I suppose this is wishful thinking, but here goes. About three years ago we bought a white grapefruit to have for breakfast. When it was cut open we were amazed to find three fully sprouted seeds inside, and they were immediately planted in good potting soil in a 12 inch clay pot. As of today we know have three trees in that pot, each about 24 inches tall and healthy looking. The question we have is: Now What?? We live in northern Illinois in the US (Zone 4 I think) and would like to think these trees might actually survive here and bear fruit. Is there any chance they would live here (and produce fruit)? Right now the pot is inside a large, south-facing glass door all year --- almost as if it were in a greenhouse. Please help with advice on what we should (and shouldn't) do next.
The chances of a grapefruit living outside in zone 4 is zero. The chances of your three grapefruits ever producing blooms, then fruiting, when growing in a 12 inch container is next to zero. You should have transplanted each tree into their own container in the very beginning. However, if you would have transplanted them into separate containers, the chance of them blooming/fruiting would be second next to zero. Of all the citrus varieties you could have chosen to plant from seed, in hopes of receiving fruit, grapefruit was the worst choice. If you would like to grow a citrus tree from seed, that would produce fruit, plant a Key Lime (Mexican Lime) seed, which can fruit in 2 or 3 years. You can also plant a mandarin seed, which can fruit in 4-6 years. - Millet
Thanks for your reply Millet. Its disappointing but as we expected. What would be the best we could do under the circumstances? Would it make sense to cut out the two weakest looking of the three trees and leave the strongest to just see what happens indoors over time? I'm inclined to do that and just keep caring for the one remaining tree and wait and watch. Nothing to lose I suppose.
You can lift the trees out of the 12" pot and gingerly separate them from each other. It may not be an easy task and you may feel it is a waste of your time when you deal with the entangled mass of roots but you can manage and pull it off and perhaps eventually have three separate plants. Put all three in five gallons if need be. Each one can be side grafted, cleft grafted or probably better suited, t-budded with a named form and then you will have three ready to go Grapefruit in time. Surely will have increased the likelihood that you will get fruit from these trees when grown indoors. Grapefruit seedling trees raised from store bought fruit from budded or grafted plants can take several years to ever bloom and even then they may not set fruit when grown indoors. They may have to be triggered to set fruit which means you will want to have a second Grapefruit nearby to help you along. If you separate the three seedlings now and lose one of them you will still have your pair. The problem is that depending on the clone and variety of the original Grapefruit the seedlings came from, they may not bloom until they have achieved a height of 8-12 feet or more, even when grown outdoors. Not many people can allow their seedlings to get 12’ tall inside their homes. Jim
Jim, I have never ever seen an indoor seedling containerized grapefruit produce fruit, nor have I ever heard from a RELIABLE SOURCE that one has. Our friend Laaz, who also knows a lot about citrus, has remarked that he has never seen or heard of an indoor (or even an outdoor) CONTAINERIZED seedling grapefruit fruit. Your suggestion of grafting/T-budding a mature bud from a named grapefruit variety is an excellent suggestion, as are all of your suggestions. A grafted containerized grapefruit could bloom in the second year. If they were my trees, I would cut two of them out, or as you say, he could also try to separate them. - Millet
Jim and Millet Thank you both for your generous and knowledgeable replies regarding our seedling trees. I generally follow what you are both suggesting, but as an untrained amateur far from citrus country I don't know how we would ever accomplish the grafting etc. We'll consider all your good advice and do the best we can. Phil
There have been Grapefruit that did come about from seed from store bought fruit that have produced both flowers and fruit outdoors as my neighbor has one that was raised from a store bought Marsh Grapefruit. Granted this tree is in the ground but others have done the same with outdoor containerized Grapefruit, usually from fruit that came from rooted cutting parents. Years ago there was speculation that one of the Texas named forms came about from a seedling from a store bought fruit that resulted in a red blush flesh as opposed to a pink flesh. It can be done but not significantly to have containerized seedlings from store bought fruit to bear fruit outdoors. It is much tougher to get an indoor solitary seedling to set flowers and then see it set fruit indoors. I have not seen it happen with a single plant although I've seen some bloom all the while indoors once they got up to about 10 years old. I have seen an indoor plant that grew from a store bought fruit bear fruit if it was allowed to be placed outdoors in the Spring and then brought back indoors for the warmer parts of Summer, Fall and Winter. Have to admit that the tree was placed among some in ground Kumquats when it finally flowered after a few tries and did set fruit. I've also seen an example of two Pink Grapefruit that were store bought fruit that most likely came from budded or