Its not unusual but it is growing on the fast side. Keep it and you should do well with it. It may even produce fruit with in 2-3 years. It is a very nice looking seedling. The very fastest of my seedling grew at about 3/4 of yours.

Thanks. I do plan to keep it. How often should seedlings like this get fertilized? I use foliage pro on my big trees.

My trees get fed really well. I use miracle-grow and Miracide both 24-8-16 at 1/2 strength and water when the soil is getting dry. I foliar spray every morning and evening with the same. Very young growth tip can be burned by this so I spray the leaves that are at least 1/3 to size. My root base is at least 65F and the tops are over 80f but never over 100F. All my pants that size are in bucket lights and that is the general temperature gradient from floor to near light bulb. You have probably seen my set up. Hear it is.

Wow steve I love your commitment to your plants! Do uoy apply foliar evry morning/evening to all your plants? Or just to the small ones?

All citrus trees and ONLY the citrus trees are fed this way. Every other tree or plant that I foliage feed more than 2 time weekly end up dieing in a month or 2. The citrus seem to be free of the molds and fungal problems that attack everything else. The amount of feed used in foliage feeding is small compared to root feeding and the plants respond well.

I have another question about those seedlings in the picture above, something that strikes me as unusual. The smaller one in the back has pointed leaves with jagged edges, and has a group of 3 leaves, but on the 2 other seedlings the leaves are rounded, both with groups of 2 leaves. They all are calamondin seeds. I would think they should all look the same. Isn't is odd one looks so different? I'm a real novice at citrus starts...

My guess is that the tree with the pointed leaves is not a citrus tree but something else that came with or got into your soil. The calamondin seed you planted may be dead. The leaves also have teeth towards the tip. calamondine trees do not. the 2 seedlings in the front cup are a clone for the larger and the product of breading for the smaller tree.

Here's a follow up to these seedlings from last year. I kept them. They're now about 11 months old, and it turns out they are both citrus. Maybe the one that had pointed & jagged leaves will be a hybrid of some kind? The leaves look normal now. I'll wait and see what it becomes.

Here's what they look like now. Had some bugs chomping on the leaves, so I moved them inside for a while, even though it's still in the 80's daytime around here. The color is a little off in this picture, the leaves are darker green than they look here.

Maybe this will encourage those with new seedings not to give up on them.

Dave I believe these tree can start fruiting when they are over 2 feet. Your trees look great and you might be getting flowers in a little more than another year

6b Steve

Thanks, Steve. That would be great to see fruit so early. I may give the smaller one to a lady at the nursery - she does bonsai and she said she'd like to try using a calamondin for a bonsai tree. Dunno yet though, I like them both.

They are really nice Dave!

Cory

The taller one is putting out new growth again, now about 1 foot and 3 inches tall now, from soil to tip. It's a faster growing tree than the other one.

It will take from 20-30 years for calamondine seedlings to bear fruits!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Great job on those seedlings Dave! My key lime ones look so puny compared to those. Thanks for posting...it gives me hope!

mdnbui I am curious where you got the 20-30 year time to fruit info. With all Those !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! you sound very confident with your knowledge/experience on the calamondin line of citrus. Can you fill us in on your sources/trials.

What I like about small fruits is that they fruit much sooner than large fruit variety when grown from seed. It is also much easier to get 10 pounds of calamondins/kumquats than 10 pounds of grapefruits when growing these outside there growing areas. The farther north the better the small fruited tree compares for production.

Way to far north for citrus

6b Steve Cincinnatsi, "weather" Oh

Hi mdnbui, if there's an online resource that says 20-30 years please share it with me so I can look it over. I'm still learning. Right now I don't think it will take 20-30 years to fruit. Most citrus experts out there that I've read that say 4-5 is more like it, but that it can fruit in as little as 2-3 years. I can probably wait 5 years, but not 30.

Hi Laura, thanks. Don't give up on your limes! :).

I'm a retired person and so for many years I have been a gardener. I have grown citrus from seeds. For pumelo, it will take 7-15 years to get fruits, For oranges, calamondines: many of my trees still don't bear fruits even after 30 years now. If You grow them by grafting or cutting, it will take 1-2 years to get fruits. If You do air layering, you'll get fruits right away. Calamondines grow very well on its own roots. If You grow them from seeds, it will only be for fun, not for fruits.

http://homeguides.sfgate.com/calamondin-propagation-80070.html

Update: Almost another year has past, and I've keep these two seed grown Calamondins. Repotted them this year (waited too long to do that I think).

The one on the right is about 2.5 feet tall now (from tip to soil line). The other one is a few inches shorter. I kind of neglected them over the summer, but they grew OK. Had some white flies problem. Hard to believe it's already been 22 months since starting the seeds. No sign of blooms yet.

Brought them in last night for the first time this fall. Going to leave them in this same window again over winter, putting them outside in the daytime when warm enough.

Thank you for the update Dave. They look very nicely grown.

This is awesome!!! I can't believe they've grown so much!!!!

Wonderful, keep us updated down the road!

mdn,

If you have no fruit after 30 years, the problem is not the plant, it is the care... or lack of it. Seedling calamondin in my climate produces fruit in the second year; it is one of the most precocious of citrus.

John that is great to know. Would love to try calamondin from seed. I only have the variegated but does that really matter?

I have 2 year old calamondins and no fruit. Guess I am a poor caretaker or I should move to Guatemala.

Just need a little patience; I doubt Massachusetts climate is as friendly as Guatemala; our growing season is at least double yours.

They look fantastic, Dave! :)

2 years is to soon for calamondins to flower from seed.

