‘Bearrs’ limes have been trickling in for a week or so now. Um, Margaritas!!
I just cut, squeeze and press them against an authentic Margarita glass. Add tequila and ice. Enjoy the dog days.
Ah, the joys of living in S. California, huh?? Just LOVE your Margarita glasses! Where did you get them? They look nice and hefty.
Ha, you know it! I just brought in the last of the ‘Meyer’ lemons and then bang, here come the limes. In the mean time oranges, lemons and mandarins are sizing up for Winter.
We bought those thick authentic Margarita glasses at Pier 1 Imports a few years ago. Great glasses, but don’t dare drop one on your foot. They have some heft.
I always forget about Pier 1, which is probably a good thing (for my pocketbook). Thanks! I just picked my last Bearss which is a good thing, because it is loaded with tiny baby fruit. My wonderful, wonderful hubby just re-did a bunch of our drips, so hopefully, my citrus up on our top ampitheater slope will be getting more water. They are suffering right now, and that’s where my lovely, beloved Meyer lemon lives.
How long does the Bearss fruiting last? I see Meyers here with fruit all year long. Maybe they’ve turned into crap staying on the tree all year long.
BD, I’m not in SoCal, but for the past few months I’ve been picking and using this year’s as I need them. I used a big one just this morning in my marinade for grilling chicken. There are still large juicy ones on the tree. They get bigger than the ones at the grocers. At the same time there are others in various stages of development, as well as a few more flowers. I keep wanting to let a few hang until they turn yellow. So far, that hasn’t happened because I wind up using them before they get that far.
My tree will always be kept small because it’s container grown and needs to be kept at a size I can lug around and get through the french doors. So, I don’t get a huge amount of fruit at once. But since it sets blooms frequently, there is something at harvestable stage most of the year. Trees planted in-ground there could well behave differently than ones kept under lights in the winter here.
Bleeding, Bearss will have fruit on it for about a month or two. One thing about Bearss, if the fruit is really ripe, it will drop, so it doesn’t really hold well on the tree. The good thing with limes though, is you can use them prior to being totally ripe (they are actually yellow or green-yellow when fully ripe), so that does extend their harvest time a bit. There is nothing really like a Meyer lime in the citrus world, with ripe fruit nearly year 'round.
My ‘Bearrs’ lime is so young that it’s hard to get a bead on it. It was a Costco rescue and has done some alternate bearing and struggled in its location. By and large it does not hold well and will drop ripe fruit. A ‘Bearrs’ lime harvested from the ground is a very good thing. Forget what you think you know about limes, these guys are loaded with juice and are surprising well balanced with a true lime punch in the face. 
‘Meyer’ lemons are the bomb. Used in drinks, salad dressing, desserts, deodorizing the garbage disposal or dog walk – and available 8-9 months a year. Oh, and the tree is a total tank. Can look like hell and will thrive on neglect. A real workhorse. My one, have to have tree.
Patty, I do believe you that there is only a short season for them where you are. BD’s conditions are more similar to yours than to mine. However, although this may be the last bloom cycle for the season, I usually get one more cycle in October. Both Bearss and Key limes start blooming mid-winter and continue their ~6 wk cycles of flushing, blooming, and briefly resting throughout spring, summer and into fall for me, although the later cycles bloom much more sparsely. I wind up getting juicy fruit from June into the beginning of the next year.
My limes have very different growing conditions from SoCal. Mine have very hot, humid summers with cool late autumn and spring, and spend their winter in a very brightly lit grow tent with days in the 80’s and nights in the upper 50’s. I don’t doubt that the winter conditions affect their growth and bloom cycles, but I don’t think that is the reason they bloom multiple times throughout summer. Perhaps it has to do with the high summer temperatures or late summer/autumn rains. Maybe those are irrelevant to blooming and it is more due to summer fertilization routines. I don’t know. It could just be that citrus and figs “like” me more than stone fruits and apples that I struggle to get decent fruit from.
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It’s interesting that your Bearss (Persian?) Lime only fruits for a month’s worth of picking Ms Patty; perhaps it’s influenced by climatic conditions? My grandmother’s has flowered at least three or four times already for the year, and commonly has both flowers, young fruit, and ripening fruit on it at the same time. To be fair we live in a fairly tropical climate, so perhaps more heat and a longer growing season induce them to bear perpetually. I
In fact, I just air layered a branch off of hers two weeks ago to add to my own burgeoning citrus collection and of course the little thing is already flowering even as it’s barely putting out new leaves yet. Has at least 10 on it so far; I’m going to have to convince myself I should take most of whatever fruit it sets off 
Mine, like Clint’s, is very young. I have two, actually, and both only produce fruit once a year. We have a very mature lime tree (actually a row of them, what’s left of an abandoned orchard), and they tend to produce fruit sort of twice a year. It could be due to our different climates. Then tend to ripen later, too, as the tree matures. Here is a link to Bearss lime from the UC Riverside Citrus Variety Collection. Their ripening times are pretty much the same as mine are for mature trees:
http://www.citrusvariety.ucr.edu/citrus/bearss.html
Hmm, perhaps what she has is a Tahiti lime then, as it’s listed in the CVC as somewhat everbearing which would fit the description of her tree. Bearss is apparently a separate variety (supposed seedling of Tahiti) so that would account for my initial confusion. The fruits on hers are sizewise like the pictures in the CVC of the Bearss and not the Tahiti though so who knows lol. I used to think hers was twice a year as well, but I looked through my pictures last year and based on those and this year it flowers around Jan/Feb, again in the spring, and is doing so now in August. Tahiti: http://www.citrusvariety.ucr.edu/citrus/tahiti.html
I should also add that her tree is growing in what equates to limestoney gravel, with no siginificant mulching nor nutritional program to speak of, and exhibiting some deficiencies, so I’m certain the production of this specimen will ramp up even more in the form of this identical additional tree I’ve made when it’s given the proper care.