Kibkom North Cyprus Forum

Could I grow a tree from lemon pips easily?

Yes, but the quality of the fruit will be uncertain. Firstly, lemon trees are grafted on to wild citrus rootstock for vigour and drought resistance etc. Secondly, it would be uncertain what kind of pollination had taken place on the plant which produced your pip, you could end with fruits that are nothing like the parent plant. Stick to buying a tree from a garden centre, preferably when it actually has a couple of fruits on it so you can be certain what you are getting.

The pips should certainly grow but whether they will grow into a decent tree depends totally on which lemon variety it is - some will and some won't. If it starts growing but doesn't do much you will have to graft it onto root stock.

You would need to get advice from a local as to what root stocks are best for Cyprus but usually it would be some fruit tree (not necessarily lemon or even citrus) that is hardy to the climate here. Do that now so you can plant some seeds for root stock at the same time then, if you decide to graft, you will have rootstock to hand. The lemon variety will stay true to the original pips after grafting. By choosing the type of root stock you can also predict the eventual size of the tree which will be dictated by the root stock rather than the lemon.

If you already have a suitable tree in your garden you can even cut off a branch and graft the lemon in its place - thus you could get oranges and lemons growing on the same tree.

I ha a wonderful tree in my previous house garden it was a Meyer lemon huge fruits and so juicy. The owners are now removing it but I have some pips.

If anyone sees a Meyer tree in a garden center please let me know I have looked around but have not seen one.

I Googled "meyer lemon from seed" and there are a lot of articles there that all suggest Meyer will grow true from seed and fruit after 4 years eventually reaching 2-3 metres height.

Sounds like you should give it a go and those articles give lots of tips for cultivation.

Thank you.

We're growing two grapefruit trees from pips. We have been advised that all citrus trees here are grafted on to bitter orange stems. We will see if ours come to anything, they are in an area which gets watered anyway.