Last year around November, I planted allot of citrus seeds indoors, hoping to get a one good citrus bonsai. Most died, only about 4 remained, yesterday I noticed one of them had a flower at the tip.. The tree is so small, little bit taller than my middle finger with small stem and is the smallest of all of them. I was shocked and still am shocked! is this normal? I am sure it will not turn to fruit since it is a single flower, but still unusual, I read citrus flower at around 5 year old, this tree is so small, only few inches taller than my middle finger. I will post pictures when it stops raining and post them maybe today or tomorrow, and for those that will question if this a cutting, NO it is from seed. Did this happen to any of you before?
Certainly seems unusual to me. I have grown 50+ citrus from seed and none has done that, although I have had some oddities. It normally takes 7-10 years for a seedling to produce fruit. Many citrus do not need pollination, so having one flower does not mean it will not bear fruit. However, it is probably not a good idea to let such a young plant produce a fruit as it takes a lot of nutrients to grow a fruit. Best of luck on your unusual seedling, and keep us posted! Please do post photos, especially close-ups of the flowers and any fruit.
Precocious flowering is known to happen. Have a look at this thread: One year old grapefruit tree with flower.
pollinated the seedling, could be key lime or mandarin, not sure.. just curious if this small thing can hold fruit and what kind fruit it will be since citrus are hybrid and the seedling could be anything or something
It may be a grapefruit seedling, judging by the size of petiole. Even though the flower itself may be fertile I doubt such a small tree can sustain a fruit to its maturity; it just doesn't have sufficient root and leaf mass to support it.
