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cynjrana

Lemon seedlings

cynjrana
9 years ago

My apologies if this question was asked before, but I need a quick answer.

I tried germinating lemon seedlings and it was a complete failure, over cooked or just too much water (used paper towel method). I went to my mom's house a week ago and decided to do it for her since she just cut open a fresh lemon and I couldn't resist. 6 Days passed and she calls me and asks me if she should check the seeds, by this time I completely forgot about them. I told her to check, thinking nothing was going to happen considering I bombed on my seeds.

She told me 5 out of 6 sprouted roots about a half inch. I don't know when she should pot the seeds in soil or how to pot them. Ive seen conflicting videos on how to pot them.

Any advice will great.

Comments (3)

  • BarbJP 15-16/9B CA Bay Area
    9 years ago

    If they have roots showing, I'd plant them asap. 3"-4" size pots should be fine, one each. You can use a commercial seed starting mix for these. I like seed starting mix over regular potting mix, as sometimes regular potting mix can have manure in it, which is too strong for seedlings. Check the label. You can make your own, but if you're just doing a few seeds a small bag of seed starting mix is fine.

    I'd put them just under the soil, about a 1/2 inch or so, water them in carefully so as to not disturb the soil, and just lightly mist the soil top once in a while (check every day for dryness) until they sprout up above the soil.

    Some people like to water from the bottom , they feel it helps control "Damping Off", a fungal disease of all seedlings. To water from the bottom, you put them in a tray and add water to let them soak it up from the drainage holes. You'll need to remove the excess water after about 30 minutes, you don't want them soaking in the water for a long time.
    Some spray a mild fungicide to prevent it, some just are very careful to not keep the soil too wet all the time.

    If you're growing them inside, you'll need a grow light. Most good nurseries will have a relatively inexpensive one for seed starting. Or if it's warm outside now, you can move them outside for light. Sunlight is best anyway, but be careful about how fast you introduce sunlight.

    I'd put them outside in a bright shady area for a few days, then gradually move them to more sun, a little bit more every day over a week or two, depending on how intense your sun is. If it rains in your area in the summer, you will have to take that into consideration with your watering schedule.

    After they have a few real leaves, fertilize about every other week with a liquid food, cut the strength by 1/4 of what the label says. I like Foliage Pro liquid food, but there are lots of other options.

    So this is what I'd do, but I'm not an expert on citrus seedlings, though I have grown all kinds of other things from seed.
    I do have a Key Lime seedling that's two years old now, healthy, but agonizingly slow growing! It was the survivor out of about 7 seeds. Don't be discourages if some of them don't make it, that's pretty normal.

    By the way, what kind of lemon did you get the seeds from? Most regular lemons, Eureka, Lisbon, etc. will grow true from seed.
    But Meyer lemons do not. So with a Meyer lemon seed, you probably won't get a "Meyer" lemon tree.

    And any seedling citrus tree will take a long time to fruit. I've heard estimate from 5 up to 15 years, depending on the kind. I think Key limes are the fastest. I don't know how long regular lemons would take.

    Good luck! Should be a fun and educational project anyway!

  • cynjrana
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Thank You so much!!! I did plant them already, Im not sure that type of lemon they are. I got the lemons from the store and used the seeds.

  • johnmerr
    9 years ago

    Sounds like a lot of trouble to get a lemon seedling; I just put the seeds in the soil, about a half inch deep; keep them warm and moist and you should get 90% or better germination in 2 weeks. No transplant shock; and if you give them good ventilation you shouldn't have trouble with damp off. All my rootstock is grown from seed and we plant 10's of thousands at the same time with virtually 100% germination.