Laura, thanks for all the info! You can plant sudachi seeds from the fruit you have, choose the strongest seedling and graft a twig from the same fruiting tree on the seedling.

Probably no point in bothering to graft (in that case). Many of these citrus varieties produce mostly nucellar seeds, meaning the seed sprout grew from nucellar tissue surrounding the zygote, as the zygotic tissue itself failed to grow vigorously enough, and thus the seed is an exact genetic clone of its fruit parent.

Socal, that's exactly the point, the grafted tree will be on it's own roots and fruit faster, seedling tree's roots are stronger than cuttings' roots (from my experience). If Laura's tree is not growing well on another rootstock, she can go with the idea above and not wait for too long for a seedling to fruit.

Laura, great feedback. Thank you. Did you happen to notice as you squeezed out the the Rangpur juice, did it have a floral aroma? I have read that the juice smells of wild honeysuckle.. I have a Seville, but it has not yet produced fruit. The tree is from Harris and extremely slow growing. I also had a Sudachi from Four Winds that produced a few, fabulous tasting fruit. Unfortunately, like yours, it did not thrive. Do you have a Yuzu? Has your Bergamot fruited yet? The fruit on my tree are just now starting to turn and are still hard as a rock! Lol.

Thanks Laura for the update. One of these days I will acquire a Rangpur lime. My experience is, just from memory, it is indeed a prolific producer. At my grandmom's place we had to end up throwing away a lot. Mostly juiced and added to various stews, soups, etc. Goes well with drinks too.

Socal: Rangpur is very different from Kaffir in many ways.

This is what I think the smell of Kaffir lime is like: reminiscent of fragrance of lime but deeper (in the same way that Yuzu has a deepness to its fragrance), reminiscent of gin (alcohol), small hints of eucalyptus and lavender (in the same way that bergamot has a lavender aspect to its fragrance), there's a slight "aquaticness" as well. One person said something about it reminded them of bug spray.

Socal, thanks for the insights. I do think sunshine, our resident grafting expert (besides Bob) has a point about it blooming sooner. I agree with the rootstock issue Socal...I think it is a rootstock/grafting issues that is causing the "failure to thrive". I have seen it in my bouque-de-fleurs even more. That thing will not grow, but will not thrive. It is quite pathetic. I almost left it outside for winter...lol...I may try grafting it onto sudachi stock and see what happens. Sunshine, I am going to try that with both. I have two fruits on the sudachi tree now and may try to sprout some so I can graft in a year or so. My tree is not in danger, but it looks almost the same size I got it from FW like 2-3 years ago. Jinny, I don't know about the rangpur smell, but will try and note it the next time I use one. I have several ripening up soon with many more green ones, and the whole tree is in bloom. I do really like that tree. Pranab, I can send you a twig this spring if you want to try your hand at grafting. My tree is from Harris and it is a good strong tree that has grown like gangbusters. I wish the sudachi would do the same because I like the flavor of that one even better. Jinny, it is hard to explain it, but the sudachi has a fuller flavor, whereas the rangpur (while still great) is more lime-like. It is a prettier color though. I bet it would make an excellent and beautiful marmalade. I have a yuzu, but it has never flowered (it is very tall though). Jinny, my bergamot is still very small. It will be a while yet before I see fruit from that one. All in all, I am very happy with my sour citrus collection so far. I am in the middle of watering them so I will sign off for a bit. I am now starting to see some mild leaf drop...sigh...

Bad pics bc the lights are in the way, but this is my Rangpur tree...

Pretty rangpur tree. The fruit looks just like my red lime. What color is the inside of the fruit?

Dave, it's orange. I think those two are related.

Thanks. Do you still have your red lime tree? If so, how does the red lime and rangpur fruit compare? I haven't picked my red lime yet, but I understand it's peel is edible. Rangpur leaves look less narrow than that of the red lime, but the trees and fruit do look very much alike.

Dave, I do have that red lime tree. It is a superstar. It currently has several ripe limes on it - same color as Rangpur limes - just miniatures. I can certainly do that and post a comparison. I just need to find something to cook with them...

Thanks Laura for the offer of Rangpur lime budoowd. I am tempted to take you up on that offer. Let me know when you are ready to prune. I do have on PT and one fly dragon ready for some grafts. Your Rangpur also looks like it may be a good candidate for my bonsai experiments with fruiting plants. It looks like it has a dense growing habit.

