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Growing Lemon Trees from Seeds

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Growing lemon trees from seeds is a fun project that you can do at home or with children in a science class. Use any type of lemon from the supermarket and plant the seeds. It’s that easy.

lemon tree July 2015

My lemon tree grown from a seed!

I’ve heard women say that they catch themselves sounding or acting like their mothers, especially when they’re around their children. As for me, I find myself channeling my father these days. My dad was an avid gardener who always had an experiment or two growing around the house. One year, he decided to try to grow ferns from spores. We had moist bricks lined up inside the greenhouse – yes, we had a greenhouse in our tiny urban yard! – and carefully tried to propagate the ferns. It took him several tries, but he managed it. He’d grab cuttings from the shrubs around the office park where he worked and try to grow new shrubs from the cuttings. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t, but we always had something weird going on in the greenhouse.
At the time it just seemed peculiar, but now when I look back, I’m grateful to have grown up with a parent who had an inquisitive, scientific mind.

Today I found myself channeling Dad. I was brewing up a pot of Jillian Michaels’ detox tea to sip while I worked. I like to put slices of fresh lemons in the cooled concoction; it adds sweetness without calories. I sliced up the lemon I had in the fridge, and squirted out a few seeds. Hmmn, I found myself thinking, what if I planted these?

Lemon-tree

Baby lemon trees

Growing Lemon Trees from Seeds

First off, understand that lemon trees won’t grow outside in my gardening zone in Virginia. Whatever I grow will live in my office. I imagine a jungle-like canopy spangled with bright lemons growing near the bookcase. My office is the warmest room in the house; it’s in the tower of our Victorian style home, and has windows facing east, south and west, which should be perfect for a lemon tree.
But…the Cooperative Extension websites I consulted for instructions on how to grow my seeds all indicate it can take up to 15 years to until the tree produces lemons. Fifteen years! I might be retired by then! Oh well.

When life hands you lemons…plant ’em.
It’s a fairly simple process to plant lemon seeds. 

  • Remove the seeds from the lemon and rinse them well. If pulp adheres to them, it might rot, which can kill the seedling.
  • Don’t let the seeds dry out! Plant them immediately.
  • Find a small pot and fill it with sterile potting soil. Moisten the soil.
  • Plant the seeds individually, one to a pot, about 1/2″ below the soil line.
  • Water well and cover the pot with a plastic bag or plastic wrap.
  • Place in the warmest spot you can find in the house.
  • Keep the soil moist until the seeds sprout.
While they don’t need light to germinate (just moisture and darkness), once the leaves emerge, they need bright sunlight.
I have no idea if they’ll grow, but I planted two seeds. They’re in pots in my office as I type this. My husband asked me what I’ll do with them once they grow big. I told him I hope my office fills up with a canopy of lemons and leaves. He just looked at me, shook his head, and laughed.

He knows me too well.

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