Growing Lime Trees from Seed (A Beginner’s Guide)Growing Lime Trees from Seed (A Beginner’s Guide)

Growing lime trees from the seed is a simple task. In any case, like wrapped candy, you have no idea what you will get. By growing lime trees from the seed, you are playing with genes, and you aren’t guaranteed to get the same variety as the parent plant.

Growing lime trees from the seed is a fun experiment to try, but you better be a patient farmer because it can take anywhere from 8-10 years for the tree to bear fruit. That is if it ever does.

As expected, the baby limes you find in the nursery are grafted or propagated from stem cutting and rarely ever by germinating from the seed. Growing lime trees from the seed is not famous amongst gardeners because it takes forever to wait for fruit. After all, some limes are seedless.

Even if the limes had seeds because most lime varieties are poly-embryonic, what are the odds that the plant from the seed will be anything close to the parent plant? Slim, very slim.

Do limes have seeds?

Majority of lime varieties are seeded. However, most store-bought limes are seedless. This is as a result of early harvesting of commercial limes to increase shelf life.

If you harvest limes for sale before they fully ripen, the seeds will not have fully developed. Also, the most commercial limes, the Tahiti and Bearss lime varieties are seedless.

All limes, apart from the most famous ones, the Persian limes, have seeds. Just because lime has seeds doesn’t mean that the seeds are viable. Most of the limes at your grocery were harvested young. It means that even though they might have seeds, the chances are that those seeds are infertile.

If you want to grow limes from the seed, your best choice is to get seeds at your farmers’ outlet or nursery. If you have a seed-bearing tree like the Key lime or Kaffir lime, you should wait to harvest until the fruit fully ripens. That way, you can be sure that the lime seeds are ready at the time of harvesting.

How to grow lime trees from seed

Growing lime trees from seed is an easy process that doesn’t require much expertise as long as the seeds you have are viable. Before you grow limes from the seed, please remember that nothing is guaranteed.

You might end up with a juicy lime tree or a thorny bush variety or even nothing. It is always better to plant many seeds at once if some fail to germinate, which they will.

Do you want to grow a lime from the seed, for fun, science, or ABCD reasons? In that case, look below for a step-by-step guide on how to grow lime trees from the seed.

The 7 step-by-step-guide on growing lime trees from the seed 

Step 1: Buying or extracting the seeds

The very first step in growing lime trees from the seed is acquiring the seeds. You can buy the seeds for instance from your horticultural supplies outlet or trusted online sellers.

However, sometimes you may be lucky and have seeded lime fruits. In that case, extract the seeds.

The processes of seed extraction from a lime fruit

• Slice the fruit in a biased half. Don’t slice right in the middle, or you might cut some seed. Lime seeds are soft and delicate. The seed will not grow, if you damage it.
• Squeeze the juice into a container, and the seeds will come out with the juice.
• Remove the seeds from the container.

Step 2: Cleaning and drying the seeds

As soon as you extract the seeds from the fruit or after you buy the seed, wash the seeds by placing them under running water then rinsing.

After you are satisfied with washing, use the paper towel method for drying. The paper towel method is placing the seeds on clean paper towels and bloating all the water out.

Place your seeds on a clean, dry surface or container.

Step 3: Peeling the outer cover of the seed (optional)

This step is 100% optional; you don’t need to peel the outer coating on the seeds. But because experts say it fastens germination, you might want to peel the seeds.

Other scientists believe that removing the seed doesn’t make much difference. It’s up to you. You could try an experiment and have peeled and half unpeeled to decide for yourself.

Step 4: Germinating the seed

After prepping the seeds, there are two primary germinating methods, the damp paper towel method and planting the seed straight away in a seedbed.

• The damp paper towel method of germinating lime seeds involves using a wet clean paper towel wetted with spring or distilled water.
• In this method, firstly, you put the seeds in the paper towel and put the damp towel with seeds in a clean Ziploc bag and lock.
• After about a week, the seeds should have germinated and ready to transfer to a seedbed.
• You plant the seeds in a seedbed directly and spritz some water and soil in the other method.
• Lastly, mist the soil daily and after a week, the seeds should have germinated.

You can use whichever germinating method you prefer.

Step 5: Potting soil prep or buying potting soil

In order to save time, prepare the potting mix at the time of baby lime germination. The germination process often lasts for a couple of weeks, don’t panic. Alternatively, if you can, skip the step and buy a ready-made potting mix.

The majority of farmers use DIY potting mixes of 80% compost soil and 20% garden soil. Others use peat moss, perlite, and compost mixture.

Suppose you are spoilt for choice concerning which potting mix recipe to use. In that case, use the potting soil mix recipe that is convenient for you. Provided, the mix contains all the vital nutrients that limes require for healthy growth.

Step 6: Transplanting

After the seedlings have grown and the root system establishes, you can transplant the seedling into growing pots.

