Update on Evaluations of Lemon Selections for the California Desert

As the nation’s leader in lemon production, California lemons continue to be the highest-value citrus crop per acre for the state.  Although lemons are grown predominantly in the coastal and desert regions of the state with smaller numbers of acres in the San Joaquin Valley, this range of climatic regions in the state provides the market with year-round production. Among these regions, lemons grown in the desert occupy an important early-season market niche and are an important source of fruit for packinghouses located there and in other areas of the state.  This project was designed to evaluate 12 lemon selections under desert conditions. The objectives are to provide the lemon industry with information on tree growth, yield, packout, and fruit quality characteristics for selections. These include: ‘Allen Eureka’, ‘Variegated Pink-Fleshed Eureka’, ‘Corona Foothills’ (a bud sport of ‘Villafranca’), ‘Limoneira 8A Lisbon’, ‘Walker Lisbon’, ‘Femminello Santa Teresa’, ‘Interdonato’, ‘Limonero Fino 49’, Limonero Fino 95’, ‘Messina’, ‘Seedless’ lemon, and ‘Yen Ben’. This trial update will provide results of overall yield, experimental and commercial pack-out, and exterior and interior fruit quality. For the past seven seasons, ‘Corona Foothills’, ‘Walker Lisbon’, ‘Limoneira Fino 49’, ‘Femminello Santa Teresa’, and the controls, ‘Allen Eureka’ and ‘Limoneira 8A Lisbon’, had the highest yields; and ‘Yen Ben’, ‘Interdonato’, ‘Seedless Lemon’, ‘Limonero Fino 95’, ‘Messina’, and ‘Variegated Pink Eureka’ had the lowest yield. Of the six highest yielding selections, three stand out. ‘Corona Foothills’ fruit had good size, were relatively early in maturity and had the best first harvest yield and next-to-best total yield and returns with excellent cumulative yield. ‘Walker Lisbon’ had good first harvest yield, good total yield, good returns, and the fruit were relatively early in maturity. ‘Limonero Fino 49’ had excellent first and second harvest fruit size and good exterior quality with excellent first harvest yields and good second harvest yields and returns as well as excellent total yield and cumulative yield. Along with ’Corona Foothills’ and ‘Walker Lisbon’, ‘Limonero Fino 49’ was the earliest of the selections.  Information obtained from this trial will help to further define performance of these selected cultivars in the California desert.