Several years ago I bought a Meyer lemon for a friend. When I repotted it, a little side shoot came off the root ball--it looks like it was a completely separate plant, like a seedling that was in the pot with the larger tree. I kept the baby and it's grown very well for me.

It looks exactly like Meyermike's pictures in the other post: wide leaves with purplish buds that open to white, and a short, dense growth habit. It's been producing for a few years now and makes huge sweet lemons.

My first question is: Is it possible for a Meyer seedling to be so close to the parent?

And secondly, what are the chances that its own seedling would be consistent in traits? Because I have a small 2 y.o. seedling of the suspected seedling that has completely different leaves so far.

I'll save my grafting questions for another time, LOL! Thanks for your help!
Jen

As for seedlings being close to the mother, if the fruit falls to the ground and is not collected, it is quite common to produce a tree from seed. My Mother, who was less than diligent about collecting dropped fruit, had two new trees from under her Meyer; they ultimately produced "Meyer" lemons... at least, they looked and tasted like Meyers; but they took about 5 years before they produced the first fruit.

I really can't remember when it first started producing lemons, but I believe our first small harvest was when it was about 3-4 yrs old.

Meyer seed is so low in viability as to be almost useless. I've got three Meyers and fruit drop happens all the time. No other Meyers have ever sprouted up except for that once. You're quite fortunate!

I tried growing several of the seeds and only one sprouted, this one with the strange, thin, narrow leaves. Guess I'll wait to use it for grafting stock, until I know it won't make a desirable plant. It's already a little on the thorny side.

Thanks again!