I like my chinotto. It has the most dense growth pattern I have seen in any citrus. The fruit is pretty sour but it is a nice flavoring agent for other things. My plant is small so I only get a few fruits in a season. In spring I air layered the mother plant and got a nice looking second specimen. It has three fruits starting to turn orange. I air layered this with the fruits and left it as such. There is another thread which illustrates the air layer. Here is a pic from today. I do not think it added it more than a handful of leaves since I separated from its mother.

That is a beautiful little tree Pranab! Mine is not big either, but perhaps a bit taller. I’ll let you know when I trim. I suspect that early spring is best for grafting, but there is a branch I’m eyeing for trimming, so I’ll let you know.

Dave, here’s a pic of the red lime:

Gorgeous, Laura. You're taking good care of it, obviously. Fruit is a good size. My tree quickly moved up the ranks to one of my favorites, and that's just on cute looks and easy care. If the fruit is great too I'll sure be making room for more red limes. Thanks for uploading the picture.

A few days back bought a bag of huge limes. The label said 'Pink Limes'. So I thought may be it is pinkish inside. But sadly it was just regular colored. Very juicy. Made 'lemon rice' with it (Rice, limes, roasted peanuts, curry leaf, fresh turmeric and a few thai lime leaves)

Pranab, I need that recipe ;) . Sounds wonderful! Dave, yes, it is a great tree and easy to care for.

Beautiful Rangpur and Red Lime trees, Laura! The fruit look so pretty hanging on the trees branches and since they are both productive, pretty easy keepers and the fruit can be put to good use, I would call them both winners. Tropic, the Chinotto tree is lovely and the lemon rice sounds scrumptious. I second, Laura..recipe please! :)

Thank you for the description, socal. Interesting combination of scents. I gently scratched the peel of a young Bergamot fruit a few months ago and it (oils) smelled like a complex combination of flowers, citrus and men's cologne . Lol. I loved it! I can see why the peel/oils when released would be good in tea and for perfume.

Dave, thanks for the reminder that the red lime peel can be edible to eat. I am waiting for the fruit on my tree to turn a deeper orange /red color before I pick them. I am excited to try this fruit. I will taste one and then decide how to incorporate it in a dish. Patience is a virtue.

Like most Indian dishes, the recipe for lemon rice is mostly a family thing, it is vague and you can modify to your liking. The one I made last time is this: make rice first with lime leaves of your choice. I used two cups of raw rice. It is best if you can time it such that it is pretty close to being fully cooked. In a pan heat up some oil and fry the curry leaves (10-20) for about 30-40 seconds, add roasted peanuts (about 1/2 cup) and finely diced fresh turmeric (1 tbsp) or powdered (1 tsp). Toss them around to mix them well evenly heated. Add rice and mix well again and cook for another 2 minutes or so. Add lime/lemon juice (5-6 tbsp) and salt. Mix it well and serve.

Some variations: Use cinnamon leaves when cooking rice instead of lime. When frying the curry leaves you can add a tsp of mustard seeds. Instead of lime and peanuts use grated coconut and it will be called coconut rice. Instead of lime juice you can use tamarind paste or even tomato paste. If you like it spicy add diced green chilli, jalapeno etc.

I like to experiment a lot and I look at other cuisines for inspiration especially Spanish, Mexican, Cajun and Asian.

And lastly: if you are ever bored with just white rice then put a tea bag when making rice - instant tea flavored brown rice - lol.

Pranab, thanks for sharing the family recipe. Where can I get a curry plant? I've never heard of it, but I've never looked either ;) I always thought curry was a spice mix, not a leaf. I'll have to get me one of those so I can make the delicious rice. I am sure that would go well with fish, or even on its own for a vegetarian dish.

Ok, so I just cut a rangpur and a red lime. I'll post pics from my phone in the next comment, but I can type much faster on the computer.

My observations are that the rangpur (like Jinny said) does have a more distinct flavor. I would not have found the right scent, but honeysuckle is a good description of the flavor mixed with lime. I like the red lime quite a bit, but with a direct comparison, it pales compared to the rangpur flavor. The rangpur fruit I grabbed was small, only slightly bigger than the red lime, but I have had many that have been much larger. I think the tree is carrying a bigger load this year, so the fruit are smaller. Both are very juicy, but the rangpur has a bit more juice. I really like them both, but if I had to pick, I would take the rangpur lime. But I intend to keep both :)

Here are pics:

And I had to share a photo of my recent haul:

Laura: That is not my family recipe but you are welcome to think of it that way :) It is a south indian recipe that I adopted/modified because I just love food of all kinds.

Any Indian store should have fresh curry leaves for sale. You can also buy the plant and they are easy to grow. I can send you some seeds in spring/summer if I do get any seeds. I just distributed my last batch.