It is crucial that you start by gradually acclimatizing the plant to the final destination conditions. After that, transfer the plant to the destination where you want the it to grow, in order to reduce transplant shock.

Step 7: Post-planting care when growing lime trees from seed

It is imperative to periodically and take care of your plant even after you successfully transplant the lime tree. Try the following practices below for the best results.

• The environment in which you live determines how often you water the soil. Nonetheless, the general rule of thumb is to water once or twice a week. However, if live in hot and dry weather, you may have to water more. In contrast, if you live in wet and mild weather, you need to water less.
• Secondly, always fertilize with slow-release fertilizer or citrus food thrice a year, or as per the manufacturer’s instructions.
• Thirdly, prune once or twice a year, however, never in winter, unless you notice a diseased branch.
• Fourthly, hand pollinate, especially for indoor-grown that plants
• Lastly, ensure that your lime tree gets adequate but not scorching sunlight.

Growing lime trees without seeds

Assuming you want to grow a seedless lime variety for instance the Persian limes. In addition, even some seed-bearing lime varieties sometimes have infertile and immature seeds in them.

In other words, there will be times when it isn’t possible to grow lime trees from the seed. What do farmers do in such scenarios? In that case, cloning will save the day.

To grow limes without seeds, you can use cloning and grafting technologies. 

Cloning

Many farmers have two cloning methods. You clone from a stem cutting or air layer.

From stem cuttings

To grow a lime tree from a stem cutting, you need to identify the parent plant’s best twig. The most suitable branch;

• Are 4-6 inches length
• Disease and pest free
• Has active buds
• Under a year old

After acquiring the most suitable branch, you prep the branch by removing all the leaves apart from the top 2 or 3 leaves. You need to;

• Flat cut the leaves or cut them into a diamond shape by two cuts.
• Apply the rooting hormone (rooting powder) at the side, cut from the branch, and plant in potting mix.
• Cover it with a clear plastic bag to create greenhouse conditions in the setup.
• After 5-8 weeks when the roots have developed on the planted end, transplant into the garden or gardening pot as a new plant.

By air layering

Air layering involves inducing root growth on a branch while it is still attached to the parent plant.

• You need to identify the branch to the air-layer. Look for a node below the leaves and a few nodes away from the trunk’s attachment point on the chosen branch.
• Make two cuts, one at the node near the leaves and the next at the node towards the central trunk before the node you chose. Be careful not to cut through the cambium. The cuts should only go through the bark.
• After making the two cuts remove the bark and scar the cambium a little bit. Apply rooting hormone around the node you selected.
• After applying the rooting hormone, cover the open area with dump fertilized soil, and cover it with a clear plastic bag.
• Tie the plastic bag ends with a strong thread and wait until you start to see roots developing through the clear bag. Once you see roots, prune at the second node you cut.
• Remove the plastic bag and plant the rooted stem in a gardening pot or garden as a new plant.

Grafting

Grafting involves attaching a bud wood from the desired lime variety onto a selected rootstock. It is advisable to graft in spring when the bark is soft enough to extract bud wood.

After selecting bud wood or a scion from the parent, you attach it to a selected rootstock and secure it with grafting tape.

After a one or so, if the bud wood or the scion is alive, it means that the grafting was successful. Let the grafted plant grow about 4 inches of new growth before you transplant it. 

Many gardeners will go for cloning and grafting technologies in instances when growing the seed isn’t possible. Farmers prefer these other propagation methods for various reasons.

Growing lime trees from seed vs. vegetative propagation (cloning & grafting

1. Lime trees produced by growing from seed limes take longer to mature.

Grated and cloned limes have their parent plant’s maturity; if the parent plant is 15 years old, the baby grafted or cloned plant is 15 years old. In contrast, seed grown limes start from age zero at germination.

A 15-year-old, by all logic, will reach maturity before the lime at zero years old.

2. Lime trees produced by growing from seed have a more pronounced citrusy flavor.

A few lime enthusiasts have reported that seed grown limes are tangier and have a more pronounced citrusy scent.

3. Lime trees produced by growing form seed are thornier.

Many varieties have been crossed and bred over many years to be less thorny or thorn-less for easy harvesting and care.

As mentioned earlier, you don’t know what variety you will get from the seed. Purportedly, many seeds produced limes are thornier than cloned or grafted limes.

4. In seeded varieties, limes grown from the seed have seedier fruits.

People have domesticated limes to be juicer than seedy. You may grow a tree a few generations back, seedier, and sourer by growing from the seed.

5. Lime trees produced by growing from seed and cloned limes can grow to full tree heights, unlike grafted trees.

Unless you restrict root growth by planting pots that limit tree height, seed-grown plants will grow to full tree height.

It is different for grated trees since lime trees are grafted on dwarf rootstocks most of the time.

FAQs

Final thoughts

While growing limes from the seed is a long and tedious process, it is a fun-filled venture that every gardening enthusiast should try.