Why don't you cruise by the Home Depot or Lowe's or a nursery and see if you can afford a little tree that will be making fruit in a year. You won't have to wonder if your sprigs will produce some day. Just sayin'...

Stropharia..I'd follow Kumquat's advice. It takes 7-14 years for ungrafted citrus to produce flowers/fruit.

Plus, grafted trees grow and produce quicker than seedling/cuttings. Also, less chance of disease.

I've rooted citrus cuttings and sowed seeds, but don't know a thing about grafting. I'm sure someone on this forum has grafting experience.

PS: My ungrafted seedlings and cuttings grew, one 3', thorns were unbelievably large and sharp. Put a cactus to shame, lol. I ended up tossing the whole shabang in the compost.
If you want a cutting for sentimental reasons, it's worth rooting a cutting.

Good info here, thanks for the quick replies. I didn't know it took so long for flowering...I would have thought only a couple years, due to the cutting carrying the age of the parent.

I plan to eventually buy a lime or two to add to my quickly growing citrus collection (Meyer lemon, Moro blood orange, Meiwa kumquat so far). I was just curious about the feasibility of cloning citrus.

And wow, if your thorns were any longer and sharper than the ones on my lime tree, I don't blame you for throwing it out! What's up with citrus and thorns?!

I just saw your last post, so I'll ramble a little more.

Citrus clone pretty easily. Meyer lemons, key limes and calamondin oranges are sold more often than not as ungrafted cuttings, because they root so easily. Meyer lemons especially so. They'll root easily even without rooting hormone.

I have a calamondin orange cutting I bought that's not even 2 years old yet, is less than a foot tall, and I've literally been cutting flower buds off of once or twice a month since I brought it inside last Sept.

Rooted cuttings may start flowering in a year or even less, while seedlings may take from 4 to 15 years to flower and fruit.
Therefore, yes, it makes sense to root cuttings! Many lemons are grown as rooted cuttings, in fact. I am not sure about limes though.
Good luck!

i wont tell you how to get your cuttings, because, i saw it perfectly on an earlier post
okay, if your cutting is from a tree of fruiting age, and it has already fruied (or at least put out flower buds) before, than it will fruit the next season after it takes, even maybe more from stress, but (even though its up to you) you really should cut them off quickly, as the citrus energy alottment goes (from lowest priority) roots, stem, brances, leaves, foliage buds, flower buds, flowers, fruit. you really need its growing energy to go to its roots and leaves whille it is a young cutting

I don't know about regular lime, but I took some cuttings (3) from a kaffir lime while I was in Malaysia last year, 2 have long roots and the 3rd has somehow still got it's leaves (although not as hairy root-wise). Time taken about 1 month.

All I use was a gritty mix of perlite vermiculite and peat moss compost no heat at all in particular. Although they are now in a sunny window above a radiator.

Hope that answers your question :)
Oh and I did peel about 1inch 'bark' off

Nick

I have grown limes and lemons from cuttings. Nothing real fancy. A variation on Zecowsay's method. I used the liquid
hormone.

I cut older slightly striated wood not quite pencil thick. Striated wood has tiny grey streaks in the green bark. Collect in the morning and keep in a plastic bag to avoid dehydration. Don't store too long before prep to hormone below.

Best results is from actively growing wood in mid to late spring before real hot weather.

One medium size leaf or half a large leaf is left on to produce food for growth. Leave two or three buds.

The rooting end is cut at an angle in a long single cut making a sharpened end to stick into the soil (also exposing greater area). No need to peel away bark.

Use a second pointed instrument of similar size and make a hole for planting your cutting. This keeps the hormone intact on the cutting. You can do this before the previous step if the cutting size is known.

Dip your prepared cutting in hormone and place in the hole about 2 in deep or deeper for it to be stabile. Don't waste time between the slant cut and this step.

Use your hands to firm-up the soil into good contact with the cutting.

The cutting should be set out in a bright place but not in direct sun. I did this in a pot or regular garden soil.
Cut the bottom from a clear 2 liter drink bottle and cover the cutting by firmly setting the bottle into the ground.

When the cutting has added 2 or 3 leaves remove the cover and transfer it. If it is in a pot harden in the sun beginning with short exposure of 1/2 to 1 hour. Or you
may have put it under a shade that can be taken off to get the same effect.

Stropharia, I hope you took a clipping of your favorite lime tree because you could easily have limes by now. If the tree that the clipping is from is already mature enough to produce fruit, then you will NOT have to mature your clone for 7-14 years to get fruit. It can take 7-14 years from SEED.

I have had clippings produce fruit within 18 months. I have a 2 year old orange clipping in my living room that has 3 dozen ripe/semi-ripe oranges, and another 4-5 dozen that are green and still developing.

It was your typical sized clipping when I received it, 5-6 inches tall 3-5 leaves.

This post was edited by HopsBreeder on Thu, Nov 27, 14 at 6:29

Go ahead and root the cuttings. Do a bunch of them. They will flower after they get established. Almost all trees will do better on their own roots than grafted. Grafting is done mainly to solve disease and soil compatibility problems. Big box store get their trees from speed grafters. They graft to the easiest and fastest rootstock. These rootstocks are often not the good choice and your tree is dead in 6 years

Meyer lemon from cutting in 30 gallon container.

Don't grow from seed. If your tree will be outside get a tree from a reputable grafter. If your tree will be a container tree you probably will never get fruit.

Sweetlee tangerine tree from seed would never get to fruiting size in a container. She will have to get to 2 time its current size before fruiting.
----------------------------------------------- Pictured below ------------------------------------------.

Curious why we are dredging up a 3 year old message thread?

Patty S.

Patti

I read the the response and checked back at the original question, but failed to take note of the age of this thread. The particular question is out dated and I would not have responded. I'll stand back and let this one die. For those who have read this I hope it has proven useful

Steve