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| I guess that the tree I have, that I thought was a Ponderosa Lemon, really isn't.
A man gave my cousin a sack of lemons from his Ponderosa lemon tree in the spring of 2009. In May she planted some seeds from those lemons, and gave me a seedling in Sept. that was a little over a foot tall in a 1 gal. pot. I moved it to a 3 gal. pot, fertilized and kept it watered, and it took off. In Feb. 2010, when it was 9 months old, it was over 3 ft. tall, blooming and setting fruit. I kept the fruit picked off and moved it to a 24" pot in early summer. By fall it was over 15 ft. tall. In the early spring of 2011, I quit pulling off all the fruit, and left 12 lemons on the tree. The top was so big that the wind started blowing it over, pot and all. I put a 40# bag of Mex. beach pebbles in the top of the pot to no avail, it kept getting blown over. So then I cut about 5 ft. off of the top and added another bag of pebbles to the pot. That seemed to help, but I was down to three lemons. Near the end of Jan. 2012, the wind blew it over again and broke off the remaining lemons just as they were beginning to turn a little yellow.
I cut another 5 ft. off the top, and placed a 65# anvil in the top of the pot. So far this has prevented the wind from blowing it over. Today it is a little over 12 ft. tall, has 25 or 30 lemons of several different sizes, and continues to bloom and set fruit.
So, I guess that my questions are these. Is it very unusual for a seedling to start producing fruit that young? Is there any chance that these lemons will be good? And is it worth the trouble to keep something that is not a named variety?
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Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by hoosierquilt z10a/23 Vista Calif (My Page) on Sun, Aug 5, 12 at 0:47
| Well, you have some sort of interesting hybrid, Jim. Keep pruning the height down to promote more branching at lower nodes so you don't have such a tall and top heavy tree. And, you'll have to tell us if the fruit is edible or tastes worthy of keeping. Looks very interesting, and many of the beloved citrus varieties we enjoy today were the result of a chance seedling. For those monoembryionic citrus, you can get all kinds of interesting crosses. Let us know how the fruits taste once you think they're ripe! Patty S. |
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| Thanks, Patty. I'll keep wacking it back! Jim |
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- Posted by blazeaglory 10 SZ22 OC Ca (My Page) on Mon, Aug 6, 12 at 13:06
| Interesting!! It looks like a mutant ponderosa! If it tastes good, keep it! And let us know;-) Maybe they were not fully ripe when you picked them? |
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- Posted by blazeaglory 10 SZ22 OC Ca (My Page) on Mon, Aug 6, 12 at 13:11
| Looks like a ponderosa lemon crossed with a kaffir lime but who knows. |
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| Blazeaglory, they weren't ripe, they were broken off when the wind blew the tree over. Jim |
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- Posted by blazeaglory 10 SZ22 OC Ca (My Page) on Tue, Aug 7, 12 at 12:51
| Ahh makes sense now..heheh |
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