Strangest grapefruit tree question ever....

Question

I live in New York. I am moving to Florida as soon as my house sells. I was eating a grapefruit one day about a year ago, and thought what a cool thing it would be to plant the seeds. Knowing that I would be moving to Florida soon, I thought - what the heck. Now I have 5 grapefruit trees, each about 1 1/2 feet tall. The weird thing is that 4 of them have no branches! One of them has 1 branch coming off the trunk. I've never grown a grapefruit tree before so I don't know if this is normal for its height - will it eventually sprout branches or is something wrong? I also started an orange tree this way. Its only about 2 inches tall, but has branches - or what appear to be branches. What do you think? Also, I've heard that growers somehow treat their trees so that the seeds in the fruit that it produces will be sterile. Does that mean that they'll grow but not produce fruit, or does that mean that the seed won't sprout at all?

Answer 1

Citrus grown from seed are different and you can never be sure what your going to get.Citrus in Florida is not grown from seed, rather grafted or budded.The top of the tree is different from the bottom(roots or rootstock) It starts by planting a seed, then after a year or so a bud from a desirable variety is inserted into the bark of the seedling.This bud grows into the top of the tree that produces the fruit.They pick root stocks that have special characteristics like disease resistant,quick to bear fruit or restrict the size of the tree for easy harvest.So depending on the variety of your trees, they may or may not produce the same type orange or grapefruit you started with.