Nothing beats a try, but for larger Citrus they don't do well and revert back to a thorny tree that may bear or not. At least you should have a nice plant. Have you checked with your local extension agent for your county? They are always willing to help when any local request or problem.

I don't know if this will be helpful at all, but the type of fruit is Nagami, which apparently only get to be about 8 feet tall (2.4 m). From what I found about them they usually stay pretty small. I guess I'm wondering if a plant grown from seed will be compact also? I'm growing it indoors as zone 5 is probably too harsh for it (and I live in an apartment for the time being). I'm sort of hoping it will fruit eventually and I just want to see if this is even a possibility.

Also, what sort of natural fertilizers should I consider? I recently lost a lemon I grew from seed and I want to make sure that I don't repeat that mistake (it was sort of sad).

Thanks!
Adaiah

>I recently lost a lemon I grew from seed and I want to make sure that I don't repeat that mistake (it was sort of sad).

What happened? (You must just save one of mine by telling us!)

I'm not really sure what happened. It may have been a lot of factors. I know it had a scale infestation, but I caught it pretty quickly and killed them all and this was after it showed the first signs of trouble. I started noticing a problem when it stopped growing completely and started dropping leaves. I moved it away from the window, thinking it was getting too many drafts and when that didn't help, I started to feed it a bit more and water more regularly. I bought one of those moisture meter things from walmart and I checked it daily, but it eventually lost all of it's leaves and then the stem just turned brown and died. It was quite sad. This was the first plant I had tried to grow from a grocery store fruit and I was mostly just excited that it grew at all.

Anyway, I discarded the soil in case there was something wrong with it. I lost another plant, an anthurium, a similar way during the same time, but none of my plants have shown any problems since.

So, in the event that I proceded incorrectly last time, I want to make sure I'm doing things better to avoid the loss. Last time I just planted the seed directly into the soil, watered, and waited until they sprouted. I had four sprout out of around 20 and three of the four made it past seedling-hood. Those were seeds I got from the lemons they give you at restaraunts for your drinks though so I didn't have high expectations.

I have a Meiwa kumquot that is about ten years old. Everytime I walk past it I eat a few right off the tree and spit the seeds out onto the ground. Over the course of the years maybe a thousand seeds. Plus maybe a hundred Kumquats a year fall on the ground and rot. I have never had a volunteer seedling sprout. Don't know if maybe the tree needs a pollenator or what, but evidently the seeds are sterile.

I've grown honey tangerine from seeds and the fruit quality is excellent. It took five years to fruit though. Plus I have never seen it offered in the nursery. It's been 8 years now and the tree produces so many yummy fruits.

I am also growing texas orange from seeds. It's about two years old now.

As for kumquat, I just sprouted three seedlings. It's the Nagami kind. We'll see how that one goes. I prefer the Meiwa one because it's sweeter. My local nursery offers both. Just take the seeds out, clean it, and plant it right away.

Hi
If anyone is still tuned to this thread. could you post picture of seed grown kumquat. Hear Is a picture of my seed grown Meiwa tree. It is now 9 month old. About 200 other died from damp-off.

Thanks

I have one I am growing from seed. Kumquats do not grow well on their own roots and mine is evidence of that. I suppose grafting it is inevitable.

This is an update on the seed grown Meiwa kumquat tree 5 weeks later, 1-8-13 from the previous picture time. The tree has added a new trunk with 8 in of growth and is still cranking out new leaves. If the tree continues like this I plan to describe in detail of all the steps and soil preps and mistakes. I would like to see and read about what others are doing and would like to compare notes.

Thanks

new picture as of 2-3-13. Tree is no longer cranking out new leave but is now 17.5 inches tall. Click on picture below to see progress to date starting from 10-25-12 when I first started taking pictures. Each picture has the date listed at time taken

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Here's a pic of one of my kumquat trees. It isn't the meiwa, it's a sour one.I don't think it's grafted. It will eventually get about twice as large as it is now (about 3' x 3'). There are some in my neighborhood that are about 10' tall and 5' wide, and I don't think those are grafted.

I think they bloom earlier than other citrus do when grown from seed. Mine produces fruit twice a year, and both of my trees are loaded right now with fruit in various stages of ripeness. I eat 2 or 3 every morning when I go out to look at my yard and clean dog poop.

You certainly can try growing the seeds as an experiment. The reason for grafting is to have roots that are more disease resistant than the roots of the plant that has good flavor. My little Nagami tree was purchased last year. I ate the fruit that was on when I bought it and since then it has flowered and is producing more fruit. It is outdoors, however. Growing citrus inside is always more of a challenge. Good luck!

Thanks for the pictures. Nice trees. I still have my 4 poncirus trifoliata and I plan to try more grafts this spring. Maybe one will take.