First (almost ) year of Lisbon lemon from seed

liamkelly Zone 6b Rhode Island / 5b Massachusetts

9 years ago

Last February, on a whim, I picked a few seeds out of a lemon that was sitting on my counter, wrapped them in a damp paper towel, and put them under a heat lamp to sprout. The little sprout in the photo was the first to shoot up, in early March. It was followed by a few others, which I eventually culled because they were weaker growers than the first seedling. The tree loved the summer weather last year, and it grew like crazy! Oddly enough, it quadrupled its height in the window of my dormitory, and now I've had to pinch the apical bud in order to keep the main stem from getting too tall for my means. I also hope that the auxiliary buds will send out some more branches once the days get long enough.

I'm new to this forum, this is my first post. I just want to get myself going here because I've seen how it's been a great resource for other citrus growers, and I want a slice of that too! I'm proud of my little lemon tree, I'm going to follow up with a picture of the tree today. So, hello everyone!

- Liam

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liamkelly Zone 6b Rhode Island / 5b Massachusetts
Original Author

9 years ago

This is my tree today- so far, I've dealt with a leaf-warping magnesium deficiency, temps that are a little too cold in my room, and the low light of the winter up north. I have an LED growing light from Taotronics, which has a habit of bleaching the leaves, so today is a "rest" day, when I apply a foliar fertilizer and keep the growing light off for 36 hours. You can see on the floor a tangle of Christmas lights, I wrapped those around the pot when soil temperatures were getting a little too cold. Despite the setbacks, my tree is doing quite well! I can't wait until April when I can start putting it out on the deck during the daytime. It took full advantage of the summer, growing nice, flat, deep dark green leaves. I'm going to repot it with a better-draining mix as well, once it's comfortable being outside again.

This post was edited by liamkelly on Fri, Jan 9, 15 at 13:39

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Comments (7)

tcamp30144(7B N.ATLANTA)
9 years ago
Very cute little tree I have many seed grown trees and love to watch all of them grow.
Trace
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liamkelly Zone 6b Rhode Island / 5b Massachusetts
Original Author
9 years ago
I had some scrap wood laying around, and with a plastic sheet leftover from painting the kitchen, I built a little planter-box for my tree. The plastic is mostly there to give a little layer of chill protection to my tree, as the windows can be a bit drafty.
poncirusguy6b452xx
9 years ago
If you line the plastic sides with aluminum foil and fit a 23 watt lamp your tree will grow like wildfire.

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I used 5 gallon bucket stack up to 4 high.

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My tallest tree in a stack of reflective bucket.

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A bucket with a light in it gets place over the top bucket on each tree.

I use 18 watt CFL's

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The results
liamkelly Zone 6b Rhode Island / 5b Massachusetts
Original Author
9 years ago
Thanks Trace! It is really exciting and pride-inducing to watch a tree grow up from seed. I'd love to see some of yours!

Also thank you poncirusguy for your advice! I want to encourage my tree to branch out a bit more now, or else I fear I'll be run out of my own house by a rampant lemon tree, a la Jack and the Beanstalk! I have a few blood orange seeds germinating right now, so if they are successful in growing to be healthy plants, perhaps I'll use the tin foil for them as they tend to grow more slowly.

Liam
tcamp30144(7B N.ATLANTA)
9 years ago
Really nice set up I like it here's the link to most of my seed grown.plants

Here is a link that might be useful: seedlngs
Kelley_GA8a
6 years ago
Liam, how is your tree doing?