You are right the word curry is confusing since it was introduced by the British and they had no idea. In Southern India curry leaves are commonly used to flavor various dishes. It is strong and unique. That is the origin of the name 'curry'.

British started using that name for any Indian mix of spices. But every region in India has a different concoction of spices. But generally it refers to a combination of some of the following: cumin, mustard, coriander seeds, ginger, cinnamon, cardamon, black pepper, fenugreek. I am from Bengal and a few other spices are typically used: celery seeds, nigella seeds, fennel seeds, star anise, cubeb and a few others that I do not know the english names of.

Over time the word 'curry' acquired even more meanings. Often it is used to describe the sauce in Indian dishes - like curry chicken. For us it is quite meaningless.

In Bengal, fish is very important part of diet and is plentiful. And they go very well with citrus family, and so does coconut and mustard.

One cool way of making fish is to wrap it in banana leaf and steam it. And of course wrap the fish first with lime/lemon leaves/slices and spices. The banana leaf is just only to hold the whole thing together since it is big. Otherwise just put all of it in a smaller container and use double cooker method to steam it.

There you go - I wrote a whole treatise again.

Thanks Pranab, that is very interesting and I appreciate you taking the time to explain it to us. I wanted to add one thing to my taste test. I did compare the difference between the kaffir lime leaves and rangpur lime leaves (from scent) and they are indistinguishable. Honestly, I could not detect a difference. I did make your recipe today with a few modifications- I added fresh ginger, chopped cashews (I did not have peanuts), both kaffir and rangpur lime leaves, and the juice of one meyer, which is what I had on hand. Oh, and I fried it up with ghee. It was delicious!!! I served it with salmon marinated with rangpur and red lime with the zest as well. Everyone loved it! Thanks for inspiring my meal tonight.

Laura: Sounds very delicious. It is all about experimenting and you really do not need all/same ingredients to enjoy a good meal. I think all of the citrus family does well with any food. And leaves impart a citrus flavor but often not strong enough to be distinguishable. Try again in summer when they are vigorous and the oils are stronger. You may notice some difference. My cinnamon plant has a very marked difference in flavor between summer and winter leaves.

Thank you for the red lime comparison, Laura! Interesting. I wonder how different the red lime would taste if it had turned red. Since you tried yours at that stage, I'm more determined now to let mine get red first before trying to see what it's like then.

We like different rice recipes too. My wife is from South Korea so we eat a lot of rice dishes here, like Kimchi rice.

Dave, I'm not sure it will get much redder, but correct me if I'm wrong. The fruit I picked was so ripe it almost fell off the tree.

I have a hyper kaffir lime tree- about 12 feet tall and 9 feet wide- is what i keep it trimmed to I use it mainly for the lime zest which i freeze and the leaves which i use fresh or frozen or dried ( when i trim it i get about 4 bushels of leaves). I am looking for a larah orange - another sour orange used to make curacao and also as an adjunct for the Seville in making a sour orange pie- much like key lime. Any help would be appreciated. It seems like all of these "odd" fruits that make wonderful marinades and sauces and flavoring agents are deprecated - not to be found anywhere in markets - which is why i started the kaffir lime tree.

I've tasted Chinotto sour orange and can try to describe what it tastes like. This sour orange is theoretically edible but just very sour, not really the best flavor, despite the nice intense aroma, and maybe with a little bitterness too. I could snack on one of the fruits while foraging if there was nothing else better to pick, though it's pretty seedy, would be more for the adventurous eater. I think I'd describe it as half edible and half not, something you'd be more likely to taste than to eat very much of.

Seville is the marmalade orange (what orange marmalade traditionally was made from).

After tasting my first bergamot Orange I will say that it blows both the chinotto and Seville out of the water. That tree is a keeper for sure!

Careful with that bergamot. That particular variety is very high in furanocoumarins. Might cause skin photosensitivity if you eat too much of it (or get the juices on your hand), can interfere with certain medications.

I don't think bergamot shows any particular level of cold hardiness, but I agree they do smell very nice.

Thank you. I’ve heard that too and will be careful. I only got one fruit and I used it in a pound cake - juice and zest. It has a lovely smell and flavor. It’s different from all the other citrus I have.

Laura, hope everything is going well with you. Thank God its warmer now. I always wonder how your trees look these days? Hopefully fine

Laura, the Santa Teresa cutting you sent me is now a healthy tree in 2 gal pot. No fruit yet. Thank you for the cutting. Best wishes to you and yours, Vlad