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lorirobin

Oct 18, 2009, 1:18 PM

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Lemon Tree - MAIN THREAD

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Hound Dog

Oct 18, 2009, 2:54 PM

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Re: [lorirobin] Lemon Tree

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We're looking for someplace to buy a lemon tree. Lemon and not lime. I was hoping on our way through Guadalajara later next month someone might know of a nursery in the area where we can purchase one.
Thanks,
lorirobin

An interesting question lorirobin.

Since you posted your question on the Lake Chapala board I presume you meant that you would be looking at nurseries at Lake Chapala vs. nurseries in Guadalajara. There is no indication in your profile as to where you live so the question comes up as to why you are seeking American style lemons known locally around here ,if at all, as "Limon Americano" or "Limon Amarilllo". These are practically unknown in central and southern Mexico in our experience except in areas where there is a market for them such as at Lake Chapala where there is a large foreign born population.

You can buy American/European style lemons at a couple of markets catering to Americans at Lake Chapala and and a few other places and we and a neighbor of ours on Lake Chapala have lemon trees but those trees produce a hybrid known as a Ponderosa Lemon and those lemons are very large - almost the size of small grapefruit although they are every bit as good as the smaller American style lemons for some dishes. We have lived at Lake Chapala since 2001 and gave up looking for American stylr lemon trees years ago when the search proved (sorry) fruitless.We also live in Chiapas where there are almost no Americans and there there is no chance you will find yellow lemon trees and, in fact, no one will have even the remotest notion what you are talikng about if you ask for them.

We long considered yellow lemons to be an essential ingredient in a number of recipes of ours originating in my wife´s native France, my native Alabama and the Arab world including such places as Lebanon and Algeria and fretted about this lack of yellow lemon trees for our garden for a long time even though we still have those Ponderosa Lemon Trees in our garden which are fine for some recipes but not so fine for others as, say, for processing the famous Algerian thin-skinned salted lemons necessary for a fine Algerian or Tunisian tagine but here is my point.

I don´t know where you live and if you live in Mexico then forgive my presumptuousness for saying this but, as you must know if you live in Mexico, there are two types of limes normally widely available here and those are the seedless Persian limes typical of what you would find in the United States and the seed filled, smaller and more astringent Mexican style limes known around Lake Chapala as Colima Limes or limones con semillas. The "Colima" limes are tart and make an excellent substitute for limones amarillos and remind me somewhat of the key limes you might find in the Florida Keys.These small limones con semilla are an excellent substitute for the American and French stylr yellow lemons hard to find in most of Mexico at shops catering to a Mexican clientele and, in fact, can be superior for some dishes over the often thick-skinned American lemons.

Today, some nearly nine years after moving here, we use the "Colima" limes for all sorts of dishes from Caesar Salad to Middle Eastern Arabic dishes we would never have used limes for in the past and we can no longer discern the difference.

Maybe you will find the American or European style lemon trees in Guadalajara and I wish you luck in that quest but we never found anything except the Ponderosa Lemons which are fine but, with a skin that would suit a rhino, not suitable for some more delicate dishes.

If you find those yellow lemon trees around here let us know and we may buy one also.

(This post was edited by Hound Dog on Oct 18, 2009, 2:55 PM)

jsandrock

Oct 19, 2009, 6:54 AM

Post #3 of 11 (5271 views)

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Re: [lorirobin] Lemon Tree

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Are you here at Lakeside? If so, Roberto Delgado of Chapala Tree Service might be able to help you (762-0602). We had embarked on the same quest for a lemon tree and it was -- pun intended -- ultimately fruitless.

But Roberto tends to all our trees, is a certified arborist, and said that one of the trees we had, a bitter orange that produced pretty useless fruit, could be grafted with a U.S. lemon (we keep calling it the "sunkist" kind) and he has an arborist colleague - a grafting specialist -- who could do it. He pruned the orange tree way back, said wait six months till it starts to really come back, and then he'd bring his friend in to do the graft.

This is about to happen in the next week or so, so I can't report as to its success, but you might want to check with Roberto and see what he recommends. No reason why you couldn't buy the same tree as we had - they're readily available here - and go through the same process.

Hope this helps!

Hound Dog

Oct 19, 2009, 7:09 AM

Post #4 of 11 (5262 views)

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Re: [jsandrock] Lemon Tree

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We have a bitter orange tree with branches that bear limes and other branches that bear bitter (Seville) oranges. We do use the bitter oranges quite a bit so we kept the larger part of the tree but the rest bears Persian limes. So I am sure the yellow lemons will work too.

By the way, I do not know what you meant when you said the bitter orange fruits were pretty useless. Since it is hard if not impossible to find Seville oranges in markets at Lakeside, we treasure the bitter oranges over all of our other home grown citrus fruits. The bitter oranges are essential for much of the cooking of the Yucatan Peninsula which we consider to be great regional cuisine - perhaps the best in Mexico in my opinion. The bitter oranges also make great orange mamelade and a superior homemade French style bitter orange fortified wine aperitif.

(This post was edited by Hound Dog on Oct 19, 2009, 7:54 AM)

Vichil

Oct 19, 2009, 9:49 AM

Post #5 of 11 (5233 views)

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Re: [lorirobin] Lemon Tree - MAIN THREAD

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Report on Flora Exotica: no lemon tree available. I was told to check the nurseery behind Super Lake. Funny the nursery lady could not believe anyone could want the yellow lemons... the bitter oranges yes but yellow lemons? horror of horror. That is what is fun about living in a different culture what one person loves is hated by someone else.

