Here's a picture of my Ponderosa.... I didn't measure it, but it's quite large, bigger than my hand.

This is the first lemon I got from the tree too.

Wow I would love to try and grow that tree!

Any body want to comment on the taste of Ponderosa lemons? I know I've read a couple of people who weren't thrilled with them. Laura, perhaps? They are supposed to be relatively easy to grow, but if they don't taste great, what's the point. Also, is it a lemon with a ton of rind and very little juice? You know how you buy lemons in the grocery store sometimes and they are half rind - I'm really afraid that happens with Ponderosas. I'm a completely wrong? I don't know why I think that - I've never read anything saying it. Please tell me they're great and I'll go buy one asap, I'd love an easy to grow lemon!

Laura, my largest was 7 inches tall, fifteen inches around, but I didn't think to weigh it. Normally I can get about a cup of juice per lemon. I really just grow them because they are unusual.

Alanna, I really don't care for the taste, myself, it's sort of bitter to me, not like a good tart lemon. It does have a lot of rind and seeds, but does have a good bit of juice. It is really easy to grow. It rarely even loses a leaf, when I move it into the greenhouse. The fruit never gets really yellow for me, it always has a greenish tint, although they are fully ripe and falling off the tree.

Mt daughter likes to make lemon curd with them. Of course she usually takes all of my extra citrus. LOL. I prefer the Meyer Lemon.

I would just be happy to grow a lemon haha!! I lost mine this winter. It was an accident, one of my kids knocked it over and broke all its roots. It didnt recover. I think I am lemon cursed hahaha. I can grow calamondins, my gold nugget and mandarin trees are doing great. I am going to get one more lemon but I am running out of hope. Something always happens!!

Amanda, I am sorry that you lost your lemon. Accidents happen when kids are around. Lol! But it sounds like you are still citrus happy. Good luck with your next one!

You know what? I have been growing them for years and never tasted one! I have had some that big grown in a pot up here in New England and mines turn very yellow. I never even thought to open one. I give them all away. I grow it or a few should I say because it is always in bloom and smells heavenly while I wait for the other trees to do the same. It seems there is always fruit and always blooms. For me the easiest the grow and the least finicky of any citrus! I love it for this reason.

Redneckgirl, are you in a climate where it's grown outside all year long or grown indoors for the winter?

Mike

Mike, I grow them in pots and put everything in the greenhouse from around October thru mid March. I will try to attach a photo, first I 'll have to go take one. Lol! I believe I am in zone 8B. Southwest Arkansas. I have currently; Ponderosa, Meyer, Variegated Eureka Lemon, Key, Finger, and Red Lime, Meiwa Kumquat, a Clementine and a Buddha's Hand. And in the house I have seedling Kaffir and three Finger limes along with a Minneola Tangelo!

ok well now I need to get a Ponderosa lemon!! That is amazing!

LOL! This site is all about enabling! I see everyone's photos, and read their comments, and before I know it I have another tree! And I'm not quite sure how it happens! Lol!

I agree with you GreenThumb... At one one point I wanted to buy everything.... You have to have some self control and as time passes you start thinking.... Thank goodness I didn't buy 20 trees lol. I'm capping my Citrus trees at 3 because I know the hard work it is to bring them indoors and for them to survive and be healthy. My circumstances allow for 3 trees and in a few years when they're 5 or 6 feet tall, I'm going to start having some problems bringing them inside.... Which by than, I should be living somewhere else with more space (Hopefully).

Anyways, have self control lol... or buy something that can grow naturally outdoors. I was thinking of buying a plum tree.

yes that is true! In aout 4 years or so we are going to buy a bigger house and I am getting a green house! Then I will stock it with everything I want haha!

The problem, Amanda is the greenhouse is NEVER big enough. You think, Oh I have so much room, then you start moving things in, and......well, it fills up fast! I had to prune my Key Lime last fall just to get it in the door.

Dave, I have cut myself off, as far as citrus trees go. I got the one thing I was really wanting, (a finger lime), so no more for me. (Unless I find a red or yellow finger lime.) There are still a couple banana trees I want but I am even holding off on them. Now its time to concentrate on the vegetable garden.

