Plant label thieves = crows; jays; kids.

Hah, Jean, you're hysterical. Yes, raee, the Improved Meyer lemon does has an orangish cast to its yellow skin. It also has smoother, thinner skin than other lemons. The shape can be traditional lemon, or rounded like an orange. All on the same tree. I have to go out and pick lemons today, so I'll try to post a comparison photo of an Improved Meyer lemon and a Santa Teresa Feminnello lemon, so you can see the color difference, and the skin difference.

Patty S.

Thanks Patty. And if it isn't raining tomorrow I will also take a pic. Does growing it in a pot lead to smaller fruit?

Jean, there are jays and crows both around but I don't really ever see any kids in my yard. When I potted up the bareroot trees I made a point to tuck the tags in along the side of the pot below surface level -- not visible -- because I didn't want to lose them!. When I planted them last week, the tags were gone. Weird.

Yes, your fruit may be somewhat smaller, and the tree will of course, carry less fruit overall, versus a tree planted in the ground. But they should taste good. Do you have racoons? They like to pull things out of pots all the time. So frustrating to lose your tags.

Patty S.

Oh, yes, we have raccoons and possums! The soil really didn't look disturbed but over the course of the summer who knows?

Reviving this thread because now, 3.5 months later, I still don't know what this citrus is. I have been watching the first fruits (kept indoors now) stay at the same size, just smaller than a golf ball, and color, very orange, for some time now -- all the while the tree has produced more. I don't know how to tell if it is ready to pick -- on the calamondin the peel will feel a little loose with a gentle squeeze. The tree did not release the fruit when I tugged at it, the stem broke so it was picked anyway.

So I cut it open and tasted -- a generic citrus taste, nether orange nor lemon, only a brief hint of sweetness before the tang on one bite. The peel is not sweet like calamondin (I am wondering if I have another mislabeled one) but very fragrant (but again, neither distinctly lemon nor orange). Not ripe yet I guess. It doesn't show in this shot but it did have a seed. I don't think that this is a Meyer Lemon as I thought/hoped. I'll wait some more.

Here is the tree:

kind of looks like calamondin to me

i agree, calamondin would be my guess

I agree, looks like a Calamondin. Calamondin skin is not sweet like kumquat skin is. And, it is also pretty sour. So, what you have labeled as a "calamondin" with sweet skin - why don't you post some photos of that tree and its fruit, and we can try to tell you if it is a calamondin, or possibly a kumquat. If the fruit is oval shaped, it's definitely a kumquat. If the fruit is small and rounder with sweet skin, it could be a Meiwa kumquat (whose fruits are much more round than the more common Nagami kumquat). Both have sweet skin, especially the Meiwa.

Patty S.

Sunquat maybe.
Trace

I'm not sure if I should have started a new post, but my question is similar to this previous post so I added to it.

I bought a house in a coastal county in Texas. There are 2 stocky citrus trees. I thought they were lemon trees. Over late summer ( I think it was) what looked like limes began to show up. A worker told me they were limes, then gave a dissertation on why they were limes not lemons: leaves, thorns, etc. I waited, but the skin didn't look ripe. Soon they got so big, I thought they were just big limes. I picked so many and gave them away....they aren't limes :-) The fruit on both looked like lemon, so several weeks ago I began picking the lemons. But the lemons are so different on the same tree. Maybe I left some on the tree too long?

On one of the trees, a lemon may be twice the size of another lemon, or one may have a smooth thin skin while another has a very thick skin, and some are very orange in color and others very yellow.

Now on the second tree, fruits looks like lemon on the more shaded side, but the full sun side looks like oranges for sure - they are big, round, thick rugged skinned, orange colored, they peel like oranges, are orange on the inside, but tastes just like a lemon. I'm so confused. Do oranges have a very sour taste before they are ripe?

This house was built in the 1940's, and both trees, which are about 10 feet apart, are very thick with several trunks at the base. It's possible that different varieties were planted inches apart from each other I suppose. I'm guessing they were planted a long time ago because one is planted so close to a pear tree that it almost encloses around the pear tree, as if they didn't think about long term spacing; so I've pruned back quite a bit; actually both needed serious pruning, they limbs were dragging the ground every where.