perhaps grafted trees that were allowed to be placed outdoors by themselves that flowered and set fruit after about 8 years of age. This is not something we see everyday but it can happen. Depending on how the roots look as the seedlings are lifted out of the pot may determine if the project of separating them is a worthwhile adventure or not. A simple tug on one of the seedlings to gauge resistance may entail leaving them all alone but then we have not changed the situation any. Even if we chopped off two of them to save one plant we still will have the roots from the old plants take up nutrients that could have been meant for the one tree. If it were possible I'd still divide the three trees, even if we only keep one of them. I'd bud them if it were me but some people want to hope that the seedling may be like the fruit they remember was for quality and taste. Even if this case may seem remote it is worth a try but only if we can get the tree to bloom and set fruit for us. Having a second tree around and place these trees outside when the temperatures allow for it, then we have a far greater chance of seeing these trees flower and perhaps set fruit. Then the enterprise might or may result in success, whereas only one Grapefruit seedling from a store purchased fruit from a budded or grafted tree grown indoors and not grown among any other Citrus does not seem very hopeful to me. Jim
Alright, we're convinced that an attempt to separate the three seedlings is the way to go. There is also the opportunity to place the containerized trees outside here, as we have plenty of space and the mild-to-warm/hot temps of northern Illinois. This all now begs a couple other questions since, again, we are "untrained amatuers." If the separation of the seedling roots is successful, we assume we'll then have a mass of bare roots on each and a need to properly replant them. Assuming we will use a minimum 5 gallon container size, what would be the ideal soil mixture to use and how would they best be placed into the soil/container? Also, any thoughts on guarding against disease/infestation? Feeding/fertilizing? Are we correct in assuming that grapefruit trees are not deciduous? Phil
They are not deciduous. As for grafting, citrus is probably one of the easiest plants to graft especially using the T-but method if you have good budwood. In case you don't know, there is a difference in mature budwood for a tree that has already started to fruit and budwood form a juvenile tree (seedling) that has not reached the required leaf (node) count to initiate fruiting. Using a mature bud, you could get fruit in the first year of growth from that mature bud. Skeet
Jim, possibly you could be correct concerning the rare possibility of getting a seedling grown, containerized grapefruit tree to bear fruit in zone 4, if all of the "IF's" could be made to occur. First, a grapefruit tree grown from seed takes 8-10 years to begin blooming as a mature tree, WHEN GROWN outside in the ground and in a warm environment like California or Florida. As a containerized tree in a zone 4 residence, where the tree will spend seven months a year indoors the time until maturity could be easily doubled to 16-20 years if ever. A mature tree would be 10-12 foot tall, let alone how wide it will get. Just the fact that the tree is containerized, causes a dwarfing growth pattern which is another restriction to ever reaching enough growth to mature, especially in a common 5-gallon nursery pot. The root system would have become tightly root bound long ago. As a container tree grows taller, and the root system becomes restricted, then MANY problems soon develop. I just do not see it ever becoming a successful adventure. Even if it were possible, what would a home owner ever do with three, or even two, huge trees of the size required to become fruiting grapefruit trees inside their home? However, luckily grapefruit is self fertile, therefore do not require another tree in order to be pollinated. My suggestion, spend $45.00, buy themselves a nice grafted Clementine Mandarin tree that has been grafted upon Flying Dragon rootstock. Such a tree will provide fruit from day one, and remain a nice smaller size tree and a good addition to the home. - Millet
I remember an old story form a book that I've thoroughly enjoyed "House plants for the purple thumb" by Maggie Baylis. One story in there was of a 12 year old grapefruit tree grown from a seed. It never followered or fruited until a lazy plumber one day used the tree as a support for a pipe (he stuck two or three nails into the trunk in order to support a plank of wood). The tree survived and they left the nails in the trunk. The next year the plant bloomed and fruited heavily. I'm NOT saying that you should do this to your trees but to quote the book.... "Citrus horticulturists found, years ago, that piercing the trunks of trees produces a kind of systemic reaction to the steady plodding of growth. The wound becomes a catalyst, just as a splinter in the finger alerts all the corpuscles in the blood steam to do battle against bacteria. The enzymbes and hormones in the tree sense it is in danger and they move into high gear to make the tree bear before it dies. Only the grapefruit tree didn't die. It wen right on producing." I know that all of you have said that grapefruits and other sweet citrus tend not to produce indoors (or very late) but I wonder if there are things like this to encourage the tree to bloom and fruit? (Just a random passing thought, mixed in with my 0.02$) Cheers, -Ryan
