Great so far so good - looks like you can try to plant all those baby tops so I'll give it a go. Now Waterbug, can you tell me what is the "ratoon sucker" that you left in the ground? I assume it's attached to the mother plant, so are you just leaving the mother plant in the ground and part of it will live, or how does that work? I'm trying to envision getting some decent production going in the future and what that looks like...
Thanks!

GOT IT! I'll just leave one then. Thanks again!

Thanks for responding! Sounds reasonable, but I'm so excited to see a fruit develop! lol. Maybe just one? I should mention that my husband is sure that it's taller than I think it is - closer to a meter tall. Maybe it's like 80cm? This is a photo:

Terrific thanks so much to both of you for sharing your experience and the photo. It's a pretty tree! Maybe 3 or even 4 meters would be better than 2...hmm...

going to try bumping this one more time to see if I can avoid opening a new thread...

Persian mulberries are indeed delicious, but unfortunately don't do well in tropical areas. There are only a few mulberries that do well in warm climates. So this is something to keep in mind when choosing your mulberry.

Which are the cultivars that do well in warm climates?

well that's pretty definitive! so I guess now we're on to, where does one find starfruit scions?

Are these for real? http://www.ebay.com/itm/WINDOWSILL-Citrus-tree-Mandarin-tree-Satsuma-MINIATURE-FOR-INDOOR-seeds-/171606120229?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_2&hash=item27f4859725

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Everbearing-Dwarf-Grapefruit-Rio-Red-citrus-paradisi-Self-fertile-Tree-SEEDS-/151516362936?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_2&hash=item23471438b8

Wow thank you so much I have been SCHOOLED! No seriously thanks a lot for taking the time to spell that out for me. Now I'll have to be on the lookout for great lemon and satsuma seeds. I won't be up north until the satsuma season is over - any ideas where I might score some seeds like, now?
Also, if the seeds are polyembryonic, do they send up various shoots? And if so, how do you know which is the clone you want to keep and which you should get rid of?

REALLY??
wow. mind blown. There goes my whole understanding of the universe! Why is it there so much contrary information out there?
Well now i have a million more questions. So then, how long is the wait for fruit usually, with tangerines (do satsumas grow true from seed???) and with grapefruit? I'm seeing between 3 and 12 years -that's a darn big range. and is oro blanco a true grapefruit or a pommelo?
I guess I'd only need a meyer cutting, if I go the seed route. This is really exciting. Thanks so much for educating me!

Just found this: "Key Limes are your earliest producer from seed, averaging 2-3 years. Your oranges, lemons, Persian limes, tangerines will be in the 5-7 year ballpark. The grapefruit and pomelo will be the longest, taking anywhere from 8-12 years." here: http://thecitrusguy.blogspot.com/2010/08/to-seed-or-not-to-seed.html. Would you second this?

Hi everyone! I live in Venezuela. We have limes. We have no lemons. People here don't even think lemons exist - they think they're unripe limes. I miss lemons! I tried having a rooted variegated pink lemon cutting sent here but it didn't survive the trip, and customs gave us a hard time - I don't think we could get away with it again. After 5+ years I'm finally going to be visiting the US in April and I thought this could be my chance to get one of those rooted cuttings and bring it down with me - it's so small I think I could get it in. But then I realized he can't ship to CA, which is where I'll be. So I'm stuck.
What I'd really like is a meyer lemon, or maybe variegated pink, or maybe both. I can't buy a grafted plant from a nursery in CA because it would be too big to bring back with me. I guess I could try bringing down scions and grafting them onto - onto what? Can you graft lemon onto lime rootstock? I have no experience with grafting citrus.
Does anyone know if there's someone rooting lemon cuttings in CA? Or have suggestions about obtaining scions/grafting? Or any other suggestions for me? I really want some lemons in my life! Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.
Zafra

Well this is a good start thank you Oscar. When you say "not very long", are we talking ten years or 30+ or...? I'm planning an edible forest and have to think not only in terms of space, but also time. It's amazing how little info there is about lifespan when you research these trees, at least the online sources I have access to. Often growth rate is mentioned, which might be useful because in some cases fast growing and precocious trees tend to be shorter lived, but that's hardly a reliable guide. Only when a tree is especially long lived, like the tamarind, is the issue addressed at all. Hmm...