Certified citrus seed for growing your own rootstocks

Seed

Sowing your own rootstocks is the cheapest way to get plenty of plants to graft. During the sowing season we offer certified seed of the rootstocks we use at the nursery; out of season, each product page shows whether the seed is available.

Which seed to choose?

Poncirus trifoliata: the hardiest rootstock, for cool, heavy soils; slow growth in the first years.
Citrange C35: vigorous and easy to graft, ideal for clementines; seedlings vary, so sort them as they come up.
Citrumelo 4475: free-draining soils and dry climates; oranges and grapefruit.

Getting your sowing rightCitrus seed does not tolerate drying out: sow it as soon as it arrives, with warmth (around 25 °C), in a light compost. Most seedlings are true to the parent rootstock; discard those that are clearly different or weak when they come up.

Allow one to two years in pots before grafting, until the collar is roughly pencil-thick. Everything is explained step by step in our tutorials how to raise rootstocks from seed and how to grow your own rootstocks.

To save a season, take one-year or two-year bare-root Poncirus, or go straight for ready-to-graft rootstocks. Remember the rootstock labels: unlabelled seedlings are soon mixed up. To know which seed suits your soil: how to choose a rootstock.