Subject: Propagating lemon trees from cuttings?

From: [email-masked] (Marilyn H. Fetterman)
Date: Tue, 11 Apr 1995 20:22:28

In February I took cuttings from a lemon tree, dipped the ends in Rootone, put 
each cutting in moist, sterile sand and enclosed each in a plastic bag.  Not 
noticing any external evidence of growth and getting rather impatient three 
weeks ago, I inspected one and there was no evidence of root formation.  Two 
weeks ago I checked another and yesterday, the third---nothing.

The cuttings were all green ends of branches with leaves.  The leaves still 
look fine but I am starting to wonder if these cutting will ever root.  

Any advice will be most welcome.  The lemons from this tree are huge, larger 
than grapefruit, with rough skins. 

BTW, if an expert on citrus varieties reads this posting, I am also trying to 
identify and get seeds (or a cutting) from a type of lemon I only know of as 
"rough lemon."  These lemons are the size of large oranges, rough textured, 
and do not taste as acidic as regular lemons.  The only place I have ever seen 
them is in Eastern Equatoria Province of the Southern Sudan, where Italian 
missionaries planted the trees in the 1940s.

Marilyn H. Fetterman
[email-masked]

---

From: [email-masked] (Julian Cuevas)
Date: 13 Apr 1995 23:11:16 GMT

Marilyn H. Fetterman ([email-masked]) wrote:
: In February I took cuttings from a lemon tree, dipped the ends in Rootone, put 
: each cutting in moist, sterile sand and enclosed each in a plastic bag.  Not 
: noticing any external evidence of growth and getting rather impatient three 
: weeks ago, I inspected one and there was no evidence of root formation.  Two 
: weeks ago I checked another and yesterday, the third---nothing.

: The cuttings were all green ends of branches with leaves.  The leaves still 
: look fine but I am starting to wonder if these cutting will ever root.  

: Any advice will be most welcome.  The lemons from this tree are huge, larger 
: than grapefruit, with rough skins. 

: BTW, if an expert on citrus varieties reads this posting, I am also trying to 
: identify and get seeds (or a cutting) from a type of lemon I only know of as 
: "rough lemon."  These lemons are the size of large oranges, rough textured, 
: and do not taste as acidic as regular lemons.  The only place I have ever seen 
: them is in Eastern Equatoria Province of the Southern Sudan, where Italian 
: missionaries planted the trees in the 1940s.

: Marilyn H. Fetterman
: [email-masked]

Rough lemon is a quite common rootstock for several citrus species. You 
can find it elsewhere. Ask some nurseries specilized in Citrus. BTW I 
don't think you can\may\want to eat its fruits. Citrus propagation: most of 
the citrus are propagated by grafting (mainly for commercial purposes), 
but at least some of them may be also propagated by rooting. During my 
years of graduate student I compared rooting ability of several 
rootstocks and scions and I can still remember huge differences between 
species. I'm not sure, but it's possible that lemon would be a 
hard-rooting species. I'll try to confirm it for you. Good luck, anyway.