Growing citrus trees from seeds
Biology Gardening

Growing citrus trees from seeds

First a disclaimer: I am not at all an expert in growing indoor plants, or outdoor for that matter. I just use my biological knowledge regarding the state of the plants and their environmental and nutrient requirements. I do my research and got some experience through the years, but there’s a lot of room for improvement – as with mostly everything.

The seeds were mostly acquired from store bought fruits, some I got from home grown fruits from the local people that grow these trees themselves.

The seeding was simple: I just put the seeds in the soil about 1,5 cm deep and watered once a week. Didn’t do any moist towel propagations, yet almost all of the seeds germinated. I planted lemons, mandarins and oranges.

Substrate: hummus. Simply, no special soil mixtures.

Watering: once a week, not excessively. In December in January every 2 weeks.

Fertilising: from February to June a lid amount of citrus fertiliser is added to a 1,5 l water bottle.

Place: mostly in indirect sunlight indoors at an average of 20 °C.

growing citrus trees from seeds
First sprouts, November 2020
growing citrus trees from seeds
2 months after seeding
growing citrus trees from seeds
1 year (in the middle there’s a date palm sprout, so there’s no confusion)
growing citrus trees from seeds
2 years

I’ve been growing them for 3 years now and lost a lot of sprouts and some larger plants too. No known reason, no overwatering, pests or visible infections, but citruses do have a tendency to just die at a certain point when growing from seeds. Currently I only have one larger plant which seems to be doing good. It is going to be repotted next spring to a more appropriate substrate than just the hummus it’s currently growing in. Hopefully it makes it for another year.

What are your experiences growing citruses from seeds? Any tips or advice?

growing citrus trees from seeds
3 years

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