Re: key limes in CA

At 03:05 PM 6/15/00 -0400, Deckerella@aol.com wrote:
>Hello - I just got a request from a client to plant a key lime in a pot in
>North Berkeley/Kensington, California. This doesn't seem like a reasonable
>request to me, because our climate is so different from the Florida Keys. But
>then someone told me that they have seen key limes being grown in this area,
>so maybe I am wrong. Does anyone out there have any words of widsom regarding
>key limes in Northern California - Would they fruit? Do they need special
>soil? Are there dwarf varieties? Are they hard to find?
>
>Thank you very much - I love this list! -- Sarah

Sarah -

Key Limes are quite tender as citrus go, and there is not a long enough 
period of heat to bear well in the Bay Area.  This tree has been grown in 
southern Florida (USDA Zone 10) as a commercial crop, but even there not 
always successfully.  I might consider giving it a try in San Diego (the 
southern tip of California), but not worth the trouble without a greenhouse 
locally.

Bearss Seedless, which has been mentioned, does well here.  I also know 
there is a hybrid involving the Key Lime (C. aurantifolia) that I have seen 
available from Four Winds Growers (http://www.fourwindsgrowers.com/), our 
local citrus experts, but I cannot recall the name.  On their site they 
list several citrus cultivars - perhaps is it there somewhere.  Or cann Don 
Dillion (Jr. or Sr.) directly and ask them.  They used to sell a nice book 
on citrus, and have been trying to get it updated and republished.  I 
haven't talked with them about it in a while.  The book I have from them 
was about the size of many of these paperbacks that Sunset publishes, and 
was quite informative, including not only cultivar information, but also 
home culture and use of these wonderful fruit.  It is currently on loan to 
a friend, so I don't have it in front of me to look up some of this 
information.

BTW - Four Winds Growers citrus is grown on their special dwarf rootstock 
and are probably the best type of citrus tree to but locally.  They 
wholesale to most of the best no. Calif. nurseries.  So. Calif. gardeners 
cannot get this stock as they are below the 'citrus divide' (a quarantine 
demarcation to prevent the spread of some citrus pests).

A chef I know swears by combining regular 'grocery store' limes (not Key 
Limes, BTW) with Meyer Lemons (very sweet and aromatic) to get the Key Lime 
aroma and flavor.  We've used this combination to create a Key Lime pie 
from a Cayman Island recipe (British West Indies, my wife's parent's home) 
with great success.

I'm not sure who the expert was that told someone on this list that all 
limes in the area are Key Limes - this is not correct.  Key Limes are very 
distinctive trees, small in leaf and stature, and readily recognizable from 
other citrus.  The Tahiti Lime, of this Bearss is a good example, is close, 
but still not the same.  For more information about this lime, see 
http://newcrop.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/tahiti_lime.html.

Regards,
Sean O.


Sean A. O'Hara                       sean.ohara@groupmail.com
h o r t u l u s   a p t u s          710 Jean Street
'a garden suited to its purpose'     Oakland, CA 94610-1459, U.S.A.
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