In the tropics or subtropics, where the tree grows the whole year, 2 years is not too soon. I have 6 or 8 at my lemon farm that are all producing fruit in less than 2 years.... no value to me, as I don't like them; but the people at my farm use them every day for cooking; and they always have fruits year round.

For us in temperate they grow 4-6 months a year.

Steve,

I am a 5th generation California agriculturalist; and I totally understand the differences.

I live in Cincinnati and I unfortunately understand too. I need to move or accept what is. Since I am not going to move I will accept.

Another year has gone by and here is an update on these two seedlings.

They have continued to grow, but haven't grown vertically as fast as the year before. They have grown thicker and stronger. I left them outside most of the year last year, and they are still outside now - I just brought them inside to take this update photo below.

The one on the left has got a more defined shape, very nice, where the one on the right is more straggly and it's top has tipped over (put in a stake you see). I'm not going to prune so I don't delay fruiting. I plan to repot them next spring.

The better shaped tree is the one whose first sprouted leaves were pointed and jagged. Some of the leaves are very smooth. It also held up to the cold better than the other tree last winter. It could be a hybrid of some kind. I plan to see these trees to fruition. Will be interesting to see what comes...

Very nice, Dave! I have a calamondin tree which I grafted in the spring of this year. The scion was from a seedling calamondin tree of my neighbor, she planted it around 1999 and it fruited for her 12-13 years later. Here is my grafted tree now:

That looks great, sunshine. Wow, I hope I don't have to wait 13 years for fruit!

Your seedlings might fruit sooner for you, if you give them long hours of additional light indoors and don't prune them. Taking my cues from the bucket method of Steve, his trees are phenomenal and fruiting faster :)

Under the bucket and 2.5 months since scion bud sprouted from graft site.

NZL on Seville sour orange.

Steve

Kumquats and other citrus with a more dwarfed growing habit usually begin producing fruits earlier in their lifespan than other fruits.

The reason fruit grown from seed takes longer to begin producing fruits is almost entirely due to grafting. A graft onto a different variety creates a degree of incompatibility that will divert the scion's energy towards fruit rather than growth earlier on.

If it's not grafted, a typical citrus variety could take something like 8-14 years before it begins producing fruit. Calamondin would probably be shorter than that, but in any case you could always take a seed-grown variety and graft it onto some rootstock.

(obviously the rootstock has to be a different variety, and the degree of incompatibility will determine level of dwarfing and precociousness)

Wow, Steve! 22 months with fruit is amazing.

Speaking of grafting, I have a previously dead citrumello that came back to life all the sudden (I thought it was dead until recently it popped out leaves). Now that it isn't dead, perhaps I can try my first graft using it as rootstock. Now I need to read up on grafting and rootstocks.

best of luck to you Dave

I have grown my Calamondin from seed and it's 10 years now and still not fruiting. granted, I prune it twice a year: spindly winter growth goes off before putting it outside and then another prune when I bring it inside for winter: it's usually too dense, it'll drop leaves in dimmer light anyway.

I have read conflicting posts about pruning: some say it will never fruit or it will delay fruiting for a long time. and others say it's ok to do.

in any case, I thought it might fruit after 7 years. but it did not

so...I have just a few years to 12-13 prediction. But may be I don't have enough sun for it to fruit ever:? it only gets 4 hours in summer of NE sunrise and west window in winter.

I would not prune at all until it starts blooming. And it wont start blooming until its mature enough. And the more sun it gets, the faster it will grow and mature, assuming proper water and

fertilization. Supposedly the tree will require a certain amount of nodes to reach maturity. Also, Citrus are heavy feeders, if its in a pot dont be scared to fertilize.

I have successfully grown lemon and key lime trees from seed until fruit. The lime took about 3-4 years to start blooming, the lemon around 6 years.

did you grow yrs in pots? what pot size were they in when fruiting started?

mine are in 10" still to keep small sized (were 2, I chucked the 2nd last fall though), and I do fertilize with miracle grow and vigoro intermittently. they are on wicks, so continuous liquid feed and they are neither dry nor waterlogged ever. so grow nicely when outside.

well, I guess mine will NEVER fruit, 'cause I am in the apt and I have to reduce its size to continue to grow it sort of dwarfed..

it looks good on the balcony as is, gives some shade to caladiums under it. now that I know how to grow it i'll just try to buy a calamondin already fruiting as a small indoor plant: they often have them in Chinatown here. I killed my first one . correction ;)..scale ate it while I was on winter vacation..:(( but the seed was from it's fruit.

Yes everything in pots. I don't know the pot size correlation, they're in buckets bigger than 5 gallons, probably 7-8 gallon.

Your tree looks very nice. I would just keep up the good work, quit pruning (at least off the top), and I think you will see fruit very soon.

There's no easy simply answer to cover all pruning scenarios. Generally you want to avoid pruning if the tree is very small and doesn't have a lot of leaves yet. Once the plant has become more established, it can recover from pruning more easily.

Constant pruning of a seed-grown plant will always delay the development of mature wood. If a plant is allowed to grow to a genetically-determined height/size, then the wood will transform to 'mature' wood which is capable of blooming. Until then -- no trimming -- or go ahead and trim but just enjoy as a foliage plant. For calamondin, key lime, kumquats and some others, this could be anywhere from 2 to 5 years. For oranges, grapefruit it could be anywhere from 10 to 20 years. If those are regularly pruned -- then never.

I haven't pruned my two trees yet, and on one it appears that thorns have stopped growing at the ends of the branches, so I'm hoping that one will bloom soon. I'm going to repot them this week.

Dave I’d love to see updated pictures of your two babies!

Awesome thread! It's so cool to see the yearly updates, Dave! :)