Bearss Lime
2001: This one was bearing fruit before we even planted it.
Appears to be a heavy bearer, and the quality is good.
2002: The frost damaged the nearly-ripe fruit, and also killed the blossoms that had started. By April-May we had a few small fruits on the tree. No new blossoms by end of June, however.
2003: We repeatedly covered the tree during frosty nights in January and February. Nevertheless, we lost some outer leaves and much baby fruit. We only harvested 4 fruits this year, from late January to April. I expect next year will be better, because we have some baby fruit that survived the frost, and there are still more blossoms. Perhaps we will use a dormant spray next year to delay the blossoms that occur in January/February. 6/1/03: Blossoms are still coming, and some limes are bigger than cherries. We might have a nice crop this year, with an extended harvest season. That will be good, because the limes taste very good. 6/22/03: Lots of small fruit has fallen during the last few days. Is this natural, or is it due to over-watering? 8/2/03: I think we'll have a bumper crop of limes this year, so long as the frost doesn't get them first.
2005: 2/27/05: We removed the protective covering about 2 weeks ago, and just in time because mold had just begun to form. Our harvesting method while the tree was covered was simply to wait until the fruit fell and rolled down the slope. We have gotten plenty of limes, and still have 20-30 yellow fruits on the tree, and a small number of green fruits that will ripen slowly over the next few months. As of a few days ago the new blossoms are coming on quite well. As of yesterday we are beginning to have trouble with aphids. 4/21/05: Last year's limes still haven't completely ripened, and there are some walnut-with-husk sized green fruits near the front of the tree that might be ripe in 6 months. 6/10/05: We picked the last lime of the season several days ago. Now we must wait perhaps another month before any new ones are ready. 8/30/05: Last week we pruned this tree heavily, removing small and crossing branches. It cost us a lot of fruit, but the tree looks much better now. 10/6/05: We're occasionally getting small fruits, but this is rare. The tree seems to be trying to recover from the pruning. 10/22/05: Looks like we won't have any more fruit for a month or more, as nothing is the least bit yellow at this time.
2006: 2/26/06: The limes have largely ceased falling during recent weeks, perhaps due to the cold spell? But I see plenty of yellow limes, lots of younger green ones, and no lack of blossoms, so the prognosis is good. Last month we juiced a bunch of limes and poured the juice into ice cube trays to save for later. 4/29/06: We're still getting occasional fruits falling on the ground, and the limes appear to be growing and ripening at a slow but steady pace. 5/30/06: The last ripe lime fell a few days ago. Now we have fruit in a wide variety of growth stages, from blossom to green with slight yellow tint. 8/2/06: We had another fruit drop prematurely today. I attribute this to heat trauma. 9/8/06: Weather has been generally cool since the big heat wave, so very little fruit has ripened. 9/22/06: Fruit hasn't ripened much, but this is consistent with prior years (though it seems odd, until I look at the records).
2007: 3/11/07: We trimmed back a lot of dead and unnecessary branches. The tree lost all but 2 or 3 leaves during the cold. Cloud cover spray didn't help, and I didn't have a floodlight to help this tree. Right after the cold snap we had to pluck and throw about 100 limes. The tree will survive, but it looks dreadful right now. 3/25/07: New growth appeared early in the week, though a few branches have died back even further than our pruning effort. 5/13/07: There are as yet no blossoms on the tree, but the leaves look very good by now. A few branches that started to have new growth suddenly died back for no apparent reason. My guess is that those branches were severely damaged during the freeze that they couldn't support new growth. 5/23/07: I expected to see some blossoms by now, but so far we only have improving leaf size and health.
2008: 3/13/08: The first blossoms appeared about 3 weeks ago, and now more are appearing every day. However, these blossoms seem to be late, meaning that I don't expect fruit until January. We lost most of the 2006 fruit to the January 2007 cold spell, and had no fruit in 2007 because that cold spell killed all the blossoms, and now we'll go most if not all of 2008 without fruit again. That's so discouraging. But the tree is strong, and we should really cut it back some more. 3/23/08: New growth was so vigorous that we had to prune it back some more. The tree looks very healthy now. 4/13/08: The tree is producing more and more blossoms, so that it now appears to be back to normal health. 6/7/08: Growth has been very vigorous such that one cannot now tell that the tree was even pruned at all. We have consistent blossom growth, a small amount of fruit drop, and lots of fruit growth. 7/5/08: The tree has ceased blossoming. THe largest fruits are now about the size of a walnut without the husk. 11/22/08: The limes began turning yellow about 10 days ago. A few have fallen prematurely. They are rather small to be ripening, so I hope that they grow considerably before we have to pick them.
2009: 2/20/09: Ripe limes began to fall in mid-January, but most of those fell due to frost damage. We lost close to half of our crop that way. But we salvage what we can, and virtually all of the remaining fruit looks healthy. 3/26/09: Fruit drop has ceased, and the remaining limes (of which there are many) look very good. New blossoms are beginning to open. Applied fertilizer spike containing iron and zinc. 5/9/09: Limes are dropping faster than we can consume them, at about 1-2 per day. We have lots of new blossoms and the tree looks very healthy. 6/11/09: The tree has fewer than 10 mature fruits on it, but the next crop should be a dandy. Some of the young limes are nearing walnut-size, and we still have an occasional blossom coming on. The tree is vigorous. 7/4/09: The last lime fell yesterday. Now we must wait until January or February for the next crop. 8/18/09: As of two weeks ago I noticed a few blossoms, as well as some very immature ("nubbin") fruits. I also note that the next crop looks to be very heavy, so I've begun to thin the fruit from some of the smaller branches. 11/29/09: We needed fresh lime juice for our fig preserves three weeks ago, so we picked about a dozen not-quite-ripe limes. They were still good, however. Today, the tree is heavy with nearly-ripe limes, though it may be Christmas before they are finally ripe. We have a small number of new blossoms coming on regularly now, so if we don't get a nasty freeze this winter we'll have limes most of next year.
2010: 1/14/10: The freeze in early December cost us 50-60% of our crop, and left most of the rest of the crop damaged. As of early January the limes are falling of their own accord. The flavor is good as always.
2011: 5/22/11: The tree and fruit suffered frost damage from a frost in mid-January, so we collected mostly damaged fruit this year. The high point of the season was around March or April, and now we have only 2 or 3 dozen fruits left. Blossoms began in earnest only within the last month, seemingly late because of continuing cold weather (a frost as late as April 9).
2012: 2/7/12: We used a floodlight to save most of the fruit from some severe frosts in December and January. However, we've lost about 50 fruits to weather damage. As of 2/4/12 the fruit began dropping of its own accord, regardless of weather damage. We still have over 100 fruits on the tree, with a few more at early stages of development. I expect the current crop will be mostly gone by end of April, but a few more will ripen in June or July, and still more around October or November. 5/20/12: The fruit just gets larger and larger. We still have some 50 or more fruits on the tree, about half a dozen fruits of early-intermediate development stage, and a huge number of fruits that have just advanced beyond the blossom stage. Leaves on the tree are very yellow, so it's missing iron or some such nutrient. 6/7/12: We're going to try fertilizing this tree every other month, around the middle of the odd numbered months. We still have 30-40 fruits on the tree, though it dropped 6 yesterday.