds 18 months ago. All came up. Now they're 30" tall. No idea whether they will fruit. Still good lookin'.

Maybe I should graft them. Being here in Thailand, I know a lot about graft.

[mike123ca]

I sprouted about 100 lemon seeds from the sunkist lemons. Most of the trees did not fruit. Out of those that did only a couple of the trees have fruit that taste like a lemon should. I do not know if the limes are the same way but I have had lime trees that i purchased at khamtien market last for over 10 years.

The trees that did fruit, did you do something different from those that didn't produce fruit?

Was their a difference in the soil conditions or the amount of sunlight?

It seems rather easy to start a seedling, but rather difficult to have it bear fruit.

[drtreelove]

Cooked is right, most citrus are vegetatively propogated, desirable fruiting stock grafted to a root stock that is compatible with local conditions and resistant to soil borne diseases. Seeds may not be viable or may not be true to the parent plant/fruit. Experimenting with seeds is great and doesn't cost much, but if you really want to be sure about what you are getting, it's best to by limes or other citrus as young trees from a nursery that can verify variety.

This grafting process also explains why when you let suckers grow up from the root stock (below the graft), you will get odd-ball foliar and fruit development. I just pruned a friends lemon tree, where he had let a large sucker develop from the root stock. It hand grown up through the foliar crown and dominated, suppressing the desirable foliage and fruit with rampant, fruitless growth. Once it's pruned out, the intended top stock can fill out and grow healthy again and resume production of the fruit he wants.

[wolfmanjack]

I sprouted about 100 lemon seeds from the sunkist lemons. Most of the trees did not fruit. Out of those that did only a couple of the trees have fruit that taste like a lemon should. I do not know if the limes are the same way but I have had lime trees that i purchased at khamtien market last for over 10 years.

The trees that did fruit, did you do something different from those that didn't produce fruit?

Was their a difference in the soil conditions or the amount of sunlight?

It seems rather easy to start a seedling, but rather difficult to have it bear fruit.

I asked a guy at a university in florida and he told me that this was common for trying to grow lemons from seed. He suggested I take branches from the trees that are producing good fruit and graft them onto the trees that are not producing fruit or producing bad fruit.