Citrus from seed usually takes over a decade to fruit.

Susanne, I have not heard of that lemon before or seen one. It is fun to watch the patterns of growth of different varieties!

I love to watch too. Here they are today. It is so amazing how fast they are growing once out. I planted six seeds and most did put out two seedlings and one looks like two seedlings fused together. Now on the hunt for cittumelo seeds or seedlings for grafting. A citrus grower in Sicily told me that if grafted they should flower in two to three years.

Polyembryonic seeds, so cute!

Here is some info and a picture of the lemon. This needs a lot of sunshine to get that color and then even the inside get some red. Not grown commercially because it will not store very well. Lots of oil is used for cosmetic industry.

https://www.gardenhome.it/blog/limone-rosso/

Btw. seeds came from Canada supplier :)

Nice

Susanne,

I think you are confused about grafting. If you graft an older cultivar onto a chosen root, it should produce sooner. If you graft a seedling onto a chosen root, it is still a seedling and will require the same amount of time to produce.

It is correct, that If the seedling is grafted on a vigorous root stock such as a citrumelo it will speed up its growth, and shorten the times to fruiting .

John this is not the information I was given. He clearly said if using citrumilo ( vigorous grower) the seedling will mature faster. This info was repeated on the tropical forum as well. I have no experience whatsoever and can only repeat what was told to me. If I don't kill them with love, we will find out sooner or later :)

The vigorous rootstock will speed up the growth; but it will not create fruit in 2 years; it is still a seedling... only a faster growing seedling.

not what the Sicily guy said and he is growing them. Granted, different climate then Michigan but still.

I doubt the guy in Sicily was grafting seedlings onto vigorous root; he was likely telling you what would happen if a mature scion were grafted onto that rootstock.

Those look amazing! I love that your are so ambitious about growing non-traditional varieties Susanne, I hope to be able to do that someday but for now I don't have the space required for seed grown trees. I'd love to see more of these varieties available to hobbyists. I will follow your efforts and look forward to the updates!

John even though Italian is not my first language, our conversation was very clear. But of course my climate is so very different and I only can grow them, searching for citrumelo root stock, then grafting and that alone is testing as I have never done this, then wait. I will definitely post updates :)

Sammers it is very simple, I'm drawn to colors. That was the reason I bought the variegated minneola and variegated pink Lemon despite others telling me they are just inferior and weak. I saw the variegated Minneola and it looks just stunning. I will at least try.

Susanne, in your above post who is Steve?

Oh that is sad Cory. What are the variegated ones? Do you think you will be able to grow some out? Maybe they grow better as soon as they are grafted? Still too small? Some of them look strong in that picture. Yes I'm always on the lookout for something special. :) I have one grapefruit seedling that is partially missing it's chlorophyll. No idea what caused this and kinda wondering if the next pair of leaves will be more green or if it decides to die. First two leaves are still very green and growing bigger. Third leave just the middle green and the fourth no green at all, just white. Wonderig if this happens when the fruits are sprayed or treated with who knows what or just a genetic flaw. will post picture later.

Hey Cory, what seedlings are you growing?

Here is my little grapefruit seedling. It sure looks interesting to me. Still enough green so it is not dieing yet. newest leaf seems to have a tiny hint of green.

Susanne, your seedlings are looking good. Bravo to you for seeking out the unusual and rare seedlings to grow! I love it! The fruit and coloring are so lovely and interesting to me..I will be following your progressing and watching for future updates. Good luck.

Cory, yours are just as lovely and like Vladimir, I would like to know what varieties you are growing. . Good job! :)

Repotted all my seedlings today. It was easier then I thought to separate the twins and just one pair has to stay for a little bit longer.

Susanne, sorry I missed your post about what kind of seedlings I have planted. I am not home but will post when I get home.

Cory

have a safe trip home :)

Here in England I am growing one potted Lemone Rosso, imported from Italy. To be honest, it doesn't really produce a very good fruit. Internally it is quite dry and not very well flavoured. This reflects the fact that it is not a true lemon, but a hybrid with a citron - in Italy, as you say, they are called Citrus limonemedica.

In my cool summer climate, the red colour only starts to appear when the fruit is over-mature and ready to drop. It never reaches the intense colour shown on photos of this variety. Either it really needs a warmer climate, or the photos have been enhanced quite a bit!

