Fingerlimes; cultivars, my grove, natural habitat and how to grow them.

[Starling]

Fingerlimes seems to generate a lot of interest internationally, so I thought I'd create a post about what they are, the varieties that exist, and how I grow them--and my experience in growing them. I believe that fingerlimes would definitely be viable in areas of the UK, and I look forward to trading seeds.

There are several kinds of native Australian citrus, and all of them are curious. Perhaps the most unusual is citrus glauca, which is commonly referred to a a 'Desert Lime'. I have one small tree grafted onto tri, but it does not perform well in my location owing to the humidity I experience. It is more suited to arid, dry heat locations such as Roma in Queensland. My mother used to collect these when she lived in roma, and her mother would make lemonade from them. They have an unusual evolutionary feature; that is, they produce spines along the trunk only up to a certain point, and these then do not appear. Scientists at the CSIRO determined recently that the point at which Glauca stops producing spines is almost exactly the maximum grazing height of Kangaroos. A truly 'old world' fruit.



Finger Lime Cultivars

Have been in development in Australia for at least 30 years. Wild varieties are almost invariably green skinned with green, or slightly pink caviar. Now however, there are reds, deep greens, pinks, yellows and even purples. I have found the red caviar types to be the best--most notably, red champagne, rick's red, and the best of all, crimson tide. Sunshine yellow is also very good, and a prolific producer. CSIRO also managed to hybridize a variety of fingerlime with an acid mandarin to create the 'blood lime', which is quite good and a very beautiful fruit, though it does not boast the delicate 'pearls' of caviar such as the others mentioned. I've included a sample of some of the varieties available, this is from my post on TFF titled 'A field spotter's guide to Australian fingerlime cultivars'


Well, it look like I've maxed out the number of attachments I can upload. If anyone is interested in seeing more, I will create another thread showing my trees, how I grow them and their natural habitat. A friend of mine collected some good images of wild trees hiking in the rainforest not so long ago.

cheers
s

[Starling]

Natural Habitat

Need to a thread reply to include extra pictures.

Here you can see the natural habitat of finger limes. They are an understory tree which tend to occur along the edges of creeks, and dry creekbeds, in rainforest/woodland type settings. These pictures were taken by a friend of mine on a hike, not far from where I live in SE Queensland.



Here's the link to a thread I created on TFF outlining how I grow them. My trees are much larger now, and I have learned some tricks since creating the original thread, but all of what is contained therein the original is still valid, and relevant. I'm not sure if it's ok to post links to other sites or not. I'm doing this so I don't have to reinvent the wheel

My Fingerlime Grove and How I grow Finger Limes.

[kris1960]

Fab- how high up do they grow- I mean altitude not tree height. We were in sub tropical rainforest at the edge of the New England and I reckon that anything that would grow there would be ok here except for day length critical things

[Alison]

Never heard of them, don't think they've made it to the UK shops yet let alone gardens.

[bearded bloke]

You not keeping up with the "cheffie" programs Alison, 50grams for £15 makes them a touch expensive though ......... Buy Finger Limes Online In U.K.

[muddled]

I've never heard of them either...they look amazing!
So do they taste like the sort of limes we get here?

I want red limes with 'caviar' pearls now!

(and BB, is that where you shop then? 54 quid for a fillet of halibut! Are you Prince Charles in disguise?)

[bearded bloke]

Plants on sale here ....... Send Finger Lime as a plant gift for delivery in the UK ....... little bit pricey though

[bearded bloke]

5 seeds for ......... £7 ........... 5 Pink Finger Lime Seeds Quality Fresh Harvest Microcitrus Australasica | eBay

[Alison]

You not keeping up with the "cheffie" programs Alison, 50grams for £15 makes them a touch expensive though ......... Buy Finger Limes Online In U.K.

Most certainly don't keep up with them, the waste really winds me up and the food never looks like food by the time they've finished. Do find different ingredients interesting though but at that price I'd not be tempted to try them even for more realistic purposes

[Starling]

I've never heard of them either...they look amazing!
So do they taste like the sort of limes we get here?

I want red limes with 'caviar' pearls now!

(and BB, is that where you shop then? 54 quid for a fillet of halibut! Are you Prince Charles in disguise?)

No. Crimson tide actually has a berry flavour to it, and is nowhere near as astringent as a regular lime--but yes, it does have the lime flavour. Those seeds are probably from a variety which is called 'rainforest pearl' which is tough, but a very poor fruit owing to high oil content in the skin.

Please don't pay 5 Pounds for seeds from inferior quality cultivars. I should have enough to trade, though I can't commit to anything yet because they are in seriously high demand. And I can't trade here for 3 months. You also have to know how to pack them...they are fragile, and if not packed properly will not be viable. If you buy seeds, and they're dry, they will not germinate.

[Starling]

You not keeping up with the "cheffie" programs Alison, 50grams for £15 makes them a touch expensive though ......... Buy Finger Limes Online In U.K.

That variety is rainforest pearl, which unfortunately is about the worst variety--very high oil content in the skin and far too astringent. A poor representation of finger limes, though I'm not surprised at the price. They are pricey even here in Australia. Crimson Tide can sell for 80aud$ per kilo.

[bearded bloke]

Please don't pay 5 Pounds for seeds from inferior quality cultivars.

Unless you have personal experience of purchasing from company/ies mentioned in posts on this forum, please don't make broad statements.

I should have enough to trade, though I can't commit to anything yet because they are in seriously high demand. And I can't trade here for 3 months.

Sorry but members are not allowed to trade via the forums unless they have a prior arrangement with the forum Administrators. Seed swapping is entirely different to tradeing, swapping is the operative word.

