I placed an order from CCPP for citrus budwood yesterday for a few different varieties. I probably should have read all the detailed descriptions before placing the order, but instead I was doing that today and noticed this bit for the “Giant Key Lime”:
Notes and observations
RRK, 8/2006: This is said to have wood pocket.
This appears from googling to be a lethal viral disease. Seems odd they would be offering infected budwood. Does anyone know more about this disease?
Don’t know about the disease but giant key lime is 3x the size fruit of key lime.
I have grown out a seedling with first flowers this year.
@swincher
Tahitian lime is a better choice for culinary use and is widely available. True key lime is harvested underripe and used primarily in mixology. Key lime pie in the restaurant trade is rarely made with key lime. For more information check with the NY Culinary Institute.
Does it have that nice key lime taste? I have 6 key lime seedlings in my greenhouse, and now that they seem pretty happy after their first winter, I was planning to graft a couple of them with this. In the end I’ll probably only have room for one key lime, but it is one of my favorite citrus for drinks and pies and such.
I used to go picking key limes in abandoned orchards in south FL, we’d usually pick them ripe for culinary use, and that’s what we used for key lime pie.
The fruit diameter of key lime is less than 1 inch. It is also sold as “Mexican Lime”.
We would pick them by the bucketful, they ranged in size from about an inch up to maybe 2.5" on the large end. Their flavor is really nice when tree ripened.
That is the size range for Tahitian Lime. Standard lime is rarely that large.
These were absolutely not tahitian limes, they were small and round, usually between 1" and 2", growing in a very old (early 20th century) key lime farm that was overgrown and has since been absorbed into the national park there:
It was a spot known to locals for generations as a place to go pick key limes when you were out on the boat, but I’m afraid sea level rise and shade from Australian pines have killed off the lime trees in the last couple decades. My in-laws introduced me to it, and they are self-professed “true key lime” snobs who turn their nose up at any key lime pie not made with “true key limes.”
I’m somewhat surprised there’s not any easily findable information about the old grove there, but there’s this specimen that was collected on Totten Key in 1962:
The last time I successfully harvested key limes from the island was about 20 years ago, we couldn’t find any when we looked about 10 years later.
@swincher
You can blame the Dutch and the Floridians for confusion with “Key Lime”. A Dutch word for tropical is “Kei” which was incorrectly transliterated to “Key” in several English speaking parts of the world. In FL it was further confused with the FL Keys. In addition, some nurseries have put “key lime” labels on generic limes as a marketing ploy.
I have visited all UCR citrus variety sites, beginning in my youth and most recently 2 years ago. 15 years ago I had inventory of every lime cultivar propagated by Durling’s and Four Winds Growers with the exception of finger lime. Many a key lime snob has been astounded by the difference between what they held to be true and reality.
Look at the specimen I added to my last post. There was only one type of lime growing on Totten Key, and that was it.
A lime growing on Totten Key is not necessarily a Kei Lime.
Click the link. There is a physical specimen collected by a botanist in 1962 and labeled as Citrus x aurantiifolia, you can look at the photo of the dried specimen and tell me if that’s a mislabel. The farm was already abandoned by that date, nothing new would’ve been planted.
The question is what was originally planted.
The botanist who collected the specimen identified it as Citrus x aurantiifolia and here’s the photo of the specimen to save you having to click a link:
Do you refute that ID?
You are missing the point.
Anyway, I recommend you try ripe Tahitian Lime (aka Bearss) grown in a suitable climate.
My point was just that I really loved the flavor of those key limes, and I even like the picked-too-early taste of commercially available Mexican limes better than any Tahitian or Persian lime that I’ve had. Key limes have a unique flavor that’s just not present in Tahitian limes.
It’s certainly possible there are Tahitian lime cultivars I’d like as well, or that they’d be better if picked at just the right time, but in a side-by-side taste test, I suspect I’d pretty much always prefer a tree ripened key lime. Perhaps it’s a matter of personal preference!
But more to the point of this thread, I’m not sure how I feel about adding grafts that might be infected with a lethal citrus virus to my greenhouse. I’m not careful enough sanitizing pruners and such to avoid spreading it to other citrus in the greenhouse, if it can be spread that way. Maybe the giant fruit isn’t worth the risk!
Kei Lime was likely introduced to the western hemisphere by the Dutch botanist and sea-captain Ebbing.
Key Lime is a name used in some parts of the world for Kei Lime, but in FL it is used for the lime introduced by Swingle and farmed in southern FL and the FL Keys.
Key Lime pie is a recipe. Restaurant dispensaries in the U.S. typically use Tahitian (Bearss) lime for production.
Not in Islamorada! They use real key limes for pie. The shrubs grow like weeds there! Fishing is great too. Actually, the best!
You mean local.
