It is very possible for citrus to have incomplete flowers. They do not just produce male or female. I would think it is rare for all the flower to be this way though. It very well could be because it is a seedling. I have no evidence or literature to support that but seedlings are a crap shoot as to what you get.

Just keep it happy and maybe one day it will surprise you.

Thank you for answering!

However, all flowers always seem to look like this. And it has been blossoming for about 8-9 years now, so it seems as if something must be wrong for it not to fruit after all of this time.

I know this is a tricky situation. I wish I could find literature about such a thing, but I cannot at all.

Thanks again! Christy

I'm not sure why your tree does not produce complete flowers. I assume the problem is genetic. However, it is very simple for your tree set a nice crop of fruit every year. The shame is that you have gone without fruit for so many years when their was no need too. All that is required is spray the tree with a 10 PPM gibberellic acid solution while the tree is in bloom.. Gibberelic acid is available at many agricultural supply stores, or can be readily purchased on E- bay. The use of gibberellic acid is among one of the most common applications in the citrus industry.

the parent tree could have been a hybrid that produced sterile seedlings.

do you know if any other seedlings from that parent tree has set fruit to maturity?

Never heard of gibberellic acid solution. Very interesting! What does it actually do? It figures, because it is actually in bloom right now. I wonder if I could get it before it finishes blooming.

As for the parent tree, all of what I know was that the parent was a tree that came over on the boat from Italy when their relatives come to the USA, sometime around the 1910-early 1920's. The tree was over 80 years old back when I got this tree, so I would say that the tree (if still alive) would be 100 years old or so.

I do not know how many hybrids they had back then in Italy? From what I remember, the lemons were huge as grapefruits, and I would compare it to today's Ponderosa. It came from Avellino, Italy.

As for my tree, it is a good 15 years old or more. I got it around 1996-1997, and it was already a few years old when it was given to me.

I do not know about any other seedlings unfortunately. Are there such varieties that produce sterile seed? Is it missing its female parts?

Here are pics of the tree just a few minutes ago

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I have an Eustis Limequat, that I purchased WITH fruit and now when it blooms it has the same empty blossoms, though it blooms A LOT. In 6 months it only bore one fruit, but it didn't last too long. So....

There is no need to worry about a parent tree being a hybrid when you are talking about citrus. Hybridization, does not effect citrus due to parthenocarpy, plus citrus produce nucellar embryony. The zygote embryo is almost always squeezed out by the nucellar embryo, or in many cases nucellar embryos. Concerning Gibberellic acid, not only is it used on citrus,it is also used in the cultivation of table grapes, strawberries, cherries, plus way too many additional fruits and flowers to list here. When used on citrus, gibberellic acid acts as a synthetic "pollinator", producing seedless fruit. In fact, gibberellic acid is how all clementine mandarins are "pollinated" resulting in the production of seedless fruit.

here's a few links that might help id your lemon tree.

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/citrus/msg1010255830334.html

http://users.kymp.net/citruspages/lemons.html

http://www.ehow.com/list_6144448_italian-lemon-tree-types.html

HI everyone!

I know this post is from last year, but it made more sence to just pull it up instead of making a new one.

OK! My lemon tree currently is full of a lot of closed blooms for the first real time since this post. I have taken the suggestion here to purchase some Gebberillic Acid, However, I have never used it before, so I was hoping to get some tips on what to do with it.

Suggested here, is 10ppms. To make 10ppms according to the directions I have, I use this teeny tiny scoop (which is 110mg) and melt the powder in a few drops of alcohol, then mix in 10 liters of water (which seems like a lot of water to me)

Once I mix it, do I apply it to the whole tree or just the blooms?

Do I wait until the blooms are open or start now while they are closed?

How often should I re-apply?

When the blooms are open, should I apply directly into the bloom and how?

Since it seems to make a lot of solution, how long does it stay good for?

Thanks again for the help! It will be so awesome to be able to update this with some fruit pics finally after all of these years!

