Need recommendations for a juicy lemon and lime cultivars

[SF]

Hello,

Reaching out to citrus enthusiasts who might be able to help me find the right variety for my lemon tree replacement.

I had a lemon tree that was planted by one of the previous owners. These lemons were delicious - seedless, thin skinned and just the juiciest yellow oblong/roundish fruits, with a hint of tartness I have ever tasted. Timeline wise I estimate the tree was planted in the 1970s. Couple of years ago that lemon tree died and did not recover after one winter. Now I am uncertain if this lemon tree was grafted or just the rootstock that was delicious.  Unfortunately I could not locate any useable pictures of the fruit.

Here are a couple of other fruit traits - I could juice the cut lemons with bare hands, and did not need the manual citrus hand press; even though the fruits can be juiced easily the skin remained firm and did not fall apart. The fruits had a beautiful yellow color without any dimples/texture. I am attaching a picture of my sweet limes as a reference to the size of the lemon fruits from this lost tree.

Can someone recommend lemon varieties that are comparable to the ones I had. Every time I use a store bought lemon, I miss my lemon tree.


I am also looking to add a seedless lime tree that has similar properties.- juicy, thin skinned, etc.

Thanks for your suggestions and recommendations.

Cheers

[SoCalGardenNut]

How about Myer Lemon?

[70Malibu]

Yes, it sounds like you had the Meyer lemon, it has thin skin, easy to squeeze, no seeds.

For lime, just buy the Bearss lime, big fruit, seedless, high fruit production. It will give fruits year-round. My tree usually gets about 100 fruits at a time.

[SF]

I will look into Meyer Lemons again. I have bought meyer lemons couple of times, though juicy did not match the lost tree. Meyer lemons rind were thicker, and the acidity a bit sharper.

However Meyer and Bearss are my short list for lemon and lime.

I don't have a reference for limes, but for the lemons I am hoping I can find something closer to the lemon I am familiar with. Thanks for the recommendations.

[SoCalGardenNut]

Eureka lemon skin can be thick if it’s in the shade, i have 2 so I know. I suspect Myer Lemon is the same.

[BP]

Am I misreading this, meyer lemons are supposed to be seedless?

[SoCalGardenNut]

Most of the time, my sister has a large tree, I harvest regularly from her tree. But it’s not guaranteed 100% to be seedless.

[BP]

Ah ok, I bought a bag recently and they had a lot of seeds in different sizes. Some looked just like Poncirus, I was confused.

[a3pulley]

Seconding Bearss. Extremely productive and juicy. Leave until yellow for best flavor. I agree you had a Meyer lemon.

[SoCalGardenNut]

I bought a Bearss lime this year, didn’t know they turn yellow, I thought they are lime.

[Peep]

I bought a Bearss lime this year, didn’t know they turn yellow, I thought they are lime.

There are no citrus varities that stay green, except maybe some australian finger limes or something, those I'm not sure about.

But ever type of normal citrus lime will turn yellow, or even orange. You just harvest them early. And the reason is simply that they are cultivars that taste better when harvested green.

[SoCalGardenNut]

I didn’t know that but the limes i bought from the store are green. They are not yellow.

[Millet]

Peep is certainly correct.  All normal limes will turn yellow.  Store limes are green because they are  picked before maturity.  If left on the tree they turn yellow as they mature.

[70Malibu]

One more comment about the Meyer lemon. The nurseries and UCR sold 2 different types. The first Meyer lemons were smaller size I noticed and had thinner skin. But due to some type of disease on the Meyer, they came up with an "Improved Meyer lemon". This is all the nursery and UCR will sell now. These Improved Meyer lemon scions I grafted had much larger fruits, and sometime the rind was thicker, not thin (1/8") like the original ones on trees of people wh had one for over 25 yrs. I have one of those 45yr old Meyer lemon tree I saved, which has the smaller fruit, and also the new grafts of the Improved Meyer lemon.