The grafted tree will produce fruit sooner than a seedling. A grafted tree will start blooming at least around it's 3rd year if the growing conditions are right. A seedling lemon or orange will take at least 10 years to mature and set fruit. I believe the rootstock on a grafted tree is hardier than a seedling. That is just my experience.

I forgot to mention that the seedling may not be true to the mother tree because you don't know how or if it was pollinated by another variety of citrus. The one benefit of a fruiting seedling is you may have a new variety.

Graft a piece from your Clementine on one of your seedling and watch what happens.

Thank you for the info! Very interesting.

Bob...a hint? :) I haven't gotten into grafting or any of that and I know nothing about it. If exciting stuff happens, maybe I need to!

There is a lot of help on this forum, only if you interested. The sooner you start, it is not all that difficult, start reading or check out the internet.

If you only want to grow a handful of tree's you don't need to worry about grafting, you just buy the tree's you want and be done. I does't work on this forum,a bunch on this forum started out with a couple and just look, they have more now than me go figure.

I have one lemon on my seed grown tree, it just started flowering this year. It is 6 years old. My seed grown key lime is loaded with fruit, it is about 3 years old. It seems generally the smaller the fruit, the quicker a seed grown tree will produce.