OK, Here is the interesting thing about citrus. Citrus can be poly-embryonic. What this means is that from a single seed you can get 2 or more trees, (there are other plants that exhibit this trait, but citrus are well known for this tendency); the really cool thing is, with citrus, the resulting seedlings from the seed can be either of the following: 1. Exactly the same plant as the tree that produced the fruit. OR 2. A hybrid between the tree that produced the fruit and whatever citrus happened to pollinate the flower that produced said fruit. And since many, if not most citrus are self fertile, there is a pretty good chance that the seedling you have will be exactly like the tree that produced the fruit you purchased at the market. With this said, the issues with raising most fruit trees from seed is that you'll have to wait several years before you really find out if the resultant tree will produce fruit that is good. But as long as you are patient, and willing to baby the young tree through drought, winter freezes, insect pests and other adversities, you may have a real winner on your hands. Remember that MOST commercial fruit currently being produced originated as a cross between two open pollinated plants that were either different cultivars of the same species or very closely related species in the same family or genus, (citrus example: the grapefruit, a natural hybrid between the pomelo, (or shaddock) and a sweet orange). good luck!!!

Many citrus have thorns so it probably isnt just rootstock, im not sure about golen nugget, but most citrus do have thorns when young , a lot stop growing thorns as they get older i have a navel orange tree, supposed to be thornless, it is mainly but not on the oldest branches, theres one or two big thorns there, none on new branches at all

Regarding Catherine's question about the evolution of the huge thorns of honey locust: There has been a lot of speculation that the thorns were a defense against large browsing animals that were part of the North American fauna until recently, geologically speaking. (Another interesting theory is that the mass extinction of these species was due to invasion of human hunters from Asia.) Species such as giant ground sloths and mammoths or mastodons (one of these was a grazer, one a browser; I forget which is which) may once have been the target for these awesome thorns. Since the extinction of these mega-browsers, the only reason these thorns seem to exist only to attack the tires on my Subaru. It is also thought that the edible seed pod of the honey locust was an adaptation to attract animals to eat (and disperse) the undigestible seeds. Here is a website that discusses these topics further and refers to a recent book on the subject: Here is a link that might be useful: Ghosts of Evolution

Donna, If you like to can, you can make marmalade with the otherwise inedible fruit. I'm not sure you can add enough sugar to it to make it sweet enough to eat. You also can candy the peel the same way you make candied orange peel. Trifoliate orange is a great security hedge. As you can see by looking at yours, no one is going to get through that hedge. It makes you wonder who/what the folks who planted it were trying to keep out. Some people who grow it as a security hedge cut it back really hard with a chain saw (and while wearing incredibly thick and sturdy leather gauntlet gloves and chaps) every year to keep it really dense. If I had that hedge and liked it, I wouldn't remove it even if the neighbor didn't like it. I also think that removing it will be really difficult. Trifoliate orange is often used as a rootstock for citrus fruit because it is such a good, vigorous, sturdy plant. Dawn