Variegated citrus almost never come true from seed. (The very rare exception is for some variegated chimeras.) Tiny seedlings quite often appear variegated or even totally white, but they will either die or eventually revert to normal green.

I don't know about quality of this fruit yet but I heard it has just a very short time when it can be harvsted and looses quality very fast, why it is not offered comercially. I'm planning to have a green house one day and sure can supply the heat it will needed.

But to be honest, one of the biggest reason to grow this one and the Rubino clementino they. are rare and more of a collectors value :)

Just missed your second post. The Limone rosso is not a variegated lemon, just red fruit

Susanne and Vladimir, I finally had time to list my current citrus seedlings from seed I planted in the spring: Variegated Sour orange, Blood Clementine, Moro, Kishu, Blood Lime, Fast Trifoliate, Nagami Kumquat, and Key lime. Unfortunately my seedless Daisy died. They are still very small and slow growing.

Cory

Cory do you still have the variegated sour orange going? How is your blood clementine (rubino) doing? Mine is growing really well.

Cory, tell me about the Fast Trifoliate. Never heard of it. Where did you get the variegated sour orange seeds?

Susanne, I am expecting my order of Lemone Rosso seeds to arrive soon.

When I was six, I took the top of an onion my mother was going to discard and placed it in water and it grew leaves and roots. I was sooooo thrilled and amazed! Growing plants from seed still give me that same thrill and amazement. By the way, I am now a biologist, although not a botanist.

Susanne and Vladimir, I got the seeds from Laaz. The seedlings are still very small and growing slowly. I will try to take a closeup picture tomorrow but my phone's camera card has not been working well for a while that is why I have not been posting many pictures. Supposedly the Fast Trifoliate will bloom very quickly, I think maybe as early as a year. Laaz says the variegated sour orange comes true from seed which my seedlings did. You can see pictures and read more about them on the other citrus forum moderated by Millet. I like to grow plants from seed too. Most of the seeds from that spring batch geriminated and several sprouted 2 and 3 brothers/sisters. Unfortunately some of this batch of seedlings died when I was away, but still quite a few have survived. I just started a few Nagami kumquats and Key Lime seeds a few days ago from fruit I bought at the grocery store. I can never resist. I made some kumquat marmelade that came out quite good. I added a mineola orange and a Clementine and juice of a lemon to the kumquats. I harvested about 6 Owari Satsumas from a bunch that grew on my small tree yesterday. The little boy next door had his friends over to visit and they like to come to my yard to help me garden. They picked tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and salad greens to take home to their mothers and then asked if the Owaris were ripe yet. They still were a little green so we tried one and it was ready so we tried a few more and they were all sweet and juicy. Of couse they thought they could eat all the other green fruit on my other trees and were disappointed they were not ready yet too. We had shared a blood orange in the spring that was tasty. They are fascinated by blood oranges but I think maybe it is the blood thought that they like most.

Cory

Cory

Thank you for sharing Cory. Laaz is very absent these days and hope he might return some day. Some interesting varieties he offered and I was too late. But so happy to get one seedling offered :)

Yes, I would like to see him back too.

Susanne, how long did it take your seeds to germinate? I have had mine in moist paper towels on a 75F heat mat for the last two weeks and there are no signs of germination. It does not look good.

I soaked mine in seaweed solution overnight, then striped them from outer shell and put them in seeding mix when I got them, not paper towel. took about two to three weeks until they were all out. I lost two seedlings since then but the rest is growing very nicely

Vlad, I planted my Lemone Rosso seeds at the end of September. They were soaked overnight then put into peat pellets and left on top of the water heater 71F. The first seedling appeared in 23 days, #2&3 showed 10 days later and now #4 is peeking through Day 35. Have patience, they'll come :)

cf, thanks

Susanne, how are your Limone Rosso seedlings doing? Where did you find the seeds/fruit? I have been searching for this variety for a little while now.

I believe this is a citron x (lemon?) hybrid. I do grow one. Interesting only for decorative reasons. It takes some 'effort' to get some colour. Does not get it easily in mild winter climates. I've never seen colour as depicted in the picture some posts above. Stays on the tree for long.

Have you ever seen a citron? It sort of smells and tastes like one only milder. Not much juice inside but there's more than in a citron. Whatever juice there is can be used to enhance the flavour and aroma of bland Valencia orange juice. The pith can be candied or prepared with syrup and the zest can be used in sweets and cakes.