I think I've heard 3 to 5 years, but I've also heard that seeds from store-bought avocados are typically hybrids that will not bear fruit, and also that some avocado trees are bisexual while others are monosexual (or whatever the word is), i.e. with some types of trees you need at least one male tree to fertilize the female trees, and only the female trees will bear fruit. I've got an avocado tree that's less than a year old growing in a container, and it's only about a foot and a half tall, so we'll see what happens with it - at least it's attractive even if it doesn't bear fruit.

Thanks, hoosier, for corroborating what I gathered together from different areas of the internet to do with my Hass--info I was a little insecure I was getting right or not. I'm in Redlands, CA. The tree is on a corner lot right out in the sun. I have everything but the sloped spot, but my yard is raised about 8" from the sidewalk (the whole house is on a slope). I'm going to post a question about how to prune it since it's getting a little sparse. (Unless I can post that here?) But it did flower this spring. I need the pollinator in a pot because I don't have the room for it to go in the ground, and I'm using my back yard for a miniature orchard (it's still in infancy). I'm going to be at capacity once I get the pollinator going. Ha. ;) If anyone doesn't mind answering, my Hass is about 7ft tall and isn't so bushy this year. One side has about a 3.5ft area on the upper half where no branches are growing (one broke off during transport home). I like the over all shape, but the branches near the trunk need more leaves and I'd like to start a branch on that empty section. I fertilized one month ago with Kellog's Organic fert for fruit trees. Any ideas if you don't mind?

Key Lime will come true-to-type from seed and may flower in as little as 2-3 years, with good care. Calamondin, perhaps not available at the grocery but maybe from a friend, can also bear from seed in a couple years. Lemons would take longer, and would likely be too big to grow inside the house before they bore their first flowers and fruit, but you could do that by growing a lemon seedling, then as the plant is approaching the ceiling, take a cutting or air layer from the top and using it to replace your original plant. That way the plant "thinks" it's getting taller, whereas you're actually keeping it shorter than the ceiling height. Oranges and grapefruit could be done the same way, but will take even more years (at least 8 for grapefruit; at least 10 for oranges, and that's under ideal conditions), and you'd likely have to go through at least 2-3 cutting/air layer cycles. Your Clementine seeds may flower in 3-4 years, but again, you may have to propagate from the top and so not end up with the original plant. Almost any other citrus that makes pollen (Tahiti/Bearss lime and navel oranges do not) could be used as a pollen source for it.

What hasn't been mentioned here is that those of you who buy seeds or receive them in a trade usually have no idea of what the seed age is, and all things being equal as to how you sow your seeds in what artificial mix, when and how you transplant them after they have 1-2 true leaves, what you transplant them to, how you grow them on, any amendment used, etc. there WILL be differences in germination percentages, count on it, based on seed age alone. One example. I used to make seed offers here at GW and offered several hundred varieties at a time. And I asked for feedback on germination percentages. These were my own saved seeds so I knew exactly what year the seed was produced. Well I remember that I made a seed offer here in late Fall of 2004 and I was offering seeds with ages from 1995 and up, having offered seeds from 1991 to 1994 in a previous seed offer. Let's say variety X was offered, seed fresh from the summer of 2004 and germinated the very next Spring. For a single variety I got back reports where folks got from 100% germination down to zero, that's right, zero germination, with most being in the 80-90% range. Which says that if 10 folks sow seeds of the same variety from the same supplier with the same packed for date, or even known seed age, there could be a HUGE range of results. And the packed for date only tells you when the seeds were packed, not when they were produced. The only place I know of where ALL tomato seeds sold are less than 2 yo is Sandhill Preservation. Seeds being sold by commercial places will have different seed ages for different varieties as they rotate out and replace seed as needed and some but not all places do germination tests before they sell the seeds. So I agree with the others who have posted about the fact that there's no way to know how many seeds will germinate or how many will grow into great plants in the garden and bear well. But when it comes to seed starting I tend to agree with Randy that you should oversow. He says 4 seeds to get one good seedling, and I agree. I usually sow 5 seeds for each variety to get two good plants to the garden. There are just so many variables that enter into all of this that it makes no sense to me to skimp on how many seeds/variety one sows. Is oversowing, as some define it, wasteful? I dunno, I don't 'think so as all of us sit in front of our not cheap computers with added software, etc, and spend on this and that,etc., but do have priorities when it comes to how we spend our money. I don't buy tomato seed b'c it comes to me, and I won't trade tomato seed either, except for certain situations, but I know, knowing me, that oversowing a few seeds for anything I don't consider to be wasteful and that's because gardening is my life and my love. And if it's considered wasteful to use more seeds than some think necessary then save your own seeds. Go to the top of this first page, click on the FAQ link and scroll down to the excellent article on how to prevent Cross pollination. Whether it's a waste of money to try and ensure that you have enough good transplants to set out that you hope the critters and diseases and all else don't get them is, I think, a decision that each person has to make depending on what their goals and expectations are for growing tomatoes. Carolyn, who gulps at the prices of some seeds these days but she wants her Savor F1 melons and will pay the price. She does think that some sources for tomato seed have prices she would never ever pay, as in too expensive, and here I speak of OP, not F1 hybrid varieties, but again,it really is a personal choice what one pays for seeds/plants of anything. And a personal choice as to how many seeds of anything are to be planted. With experience some of these questions are answered, so it pays to get older and wiser re gardening in terms of experience. Yes, I'm on the downside of the life cycle, but still hanging in there.LOL