I'd love to get a hold of some Australian Blood Lime seeds (or plants!). I know citrus seeds don't last very long but I have had some luck with citrus seeds a couple of weeks old. Of course a little plant would be a lot better, but I'm not sure of the shipping and export laws.
My have list can be found here: http://davesgarden.com/trading/view/list.php?list=have&member=Dirus
It's mostly tomatoes and chilies right now, but if you want something I don't have that's only found in the southwest USA (or in America in general) let me know and I can probably pick it up and ship it to you in exchange. Otherwise I'd gladly pay any costs.
WANTED: Australian Blood Lime
I have a friend nearby who was telling me about his blood lime a few days ago. He plants a lot of citrus seed. I'll check with him for you. I also know someone in Lake Jackson, TX who had all that stuff about 1990 or so. If my local friend doesn't have what you want.
Do you have sugarcane in AZ ?
Sugarcane 52
Thanks.
We don't have any sugarcane growing wildly here in AZ, at least as far as I know, but it does certainly grow here if you keep it well watered.
Sugarcane is not indigenous to USA. Was brought to LA and GA in 1700's and early 1800's, so I have read. It is native to more tropical areas. It is widely , but sparsely grown over SE US and CA, a little in AZ I hear. South TX, South LA , an South FL grow it commercially for sugar. We grow it in N FL for syrup production and chewing and juice. There are also several ornamental varieties, too.
I must apologize as my friend whom I thought had blood lime had only other limes, not a blood lime. He does have blood orange, though which he said withstood 19 degrees this year.
Contact in Lake Jackson, TX or further South can't be located now. I'll have to a little more "digging" to find out where he is now. About 1990 or so he had Keragi mandarine, Bloomsweet grapefruit, and Australian finger lime as I recall--stuff I had never heard of at the time. I did a Yahoo people search for him with no luck at all. So, I may have to contact some folks in Houston to see if he can be located.
In the meantime, I am not familiar with Australian blood lime so I would appreciate hearing more about it.
Sugarcane52
Here's a short description from the Australian New Crops Newsletter:
'Australian Blood' PBR lime
This is a selected hybrid produced by open-pollination. It is thought to be a cross between an Ellendale Mandarin (a mandarin and orange hybrid) and a seedling form of the Australian red-pulp finger lime (Microcitrus australasica var. sanguinea) (Lewis, pers comm, 1997). The cross has produced a tree of 2-3 metres in height, which produces small, blood-red fruit of approximately 30-50mm x 20-30mm (about the size of an oval cumquat).
The pulp of the fruit is red in colour, the intensity of which varies from season to season and the fruit do not have the separate rounded pulp-vesicles as found in the finger lime (Sykes, pers comm, 1997). The 'Australian Blood'PBR lime flowers in spring and fruit ripens in winter. The fruit is suited to manufacturing into a range of value-added products, including beverages, preserves, marma- lades, sauces and syrups (Beal, 1998).
Thanks Yuska. The University of Melbourne in Australia classifies it as http://www.plantnames.unimelb.edu.au/Sorting/Citrus_relatives.html
Citrus reticulata Blanco x Citrus sinensis (L.) Osbeck cv. 'Ellendale' X Microcitrus australasica (F. Muell.) Swingle var. sanguinea cv. 'Australian Blood'
Finger limes have seed which do not come true to type. So I wonder if the Australian Blood lime has the same problem; perhaps I need bud wood? Speaking of bud wood, perhaps a fun alternative would be to get a finger lime that has deep red rind and pulp, so I could just (try to) make my own red limes. ;-)
This message was edited Mar 24, 2007 10:35 AM
Yuska and Dirus,
Thanks for the info on Australian finger lime and blood lime.
Sugarcane52
Yesterday I collected seed from a seedling orange tree nearby. This tree has withstood 20 degrees this year. It is maybe 15' tall and 20 years old. The fruit is a juice orange with 12 or more seed per fruit. The fruit is sweet. Also, I collected seed from a round kumquat which has much aroma and a sweet-tart taste. In the past I have planted seed of Meiwa kumquat . It came back with very similar fruit and a taller more leggy growth pattern.
In addition, I have a friend who has planted many citrus seeds to experiment with. Has anyone else had success with seedling citrus ?
Sugarcane52
Yes, In California I grew Moro blood orange and tangerine trees from seed. They appeared in every respect to be identical to the parent trees. The difference in growth pattern of your Meiwa kumquat may have been because the original tree was on a rootstock that limited its size.
My original Meiwa kumquat is probably on sour orange rootstock. I have seen them on trifoliate rootstock and they made similar size trees to the one on sour. The one on sour is about 24 years old and is about 7 feet tall and maybe 9 feet wide. It fruitsw very heavily from about 3 crops of blooms each year which may be causing it to be a little dwarf in habit. A 4 year old Meiwa seedling is about 9 feet tall and has been topped more than once for growing too columnar. It is maybe 3 feet or so wide.
Sugarcane 52
I'm looking for some Australian Blood lime seeds or preferably, plants, too- Also Australian Finger limes (or fingerlimes) if anyone has a source!
Thanks
Susan
I doubt seeds would do. A hybrid like this is unlikely to bear true. Need to graft onto rootstock.
Maybe try Marvick Native Farms here in Western Australia. They have blood limes and may be able to help you. If they're at out local farmers market tomorrow, I'll ask them if it's possible to export the seeds to the US.
http://www.marvicknativefarms.com.au/Australian-Blood-Lime.php
They weren't at the farmer's market today, so maybe if you contact them directly.
THANK YOU!!
Did you have any luck contacting Marvick Native Farms for the native limes?
Have you tried...?
Australian Outback Plants Nursery
1-10 West Exit 94
Tonopah, AZ
phone: 623-393-0767
Fax: 623-393-0530
Email australianoutbackplants@msn.com
I haven't contacted them in several years, but they used to have an extensive listing of AU plants...