[LittleRedHen]

I grew my own lemon tree from a seed and now it is about three feet tall.  I still don't have any flowers though.  Does anyone know how long it takes for these trees to flower for the first time?  I see them in the shops and they have lemons on them and alot smaller than my tree.   

[sunshineband]

When you grow a lemon from seed you never know the variety: thos you see in the shops are bred to flower when they are small, but lemons you buy usually come from full sized trees.

Having said that, if you restrict the root grwoth by ensuring the tree is not in too big a pot, and feed with  either citrus fertiliser or tomato fertiliser at half strength, it might trigger flower buds.

Lemon trees can take eavy pruning so it is easy to keep them to the shape you want, but look carefully so you don't cut off any buds --- they usually look purple when they are small.

Hope that helps -- other people may offer other ideas as well.

Good luck 

[SG6]

Most lemons are grown on a rootstock. Otherwise they take a long time to flower and bear fruit. Spoke to someone at the citrus centre they mentioned 20+ years for a pip grown tree. 

So I would count it as an evergreen indoor bush/tree and not expect anything from it.

I also had a lemon from a pip it was about 12-15 years and never a flower on it.

[LittleRedHen]

AAAAAhhhhhhh!!!! 20 Years?      I guess I'll be taking it to the old age pensioners' home with me!  LOL!  Oh well, at least it's healthy!  Thank you all so much for your advise!

[SG6]

It's a shame as they are easy to grow from seed and if they would flower/fruit in say 5-7 years then it would be something to look forward to.

I seem to recall a company I worked at many years ago had a pip grown grapefruit at the top of some stairs. Apparently it was 20-25 years old, it certainly was a good sized bush, over 5ft, and it had never flowered.

[LittleRedHen]

I grew lime trees at home from pips and they flowered and gave fruit very quickly.  Oh well, live and learn!  I saw a lemon tree - you could tell it was graphed - at the garden centre yesterday and they wanted £30 for it!

[SG6]

I have a lime from the citrus centre, growing OK just a little bushy and I would prefer it to be a bit more tree like.

Haven't seen a pip in a lime for some time, if I do I will plant it. Have a cheese cake recipe for a one.