I'm clueless when it comes to these trees. Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks. -Nancy

Nancy, we need photos :-) It could be many things, so please take lots of photos, close ups and from a little bit of a distance so we can see the whole tree. I'm guessing that there may be a large rootstock sprout that came up, and no one pruned it years ago. But, without seeing the trunk, the leaves, the fruits (outside, and cut open), it's pretty hard to say. You can upload your photos to Photobucket.com, then copy the HTML code for each photo, and paste it into a reply. Then, all your photos will be embedded directly into your reply. When you click on the "Preview Message" button, if you do NOT see photos showing up, you've copied the wrong code string, so be sure you use the HTML code string. Photobucket.com offers 4 different code strings, just left click once in the "HTML" box, and that will copy that photo's HTML code string onto your Windows Clipboard. You can then just do a Ctrl+V (paste command), or RIGHT click into the body of your message and select "paste" to past the photo's HTML code string into your message. Just keep doing that with each photo, and you can then post multiple photos into one message. And yes, it is better to start your own message thread, so your topic is separate from someone else's. But, we can answer here since you started here.

Patty S.

This post was edited by hoosierquilt on Sun, Jan 25, 15 at 17:03

Patty, I don't have any pictures of the "calamondin" fruit right now-- it is just coming into full bloom. It didn't set any fruit this past summer. But it is the tree that I posted about a few years ago that this forum (including you!) suggested was likely a calamondin (Meiwa kumquat was also suggested then). The fruits are pretty round but slightly tangerine shaped, and small, (inside) look like mini tangerines and the peel is definitely sweet like a kumquat, thin and tight to the flesh. I will take and post a photo tomorrow in daylight. I've made really good marmalade with it.

This one really resembles a mini orange. The largest fruits on the tree now are larger than golf balls but a bit smaller than lacrosse balls, larger than the 3 crops that I have had from the "calamondin" have ever been. I don't get a distinct scent of lemon, lime or orange from the leaves, just citrus if that makes any sense.

I appreciate your input! I may have been crazy to buy these little trees when and where I did but they were only $1 each, how could I resist!

Okay, raee, if you can eat the peel, it is NOT a Calamondin :-) Calamondin's skins are not sweet like a kumquat. You've got a Meiwa kumquat, is the fruit is round, and the skin is sweet. That would be your differentiator - the skin. The fruits look very similar.

As to this tree, that is definitely larger than a calamondin. And I am really not sure what this fruit could be. It may even simply be rootstock of some sort. But, if the fruit ends up being decent, then heck, a $1.00 tree is a great deal. :-)

Patty S.

Patty,
Thanks for the response; and sorry, I now see that I'm actually walking on someone else's post by adding on here (some forums don't like you starting new, but I'm a novice at forums so I guessed at this one). I don't mind moving this or continuing here.
It's too late for me to get pictures tonight, but I'll certainly get some tomorrow and post them. Thank you.

Patty,
I have spent an hour trying to upload even just a single photo, so I'm going to have to give up for the time being. I haven't the slightest idea why this has been so difficult. I upload photos all the time, but this is the first time I've ever used photo bucket. I'm sure it's operator error.

Thanks for your help. I will probably try again later. I'm guessing the 2nd tree is some type of orange, and the first tree has a few lemon varieties all bunched together.

Thanks again, Nancy

Nancy789, I didn't mind you posting on this thread! I've had troubles with photobucket too, usually with the pictures posting too small and nothing I did made them larger!

PattyS, a rootstock, now there is a thought -- a sour orange of some kind? although, I believe that this particular vendor produces only from rooted cuttings. I will just have to leave them on the tree as long as possible to see if it develops further size or sweetness. But I enjoy sour citrus in my cooking so you are right, I have come out ahead.

At least, the one tree that I thought was a Rangpur lime turned out to be just that. I do long for a key lime and a meyer lemon though so I guess I will have to break down and order from a more reliable source!