(This post was edited by Vichil on Oct 19, 2009, 2:18 PM)

lorirobin

Oct 19, 2009, 10:23 AM

Post #6 of 11 (5225 views)

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Re: [Vichil] Lemon Tree - MAIN THREAD

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I more or less expected that attitude when I started this thread. Yellow Lemons, you can't be serious. These gringos must be crazy.
I used to travel quite a bit in India where they like their tea sweet. Sweet might be a bit of an understatement. It's beyond sweet. At that time I had a girlfriend who wanted her tea without any sugar, so I learned to say, in Hindi, two teas please, one no sugar. They always assumed I didn't really understand what I was saying and both teas came with sugar. I got a kick out of it, my girlfriend, she didn't find it as funny.
And the search continues....

Hound Dog

Oct 19, 2009, 3:16 PM

Post #7 of 11 (5187 views)

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Re: [lorirobin] Lemon Tree - MAIN THREAD

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more or less expected that attitude when I started this thread. Yellow Lemons, you can't be serious. These gringos must be crazy.
I used to travel quite a bit in India where they like their tea sweet. Sweet might be a bit of an understatement. It's beyond sweet. At that time I had a girlfriend who wanted her tea without any sugar, so I learned to say, in Hindi, two teas please, one no sugar. They always assumed I didn't really understand what I was saying and both teas came with sugar. I got a kick out of it, my girlfriend, she didn't find it as funny.
And the search continues....

Lorirobin:

I misread your post and made some snotty rejoinder but my far more intelligent wife informed me of my stupidity which, by the way, she has been doing since 1971, so she rightfully deleted my moronic post but i must tell you this:

I got a big kick out of your comment about Indian sweet tea as the experience you had is reflective of what might very well have happened to you in Mexico or, actually, in my home region of South Alabama as well. I spent a year or so back in the 1960s traveling about India as a useless vagabond and learned long ago that the very concept of tea without milk or an excessive amount of sugar is, or at least, was, inconceivable in that beautiful but mysterious subcontinent. I'm a sumbitch if I did not finally get fed up with the notion that every morning as dawn occurred, I was disturbed in my deep sleep by the morning Indian ritual of communally relished sweet tea enjoyed with vociferous discourse in the kinds of places I could afford in those days which consisted primarily of bunks in community bedrooms in Salvation Army hostles and YMCAs and the like and I'll never forget the day in Calcutta in one of those basic and spartan communal bedrooms with a rent in the 1960s of something like $0.30US a day at most including tea and I finally became fed up with this seeming intrusion upon my peaceful rest and, as my Indian roommates, mostly Indian businessmen, sat about my bunk enjoying their sweet tea and engaging in loud chatter, I sat up and said:

"I realize you Indians like to get up early and drink your sweet tea with milk every morning at dawn but may I please have some peace and quiet"

Their response:

"Who do you people think you are coming over here with your white man's colonialist attitude telling us how to live."

Time to ride the rails to Madras.

(This post was edited by Hound Dog on Oct 19, 2009, 3:58 PM)

jsandrock

Oct 20, 2009, 7:51 PM

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Re: [Hound Dog] Lemon Tree

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Just to clarify, I didn't mean that bitter oranges were useless - I meant that the tree we happen to have in our garden doesn't produce particularly distinguished bitter oranges. They're just kind of "not great" even though the tree seems healthy. That's why Roberto thought it was a good candidate for grafting!

Anyway we'll see how our grafting project goes. I have also heard various people say that this nursery or that had them or could order them but I've never had any luck....particularly at Flora Exotica, where I've inquired several times.

Camille

Oct 20, 2009, 10:49 PM

Post #9 of 11 (5119 views)

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Re: [jsandrock] Lemon Tree

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I can provide cuttings of Meyer Lemon and Texas Ruby Red Grapefruit, just let me know how to get them to you and hopefully make that easy for me.....

Camille

Oct 20, 2009, 10:58 PM

Post #10 of 11 (5117 views)

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Re: [Hound Dog] Lemon Tree

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The bitter oranges must be mighty different from the Sour Orange rootstock used in South Texas.... I assure you, Dawg, you'd pucker up in all the wrong ways......and places. Prolific suckers, though......
I had some in my Texas garden grafted with many other citrus, a very successful experiment. Goin' back there in a couple of weeks for the first time in two years, should catch the very first of the ripe Ruby Reds. Crack out the vodka, Momma, I'll have me a Salty Dog!!!

jsandrock

Oct 23, 2009, 7:53 AM

Post #11 of 11 (5088 views)

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Re: [Camille] Lemon Tree

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Camille - First of all thanks for your offer of some cuttings! We have a Meyer lemon tree but I sure would love Texas Ruby Red Grapefruit! The problem is, the bitter orange tree is slated for grafting with the "sunkist" lemon and I don't have another tree in my garden that would work. Is there a way to take a cutting and root it or something and MAKE a new tree we could put somewhere? Or else I'd have to get another small tree that we could graft.

I think the tree we're going to graft with the lemon is exactly as you describe yours -VERY sour fruit, many suckers - whatever it is, it sounds like what you are describing so turning it into a lemon tree seemed like a good idea to us.