Hello everyone. I am new to this site and in much need of some help. I just moved to Arizona and i am wanting to plant some fruit trees. I went to the local nursery and they didnt have a clue about anything. They wanted way too much money for some sick lemon trees. They can order me any kind i want and blah blah. What I am wanting to do is avoid all that wast of money. I know people that have lemon, tangelo, grapefuit, and pomegranite trees. Can i get seeds from them and plant them? I have been reading about grafting and propagating but im not sure how to do it. Can I just pick a lemon, get a seed, plant it and it will be like the tree i got it from? Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance
Planting seed , will grow the tree often the same as the type the seed came from, but it will/may take many years to produce fruit and then some years to produce good fruit, only then will you know what the fruit is going to be like, but it will be quite some time 10 years or so, some far longer, some a bit quicker If you buy one from a nursery it will be a grafted tree, it will produce fruit rapidly, most times it will be produceing fruit when/soon after you buy it If you have access to mature trees, the best way would be to try and root cuttings
In other words seedlings vary in attributes, some may not produce as good a fruit quality as the parent and none will have the sexual maturity of the parent. Grafted stock has the sexual maturity of the parent plant, does not take years to commence flowering and fruiting.
The vast majority of citrus are, however, true to type. Unlike other fruit trees, the type of tree you get from the seed will be the same quality as the parent plant, with a very few exceptions, eg Meyer lemons. The seeds from a meyer lemon will produce an entirely new type of tree and fruit upon reaching maturity. But others, eg other lemons, limes etc will be the same as the parent, true to type.
Thank you everyone for your comments. I have been reading post after post and i am learning alot. But one thing im not sure on is cuttings. Many post say to cut a branch off a citrus tree, dip it in Rootone, and plant it. Is that the best way to do it? Im not sure how to do a root cutting. Is that where you dig down to the roots and cut some off? Thanks for all the help. I am new to this but it is amazing the things you can do and i want to learn more. Also someone has some lemon trees i can have to plant at my home. They are only about 2ft tall. Whats the best way to trasplant them? Do i need to wrap the roots in anything. When i get them home should i put them in a pot or directly into the ground.?
