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From: ems@amdahl.UUCP (E. Michael Smith)
Newsgroups: net.garden
Subject: Re: growing grapefruit
Message-ID: <1171@amdahl.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 20-Feb-85 19:46:57 EST
Article-I.D.: amdahl.1171
Posted: Wed Feb 20 19:46:57 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 21-Feb-85 01:41:51 EST
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Organization: Amdahl Corp, Sunnyvale CA
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> Help! I am trying to grow a grapefruit from seed,

Citrus does not 'come true' when grown from seed.  That is, you will
get a plant, but it may or may not represent the parent stock.
If you intend the grapefruit to be eaten, buy a commercial grafted plant.

>                                                   but it has stopped
> growing, and has a serious lack of leaves (two to be exact).
> I started growing it over 8 months ago, but it is only 4 inches high
> and has two leaves, 3/4 of an inch long! What an I doing wrong?
> Does anyone know what growing conditions a grapefruit needs? lots of
> water, very little? sunlight, shade? fertilizer? what??
> 
I am not an expert, but the citrus I have seen do well was growing in
plenty of soil (very large tub or in the ground) in a sunny area with
plenty of fertilizer.  In particular it needs Iron to maintain a good
green color.  Get a commercial citrus fertilizer mix.  Make sure the
plant is well watered, but do not overwater.  They are a warm, dry
climate plant.

You may not be doing anything wrong, it might just be that the plant
is a dwarf.  I would suspect a shortage of sun and fertilizer though...