CHristy

Most citrus produce some such sterile flowers, and the proportion varies with the variety. Although I've never heard of a completely sterile variety, it probably is possible that a hybrid seedling could have such a defect. More likely is that some normal flowers will be produced as the tree matures.
Unfortunately, I don't think gibberellic acid will help. If the flowers have no ovule to start with, then no method of assisting pollination will succeed in forming fruit.
The very large 'lemons' grown in Italy are in fact Citrons (Citrus medica), or Lemon X Citron hybrids.

Wow. Maybe since its from seed its just not fruitful? Im sure in all the millions of slim chances that there could be a tree from seed that could end up like this? But fear not! You could be on to something...

If it never produces fruit you just found a perfect companion plant for people who love the smell of lemon blossoms but dont want to deal with the fruit!! The perfect smelling tree that does not produce fruit! Good and bad I guess it is in the eye of the beholder:-)

I would send in a sample to UCR and tell them you just patented a new variety and want it named after you!

Sorry I did not reply back sooner. We had to leave the state last minute due to a family illness and we just got back.

Well, I tried the g acid anyway because I already have it. However, I do not think it is going to work. The blossoms are dropping and none of them show any sign of being pollinated.

Sorry for the dumb question, and I am sure I will get it when you tell me, but who are UCR? You really think they would be interested in a lemon tree that blossoms without fruit? IT does bloom profusely, and smells the best out of all of my citrus.

I just wish I could of seen those lemons again :(

The tree is very big, and since I am in NJ, I have to lug it in the house every winter. ANd since it is so big, it never gets enough light, even with supplemental light. It usually loses most of its leaves in the winter and saps all over. But it always grows back profusely once it goes outside for the spring.

I have alot of other citrus, so it is not like I am not used to this, but all my other citrus are dwarf varieties and small compared to this tree. But this tree is sentimental, and the first citrus I ever owned.

Anyway, thanks for the help. Christy

UCR is the University of California in Riverside. I dont know if they would really be interested but it sounds like you have a very lovely tree. I do think quite a bit of people would be interested in a lemon blossom tree that did not fruit just to have it for the look and smell. I love the way lemon trees smell too!

My Etrog (Citrus Medica) tree is doing this same thing, no female parts on the flowers so no fruit. Could it be missing some nutrient it needs? A pic is attached.. you can only see the pollen filled anthers there doesn't seem to be anything else on it. Ideas?

Aktie did you have any success with these incomplete flowers?

@David G, no they are still not complete flowers on this tree. Turns out it's also not an Etrog, like from the Jewish religion & culture. It's from the Island of Corsica off of France. The lemon of Industry.

I've grown about 50 Etrog trees from seed; about 3 years old. A handful of them have started blossoming but no stigma seen yet. Hope they start producing complete flowers soon.

Absence of the female part of the flower (stigma) is simply a sign of immaturity.. if that is 10 or 15 years for your seedling, you just have to accept that and wait.

I also have the same problem with the blossoms. We planted a seed 4 yrs ago from a ponderosa lemon picked from someone's tree. It's a potted, indoor tree (northern climate). What I understand from reading the comments is my tree is still immature. And that is good to know considering we are all surprised that the tree has actually produced blossoms! Today I noticed something new near the blossoms, there are little drops of liquid. Is this normal or something I need to worry about? We've come so far with this, we'd really love to try to fruit from it.

Thanks for any help!!!

@Tracey Fry, this looks just like my tree! The droplets of water I believe are collected to make perfumes, likely they press the whole flower bud and those droplets too. I believe they are coming from the interior flower. Once the flower blooms and doesn't set fruit pull it all apart you will see what I'm saying. I have done this to the ones that are not female & male, but simply male flower parts and there are little water droplets or sticky secretions inside the flower, towards the bottom where fruit should have been. OK this is a second post or the first post about this on my Etrog tree (citron) that I have been having issues with. I forgot to update this thread as well. I now am seeing flowers that are fully functional on my citron. I am watching fruit begin on it now. So far I have 4 flowers that are setting fruit. I will grab pics & upload them from my other computer's hard drive in a few.

@aktie How exciting! I'll keep my fingers crossed that you get fruit soon!