I should be able to unload the greenhouse in the next week or so, if the weather can make up its mind!

And, yes, Dave, Plums trees are wonderful, (I have two). lol

I think I am a plantaholic.

It sure sounds like it haha. I was thinking of getting a banana tree because it can survive with partial light which would be great in the winter.... But again, for it to fruit it's going to be around 5-8feet depending on the variety.

Each year I dig my banana plants and store them bare root in the greenhouse, then when it warms up enough, replant them in the ground. I've gotten fruit several times, the biggest problem is they usually don't bloom until July or August. That doesn't always give them time to ripen before a frost. But I still try! Lol!

I heard you can just bring the plant indoors for the winter and by next fall the bananas would be ripe... I've never tried it tho... I'm going to buy a blood orange as my third citrus tree.... It'll be replacing the Meyer that just died. I might get a dwarf banana tree and that's it! Everything else has turned survive outside.

Dave, even my greenhouse isn't tall enough to keep my banana's in pots. I don't grow the miniature or extra dwarf ones, tho'. Most of mine get to about 9 to 10 feet tall, some a little shorter. I have had the dwarf ones before, but could never get them to bloom, with the exception of Musa Velutina, (pink velvet banana).

I'm sorry you lost your Meyer. I love mine. It does lose leaves when it goes in the greenhouse, but not too bad, and it recovers nicely once it is back outside. I don't really like the taste of blood oranges, tho' I've only tasted the ones from the store. Which really doesn't give you a true taste. Lol.

I do grow a lot of things in the ground. I have blackberries, blueberries, gooseberries, pear, plums, apples, quince, chestnuts, pawpaw, pecan, hazelnut and a peach. Some of the trees are just getting to the age that they will produce, while some are still too young. I just like growing edibles.

Darn, I really am a plantaholic! Lol!

That's an amazing Ponderosa and Like Laura said, I have quite a few trees. I can't say I have ever grown one quite that big....especially seems impressive for a tree with a define space for roots. I'm in SE Texas so I can grow them in-ground but my soil is not really very good for citrus. It's far from "well-drained loamy soil" they usually write on the citrus tree tags with planting notes. I wouldn't necessarily plant a Ponderosa over some other lemon varieties but they are remarkable in terms of size and I personally think the peel is especially aromatic. My trees are flowering now and I saw the first open flower of the year yesterday.

John, My Ponderosa has been blooming about a week and a half. Huge clusters. I would love to grow mine in the ground, but this winter we actually got down to 8 degrees. So not an option. Unlike just about everyone else on the forum, I grow mine in pure compost. Last month I topped them with composted cow manure which really boosted the blooms. Most of my citrus are in 22" pots, with some of the smaller one's in 18" pots. The only way to move them is with a hand truck dolly. Lol!

Dave I forgot a few I have in ground; figs, pomegranite, muscadines and grapes. Lol.

I agree it would be too cold even in southern Arkansas for in-ground citrus. We got down to the teens three nights in a row here this winter and I had some freezing and kill of some small diameter stems on Ponderosas. I'm surprised there was not more damage than that since I didn't cover them at all. If you should want to experiment with in-ground, you might try a Satsuma orange. Mine are large trees now but I still would have expected to see lots of leaf kill and didn't see any leaf kill or other damage to the Satsumas. Still, I bet there is a big difference in my few nights into the teens and your few nights in single digits and lots of nights in the teens. Great job with the Ponderosas...and I assume you have found out the Ponderosa seeds are very fertile. That's how I wound up with so many. I just transplanted the volunteer sprouts all over the yard.

I grow Lemons and Limes mostly, the Kumquat and Clementine were impulse buys. And I didn't like the taste of the Clementine, but liked it as a juice. Lol!

This year was a very unusual winter for us. We haven't had lows that low in years. The last few year's lows were in the 20's. But still to cold for citrus, unfortunately.

Every now and then I will grow a Ponderosa from seed but I usually wind up giving them away.

