Lemon seeds are encased in a tough seed coat that protects it from cool soil temperatures, insects that have made their way into the lemon, and soil-borne disease until it is ready to germinate. The time it takes for lemon seeds to germinate depends on temperature, soil quality, the state of the seed coat and the quality of the lemon seed itself.

1. Time

   • Lemon seeds may start to germinate while still inside the ripe lemon. Others take a few weeks to break the top of the soil. Scarified seeds -- seeds with the seed coat scratched, cut or removed completely -- may germinate in as little as two days.

   Temperature and Light

   • Lemon seeds do not germinate in cold temperatures; it is a tropical to subtropical tree. Most will germinate in temperatures between 20 and 26°C. Likewise, they germinate in sun to partial shade, so two to three hours per day of direct sunlight helps encourage germination. The roots do not develop in sunlight, so if they are germinated on paper towels for later transplant, for example, the roots should be covered or otherwise sheltered from direct sunlight.

   Moisture

   • Lightly damp soil or paper towels keep the lemon seed moist enough to soften the seed coat and support seedling development. Too much moisture can encourage fungus or deprive the seed of much-needed oxygen, and the seedling will "drown." Light soil with composted organic matter works well to provide this balanced, wet-sponge moisture level for germinating lemon seeds.

I am sure it works with all citrus seeds,GOOD LUCK in GROWING THEM UP.

Lemon seed germination

After 3 weeks

An easy and effective way to germinate lemon seeds

If you want to grow your own lemon tree, come join the Lemon tree give-away! 

So you want to grow your own lemon trees from seed? In this post I'll teach you the procedure I followed to easily germinate apple seeds at home. You can also trystrawberry seed germination, pineapple seed germination, tomato seed germination, cotton seed germination, apple seed germination and now ginger germination. More to come next spring!

You can see see how the lemons grew in around 3 weeks after planting and you can also see how the lemon tree looks after two years.

Lemon seeds turned out to be harder to germinate than apple, or any other seed I have tried (except cherry and peach, I had no success with them)... Before I found the trick. Last year, without it I just got a lemon seedling, from 8 seeds coming from the same lemon: it was the seed which was scratched by the knife after slicing it. This year I got 4/5 seedlings from 7 seeds, and it could have been 7, but I barely missed. What did I do? I got 7 seeds from a lemon, and treated them diferently:

• Peeled the first coating of 2
• Peeled completely 2
• Left 2 as they were
• Discarded 1 too small

To peel it, use a cutter and do it carefully. The first layer will come of quite easily (if you don't cut yourself), the second too, but beware of damaging (a scratch or two is OK) the inner seed. In the following picture you can see 2 seeds peeled, 2 first-coating removed seeds and 3 as they were, after this a half peeled one, and a completely peeled seed.

3 different treatments

 
Here you can see (a piece) of the first coating removed in the left
and all the coating removed on the right.

I put them over a wet paper towel in a sealed plastic container, in almost full sun (around 3 hours of full sun, full light in the day). The peeled ones started to turn green in just 2 days.

2-3 days: turns green and opens

After around 10 days, the completely peeled ones had "opened" (see picture above), started to grow a very small root and the untreated ones were mouldy. I discarded them, waited 3 days more and removed the last layer of the remaining two. After a day, they started to turn slightly green... but the roots of my first two were not developing. My conclusion: they got enough water as they were, and enough energy from the sun to work. I covered them by folding over the wet paper to avoid this process. After around 7 days they developed a nice root, which grew slowly. Now, after 3 more days I'm planting them, as they start to grow a little offshot.

 

Steps:

• Remove coating of the seeds
• Put in wet paper towel (completely covered), inside a plastic bag in a warm place
• Wait!
• Plant them

 
In 2-3 weeks

 See more here: http://plants.mostlymaths.net/2010/07/lemon-seed-germination.html