I collected the seeds from my dwarf lemon tree. But I am wondering..... I know if you grow an orange tree from seeds, it won't produce much, and so they are grafted. Is this the case with my lemon tree? The seeds will come up but will not get much fruit production?
With dwarf citrus, it's more than what kind of fruit will form on a tree grown from seed. Viable seeds will result in a full-sized tree, not a dwarf.
To obtain a dwarf citrus, a desirable variety is grafted onto a marginally compatible rootstock. An partially compatible root stock results in a semi-dwarf. An almost incompatible root stock results in a true dwarf. These results are because the root stock inhibits growth of the scion (the part grafted) to varying degrees.
The lack of full compatibility in the graft means that dwarf and semi-dwarf citrus do not live as long as full-size (standard) citrus. In a large pot, 25-30 years can be expected. Standard citrus can be productive for decades longer.
By the way, grafting for standard citrus ensures that a desirable variety results. Citrus from seeds might not be true to the parent's variety. This is not an issue of fruit quantity but fruit quality.
And my little 3' tall Meyer Lemon has over two dozen lemons on it this year (its' third year).
I've already picked about 6 Eureka lemons from my dwarf. There are over a dozen showing various amounts of yellow. And there are uncounted little green lemons. Although we've already had frost, the tree is in bloom. From the top of its pot to the topmost shoot, it's less than 4 feet.
So if some of the seeds come up, they will just be standard lemon trees, and the fruit might be just fine?
I bought my dwarf lemon only 1 1/2 yrs ago, and I just picked about ten good fruit off of it. THe aroma coming from it when in bloom is really great, too!
Citrus is apomictic. This is a characteristic -- rare among flowering plants -- that results in seeds that are viable (will sprout and produce new plants) even if the flowers were never pollinated, not even self-pollinated. However, pollination is indeed possible and is more likely to produce viable seeds.
A plant from an apomictic seed will be true to its parent. A plant from a pollinated seed -- even from a self-pollinated flower -- might be a new hybrid or a reversion to an ancestral form. Hybrids and ancestral forms be better or worse than the parent plant.
There is no way to tell -- without expensive genetic testing -- to determine whether a citrus seed is apomictic or pollinated.
You can plant lots of seeds and only keep the ones that sprout 2 shoots. Half resulting the seedlings will be genetic clones of the mother plant. (I wonder if you can tell when of the 2 shoots is the clone while they are still attached to the seed)
Bob
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