Normally I wouldn't have anything out of the greenhouse this early, but the Clementine developed aphids, so I pulled it out, washed it off and sprayed it down, then just left it out. I have been covering it each night with a frost blanket and it seems to be doing okay.

If the weather will cooperate, I should be able to pull everything out of the greenhouse around the 16-17th. My usual time of year to empty the greenhouse has been, in the past mid March. But the weather, as I said, has been unusual this year, so who knows?

I sent some Ponderosa seeds to Portugal for family to plant in ground. Some have sprouted and are thriving. I read somewhere that sometimes Ponderosa are not true to seed so it'd be interesting to come across a new variety which I'd name after myself :p.

I just got my fig tree delivered on Friday (Bareroot dormant) and some cuttings from 2 different varieties. That should keep me entertained for now. I will probably insulate the fig trees and put them in the shed during the Winter instead of bringing them in.

Dave, where are you located? It might be fun to have a variety named after you. Lol.

I grow two different figs, Alma and Black Mission, but that is all. And both of those, I grow in the ground. My mom gave me one years ago, that was a green fig. I didn't know that at the time, so I kept waiting for them to ripen and turn like my Alma did. The ants got all of those, due to my ignorance! Lol! But the next year I did get a few, but really didn't like the taste of them, so I pulled it out. I'd grow more but I am the only one in my household that eats them.

I get confused with the whole "true to type" thing. And its hard to decide what to believe when so much stuff is contradictory. You might read that it is true to type on one site and the next says it isn't! Lol! And then the wait from seed to fruiting tree! My BFF grew a lemon from seed and it took over ten years before it bloomed. But almost all of mine are grafted, with the exception of the Key Lime, that I did grow from seed and the Kaffir Lime, which I bought as a seedling. The last few that I bought are rooted cuttings.

I'm growing some Finger Lime from seed now. I've read different things about their seed to fruit times as well. Some sites say 5 to 10 years and others say about the same as a Key Lime, (3-4 Years). I also read that if I approach graft them to a two year old root stock, that I could get fruit in two years. So I am going to try that, well, once they get large enough. They do grow slowly. Lol!

I live in Toronto which is a zone 6. I hear what you're saying about different information from different sites. It's important to do research from credible sources and ask questions, analyze information. Critical thinking is important. For some, it may very well take 10 years to flower because they don't live in the right climate or don't take proper care of their trees.... while for others it may take 5 years because they're very knowledgeable and can provide proper conditions year round. If I were to go with common sense, I wouldn't have a lemon tree in Canada because in theory it won't survive...but if you research, analyze and come up with a plan you can push the boundaries and now I'm the first on my street to have 2 citrus trees in pots and people are like WOW. I don't know much about finger limes so I can't give you my opinion on that.... For key limes, they should be easier and quicker to grow.

If size is an issue, I'd cut some of the new top branch growth and graft that. You'll have the same tree but now it's only 1foot tall and as mature as the main tree where you got it from except now, it's easier to manage and not as big. Like that, you don't need the tree to grow 10-12feet until it flowers.... The new grafted tree would grow to 6feet and flower than instead of the original tree requiring to be 12feet.

That's just some rough math, obviously not all citrus need to be 12' tall to flower. Anyways, hopefully I'm successful propagating the fig cuttings I got.... Every time I try to root a limequat cutting, it dies. I got Celeste and Ciccelo Nero cuttings and a Strawberry Verte dormant plant. I potted it up and have it inside waiting for it to wake up.

Dave, wow citrus in Canada, bet that is a challenge!

For me, fig cuttings are easy peasy. Just stick the in dirt and away they go. But I don't have your climate. Lol.

My Key Lime from seed took four years to bloom, but has had huge crops since then. Until year before last, when I had to prune it back to get it in the greenhouse. I pruned it again this year but have gotten some blooms this time.

I plan to try to root a cutting of it, sometime this year. Because I may not be able to get it in the greenhouse this fall. Plus it is getting a little top heavy, and the wind tends to blow it over, now and then!

Hopefully I can get a cutting to root. I have tried several times (with Meyer and Ponderosa) but was unsuccessful. However I did have a Buddha's Hand root last fall, so it gives me hope!