For all we know the USDA could have released two different strains of a virus free Meyer Lemon. One in 1972, and then another in 1975, and maybe the person writing the article mentioning the 1975 article was a little confused about what was released in 1975, or maybe the same one was just re-released in 1975.
You could grow many varieties of satsuma mandarins in Las Vegas. An owari or xie shan would do fine in the high desert. Also sudachi and kabuso which are yuzu hybrids and for lack of a better description I call them Japanese limes. They grow all these types of citrus in coastal regions of the American southeast which is the same growing zone as Las Vegas (9a) with roughly the same record low (8 F). The first commercial satsuma crops in the US were grown in Alabama in the 19th century. Cold snaps into the 20’s is not uncommon. Don’t know about the Vegas soil, so you might need to seriously amend the site. While you certainly can’t just drop any old citrus into the ground in Vegas, like you can in Palm Springs, there are definitely Japanese citrus cultivars that will thrive for you. Might have to pick a good site and cover occasionally when very young trees, but you could definitely get a highly productive fully outdoor tree where you live.
thanks @jsteph00921 , i will try maybe couple mandarins again if see them for sale. Possible that the rootstock i previously had were not tolerant of vegas’ alkali earth or winters, or both…
kumquats do well here too btw, and can grow to tree size but my folks don’t really care for them
Yeah, the soil for sure should be excellent. Then you must protect them the first few winters. After that they should be solid unless you have a really fluke cold snap. Satsumas are hardy like kumquats.
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I also wanted to mention that Meyer lemon are much hardier than advertised. I’ve had fully mature meyer lemon trees in Northern California survive 17 unprotected. They had some leaf burn but otherwise were fine. Just pick any fruit before a cold snap drops below 25. Most citrus fruit are not damaged until below 25.
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that’s another permutation that we need to look into, as evidently the rootstock determines performance, especially if growing them in the desert. The fruitful lemon that we’ve posted is growing on hard caliche earth and the only organic matter provided was the 2.5 gallon potted soil/rootball it came with(from california) when we plopped it down the hole. Not sure what rootstock it is, hopefully will leaf out and bear some fruits to use as seedling rootstock here
Actually there are many different lemons called ‘four seasons’ lemon. There are at least 2 lemon varieties popular in the Amalfi coast that are called ‘four seasons’ lemon. One is indeed the ‘Zagara Bianca’, like I had said before, there is also the ‘Lunario’ lemon, which clearly in ‘Provence France’ they spell it a little differently as ‘Lunaria’, I was wrong assuming that ‘Zagara Bianca’, and that the lemon you know as ‘Limon Citrus Lunaria’ are the same they are not. ‘four seasons’ lemon is not a variety name, it’s only stating that the lemons can produce for all 4 seasons if the plants are tricked, and if the growing season is long enough, there are many different 4 season lemons.
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Thank you for the correction. Clearly you made a typo, and it’s a good thing that this innocent accident was corrected.
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Four seasons is such a good name, as it produced flowers all year long, regardless of temperature or season. Right now despite the rain, the tree is covered in new buds everywhere. It currently has about 25 lemons on it. They are not the huge Italian lemons that are bumpy. They are smooth skinned and delicious and lemon yellow, never golden yellow.
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I feel like most lemons fill this description though, many are relatively everbearing. My Meyer has blooms and lemons at several stages year round
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Today I received bad news: one citrus tree out of the three in my backyard has HLB/citrus greening. The good news is that the other two are fine even with being so close! I was so anxious waiting for the results. They’ll be spraying on the 4th and removing the infected tree on the 9th. The surveyor said that then they’ll be spraying on a yearly basis. He also told me that they now have data where the spread has been declining. I asked if I could plant more trees, since my order is still on hold, and he advised I administer a root zone killer where the tree used to be. Does anyone have a brand to recommend?
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This would be remarkable, I hope that is true. It so quickly devastated FL that I assumed CA would be next. I wonder if the differences in climate help to combat the psyllids better. I hope your other trees somehow remain healthy!
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