No, expect a 5 year wait.

My Meiwa kumquat produced in less than 2 years for 1 of my seed grown trees and 3 trees in less than 3 years. Any small fruited citrus should do acceptably from seed. Anything producing fruits bigger than 1.5 inches will probably not fruit in a container for decades. 5 years wait sounds good but you will have a sizable tree to produce. You will have to wait 5 years for a grafted tree to reach similar size. Seeds are the cost of a fruit. grafted trees are $40 or more with the included shipping costs. Plant a lot of seeds. The learning curve may cost you a lot of trees.

Steve

Every citrus variety grown from seed will eventually produce quality fruit in time. Most oranges and grapefruit requires 7 - 10 years to fruit. Calamondin and Key Lime 2 - 3 years, Mandarins 3 - 5 years to produce fruit. Lemons 5- 7 years.

Thank you all so much, that is exactly the kind of info I was looking for. Members on this forum are the best!

Keep in mind with a shorter growing season and grown in a container, it will be on the longer side. Grown in the ground in say Florida, on the shorter side. I had a grapefruit hybrid that grew for 14 years and still had not produced one bloom.

I guess it depends on what you consider a 'reasonable' amount of time. Many of the mandarins are satisfying to grow from seed because they can fruit in under 10 years and still fit in a container that can be moved (or at least slid).

There are a few exceptions to varieties that grow true. Among these are:

‘Pineapple’ sweet orange – makes minor variations in seedlings

Meyer lemon (thought to be a hybrid)

Nagami kumquat

Marumi kumquat

Pummelos (Citrus grandis, aka shaddock)

‘Temple’ tangor (aka ‘Royal’)

Clementine mandarin

‘King’ mandarin (tangor)

Poncirus trifoliata

Citron (Citrus medica)