Somewhat of an exaggeration as it only weighed 37 ounces. That is a cara cara navel next to it that fell off my tree.

I got it today at the home of James Francis of Houston,TX. He and
John Panzarella probably have the biggest collection of citrus varieties in the Houston area. I believe James passed John this year as John killed about half his
during the drought when he didn't realize the water from the bayou he uses for irrigation had excessive salt levels.

I also tasted a Fremont tangerine for the first time. Tasty!
James also traded me a China S9 satsuma he got from a local wholesale
nursery recently, Doremus. It even had plenty of budwood on it but I've budded almost all of my rootstock already. We are now having nights of 50s weather that will stop the bark from slipping: http://www.weather.com/weather/5-day/Beaumont+TX+77707:4:US
It is 57F out right now!

I sold him a 15-150 lee x orlando, midnight valencia, and new zealand lemon(with fruit). A few weeks ago he bought a 99-2 lee x nova, valentine hybrid, and a giant key lime from me as well. Budwood for those came from the California budwood program thru Texas A&M in the Texas Valley. Pricey to get the budwood but selling two trees of each variety pays for the approximately $50 per variety budwood.

Really nice one, despite the fact it does not weight all that much! The fruit cross section resembles that of a pomelo (C. grandis)... do they actually have anything in common, perhaps heritage?

Igor

Interesting fruit. I would love to have a 9 pound lemon tree in my collection. But I'm out of room...

How much larger do they normally get?

Interesting. Looks like a citron without seeds or a pummelo. You mention a "Giant Key Lime" from the CCPP budwood? What is the actual cultivar name, I'd be very interested in that tree. And, the "99-2 Lee x Nova", maybe you mean the USDA 88-2 Lee x Nova mandarin (they MUST give this poor tree a real name for goodness' sake). That was in the top 3 mandarins of my taste test this winter at the UC Riverside Citrus Collection. Outstanding mandarin. I have a small one going that will probably go into the ground next March. Excellent mandarin. Better than the Dekopon.

Patty S.

The "giant key lime" is not a key lime at all. Gene Lester has one & after talking to him dicided I didn't want it. I don't believe Gene is very impressed with it either.

Thanks, Laaz. I'm kind of in "Key Lime" country, so that's why I was asking. I had never heard of it, and I would have expected to run across it here, somewhere.

http://www.citrusvariety.ucr.edu/citrus/giant_key.html

I forget the conversation, then again Gene isn't impressed with Kishu madarins either.

Well, there are a few folks who diss the Seedless Kishu primarily due to it's diminutive size. I seriously doubt, however, anyone can deny it's exceptional taste. Now, I'm a girl. I'm a small girl (although not as small as I used to be, lol), so I LIKE the fact that I can pop a half a Kishu in my mouth. I often don't eat an entire piece of fruit, so for me, they're the perfect size. I really love the taste of the Kishu, and that fantastic USDA 88- 2 Lee x Nova cross (Novalee, Lova, Leova, we must come up with something better, honestly, it's going into commercial production.) So, maybe this is a "girl's mandarin" or a "kid's mandarin". And Gene is looking for a "man's mandarin" In any event, I'll check out this "Giant Key Lime", thanks for the link.

Interesting. Now, Laaz, Gene has said that the Giant Key Lime is not a Key Lime at all, but the UC Riverside Collection description says it's an "Spontaneous autotetraploid selected from seedling population of diploid Key lime." So, same genetic material (materna), just twice as much. That's a grossly simplified explanation, but shouldn't this just be a "super duper" Key Lime?? Here is another explanation in the "Citrus Industry" that explains autotetraploiody: "Origin of autotetraploids.—Spontaneous tetraploids appear to occur almost entirely as nucellar seedlings. The older Riverside tetraploids that have been cytologically verified are of this type, as shown by the absence of pollen-parent characters after cross-pollination and by uniformity within a variety. The tetraploids studied by Lapin included some of known nucellar origin and none of proven sexual origin." So, indeed a "super duper" clone of the mother plant? I might just order some budwood and try my hand at grafting. Wanted to try grafting Xie Shan too, so maybe I'll try both of these. Always looking for another margarita source