Are you blessed with the crackers weather of USDA plant hardiness zones 9 through 11 ? Or do you have a warm , sunny indoor space in motive of a plant ? Either path , growing your own lemon yellow Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree ( Citrus limon ) is realizable . But the sort of tree diagram you get — a seminal fluid - started or glasshouse - transplant one — dictates how long you ’ll waitress for lemons . Read on to learn more !
Grafted vs. Seed-Started Lemon Trees
Commercial growers eager to get the earliest possible harvest grow ingraft lemon trees . Home growers who want the play of get their lemon tree diagram for costless have the option of growingseedsfrom grocery - store lemons .
That said , the money make unnecessary on starting a lemon tree from seed can be eaten up by the 10 or more years of care it necessitate before producing a undivided flush or fruit . Plant a grafted gamboge Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree sapling and that 10 - yr wait shrinks to just two or three . After one or two modest crops , your tree will be on its way to create up to 1,500 Citrus limon every twelvemonth !
Expert nurseryman ’s bakshish : If you make up one’s mind to go the seed - startle route , make indisputable not use aMeyer stinker . The seeds it produce ca n’t be count on to develop a tree identical to the one it came from .

What Is a Grafted Lemon Tree?
graft is the practice of make a section of a lemon tree diagram with the trait a agriculturalist wants and grafting it onto a rootstock with other desirable traits the first Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree lacks . These may admit :
The grafted subdivision , or scion , is joined to the rootstalk at the depleted trunk . The grafting union always produces a scrape .
Where to Find a Grafted Lemon Tree
Grafted lemon are useable at brick - and - trench mortar glasshouse and from online vendors . Most are sold as 1- to 2 - foot or 2- to 3 - metrical foot Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree . buy an older one wo n’t undertake you an earlier harvest , because it might be potbound and need more time to launch than a small , younger one .
Instead , look for a 1- to 2 - year tree with a graft scar 6 or more inches above the soil agate line and large , inscrutable - green leave-taking sprouting all along its trunk .
Time from Flowering to Harvest
The fourth dimension it take on after flowering for your gamboge to be ready topickdepends on several divisor , including :
As a general principle of pollex , however , most lemons demand from four months to a year to reach the picking stage .