Wendy's Wanderings
February 7, 2024
When Life Gives You Lemons...
When I moved into my house in Gainesville it only had four fruit trees, a mature lemon tree and three fig plants. The fig trees have produced crops — only to be eaten by the squirrels.
The lemon tree, on the other hand, has been a great source of pride and joy for over 15 years. If you have ever seen a Ponderosa lemon, you know why. This tree reliably produced grapefruit-sized lemons with no care. And when I started following UF/IFAS recommendations for fertilizing and watering, the fruits grew even bigger, with most lemons weighing in at two to three pounds. The tree produced far more lemons than I could use. I was so proud to bring bags of the giant fruits to share with friends and neighbors.
Ponderosa lemons are seedy and have a very thick skin, with a wide layer of albedo (the white pithy layer between the fruit and the rind). But they're also juicy and have a distinct lemony flavor. I made lemon juice, lemonade, limoncello, lemon cake, lemon marmalade, lemon curd, and candied lemon peel.
Ponderosa lemons are not very common and I felt lucky to have such a conversation starter. They are considered to be a hybrid between citron and lemon. This variety originated in the late 1800’s and was introduced to the U.S. nursery trade in 1900. It is mostly grown as an ornamental or oddity and isn’t grown commercially. The trees grow 15 to 25 feet and have thorns.
They are known to be cold sensitive, but my ungrafted tree went through the Gainesville winters without blinking. When my other citrus trees started to show signs of citrus greening disease, also called HLB, the trusty Ponderosa lemon was unfazed and continued to produce its giant lemons. It might be due to its origins — there's been some research done with HLB tolerance in citrus with citron parentage.
I thought I would have many years of lemon harvests to come. But a hard December freeze in 2022 ended my lemon glory days. We had three nights with temperatures in the low 20s and the freeze damage was fatal to my beloved Ponderosa lemon tree. I was depressed about this loss and thought of the saying, “Pride goeth before a fall.” I wondered where I would even begin to find another Ponderosa lemon tree to replace my pride and joy.
I shared the sad news with my fellow gardeners. A horticulturist friend reached out and said that he had sprouted seeds from a lemon — a Ponderosa lemon that I had given him years ago.
His offer of a passalong/pass-back plant made my heart soar. It wasn’t long before the seedling came to be planted. I am hoping that it grows true to seed and I promise to protect it from hard freezes so I can pass along lemons again.
-- Wendy Wilber