Tiny Citrus Trees (Kumquats? Bonsai?)

Just curious - does anyone have any experience with small (under 2ft/0.6m, or even under 1ft/0.3m) citrus trees?

I bought some kumquats at the grocery store recently and I'm currently trying to sprout the seeds - given the small, grape-like size of the fruit, I thought it could be fun to try growing indoors as my zone is too cold to have any citrus outdoors.

I really like your idea for a kumquat bonsai.

I have seen pictures of bonsai vegetable gardens.  They are cool.

My reluctance is that I don't know how to bonsai which seems labor intensive to me.

I just listened to this podcast with owner of Logee's Greenhouse, Byron Martin, that was mostly about growing citrus as a houseplant.  It wasn't super informative but he did have a few interesting tidbits.  I don't remember kumquats being mentioned but I think he did talk about some varieties that were naturally smaller.  It sounds like any variety can be kept small with pruning as he says citrus in general responds well even to heavy pruning.

https://awaytogarden.com/edible-houseplants-growing-citrus-with-logees-byron-martin/

I've though about doing this with key limes. I have one I grew from seed outside that got around 3 feet tall before getting citrus greening disease. The thing with key limes and certain other varieties less common in the west is that the leaves also taste like lime. It could be kept small in a greenhouse or possibly even grown as a micro green. The new leaves are delicate and are like natures breath strips. They could also be grown for fruit and appear to have a much shorter time from flowering to fruit ripening. I'd imagine that is mostly due to the very small fruit size.

The only time I got proper fruit set before the tree got diseased it was hardly 2 feet tall, so as long as it gets enough sun it can work. I had repotted it in early spring and it immediately put on flowers and grew fruit. Once they start growing they seem relatively tough. As soon as I realized my trees got disease from other trees around me, I started paying attention and saw that all the citrus anywhere even remotely close to me are diseased. It's been a number of years now and unless someone intervenes and removes the tree, they will hang on for many years and refuse to completely die on their own. This includes wild citrus trees with no one maintaining them. Getting established and having enough sunlight seems to be the only requirements for them to struggle along and survive. That and avoiding a hard freeze, but we didn't even get a frost this winter, so things are blooming out of control right now which is always an enjoyable sight.

when i was a kid, it seemed like every old auntie we went to visit had a kumquat inside the house. This was in a climate similar to yours- NY/NJ area. They were not bonsai, they were just small bushes kept in pots maybe the size of one of those home depot buckets, maybe a bit larger? small enough to move outside in the summer, large enough that it required help.
the kumquats all gave huge amounts of fruit and i always used to delight in stealing some (the adults knew, of course, and were thrilled to watch me eat the fruit, which for a kid was inevitably disappointing. Now that I'm older i love to eat them, but back then it was not the taste treat I expected....).
I have grown both kumquats and lemons in pots now, they do seem to be quite hardy until they get some sort of disease (greening, white fly) or I get a new puppy who decides to eat them.
In my experience, bonsai fruit take ages and ages, and really just give a showcase fruit or two, not enough to consider actually enough to eat.

This is my current kumquat, recovering from my shepherd pup attacking it about a year ago. Ooops. I should really just start again but it is so tenacious I feel like it's a shame not to let it come back. The dog ate it down to that stub in the middle.

Hi Logan, did you get any seedlings from the store bought kumquat? I remember in the spring time stores like TSC will carry kumquat trees for about $15. Kind of small but they are likely rooted from older plants for faster fruit bearing.