[Starling]

Unless you have personal experience of purchasing from company/ies mentioned in posts on this forum, please don't make broad statements.



Sorry but members are not allowed to trade via the forums unless they have a prior arrangement with the forum Administrators. Seed swapping is entirely different to tradeing, swapping is the operative word.

I think you might have misunderstood:

I have used the word 'trade' in reference to a non-financial exchange of two separate physical commodities (seeds) between two consenting members, not 'trade' as in the mercantile sense, which would refer to a situation in which a commodity is sold for money. I gave no inclination of any such motive as far as I can see. This something you seem to have inferred, incorrectly, during your own process of definitional interpretation. I do not like to use the word 'swap' as it conjures up shadowy credit default/derivative schemes and meeting in deadlurks at midnight.

Trade, as in the way people might trade baseball cards.

On point B, I am familiar with every Fingerlime Cultivar in existence, As I live in the land of Fingerlimes, have spent the last 5 years collecting and researching them, and can say with total certainty that the CV pictured in the ebay link is Rainforest pearl, which is also synonymous with Judy's Everbearing--or else it is a an uncultivated type, which is also very unlikely because the only type with pink caviar that exists in a natural state comes from Mt Tamborine in QLD at high altitude, in very secluded locations. JE/RP is a poor quality CV, one of the oldest, which was developed in Byron bay--which, incidentally, is where some fantastic varieties have been bred. It is sold in macro-scale hardware/gardening centers in Australia as plants, and by the punnet as detailed in your link to the fingerlimes being sold in the UK. The reason it is the most commonly sold fingerlime is mostly because it is bulletproof in a horticultural sense, and because the better limes fetch such a high price that the average punter simply cannot afford to buy them. Superior CV's tend to make their way into high end Japanese and Michelin listed restaurants.

Moreover, I did a reverse image search on the images of the fingerlimes in your Ebay link, and the image clearly is not the seller's own, as it is stolen from a third party site completely outside the jurisdiction of the seller's locale, specifically, this is California. Please see:

Cook Like James: Fruit/Vegetables

So we can at least concede that the seeds could be anything, because they do not come from fruit produced by a fingerlime tree in possession of the seller--for what need would there be so steal images of other people's fruit if this was the case? What is far, far more likely, is that this person is a reseller, and the seeds have been in postage and storage for so long that they are no longer viable--especially considering that they have a very short shelf life. In Australia, seedstock of new varieties is sent via courier in refrigerated cases for this reason. The only way the seeds could be fresh is if the seller bought a punnet of limes, saved the seeds and whacked them on ebay--in which case, they are not worth buying, because Judy's everbearing/Rainforest pearl isn't worth eating.

And finally, it takes at least 7 years for a Fingerlime tree to produce from seed--and that's with absolutely perfectly ideal conditions with flawless nute regimes. If not, you're looking at a minimum of ten years, but you probably won't see a finger (no pun intended) for 15. Given this fact, it verges on the delusional to suggest that the seller could be selling seed from his/her own tree(S) since they have not, in all probability, even been available in the UK for greater period than 5 years.

Fingerlimes are a hot ticket item, and seeds have a high value. As with anything like this, scamming is going to be par for the course.

Look, I have been collecting and trading seed internationally for a long time, and at this point, I really do know what I'm doing, and I know how to identify a dubious listing. My post was simply an effort in good faith to try and prevent members here getting stooged, and to provide a viable, and honest alternative vendor for people who want to grow the best of the best of fingerlimes. I have no interest in selling them, and if members of this site do not wish to trade other species, I will still trade all of them without attention owing to popularity--which is why I included the caveat that supply will be subject to availability-- through the numerous other sites I participate in, and which I moderate.

[Nicos]

Thankyou for clarifying that.
Perhaps the word 'swap' culturally has different connertations in our respective countries?

Here, it is a friendly exchange with no involvement of meeting in dark passageways at midnight!

As for ' stolen'photos/ poor quality seeds etc, the owners of this site cannot comment on nor can support your views.
We have a very active legal system here in the UK and need to be very sensitive to any personal allegations as the other side are not able to defend themselves on here.

Your offer of very valuable seeds is indeed very generous, but please be sensitive to our terms and conditions

[Starling]

Thankyou for clarifying that.
Perhaps the word 'swap' culturally has different connertations in our respective countries?

Here, it is a friendly exchange with no involvement of meeting in dark passageways at midnight!

As for ' stolen'photos/ poor quality seeds etc, the owners of this site cannot comment on nor can support your views.
We have a very active legal system here in the UK and need to be very sensitive to any personal allegations as the other side are not able to defend themselves on here.

Your offer of very valuable seeds is indeed very generous, but please be sensitive to our terms and conditions

I'm a Law student Majoring in copyright. The images posted by the listed seller via ebay are in violation of DMCA regulations and should their creator wish to do so, s/he could send said seller a takedown notice, and that person would have to comply with that request or face punitive measures as DMCA legislation exceeds the normative domestic boundaries of other, more traditional aspects of Law. The only time it is acceptable to use digital images that do not belong to you is if these images exist in the public domain--the images in question do not fall into that category.Moreover, for something to constitute libel it must constitute essential untruth; I'm no going to get into the epistemology of that concept, but suffice to say something is only slander if it isn't true. Since it is true that the seller's images are not his/her own, and I have merely expressed what would be regarded as a reasonable opinion ( which also doesn't equate to slander) relating to the quality of the listed seeds, there is no case to answer, and no room for any libel-orientated litigation case to be mounted---that is, assuming the seller even did have the financial means, and the requisite level of petulance , to pursue such a spectacularly expensive action over such a petty incident.

I hope this ends here. I signed up to this site to trade seeds, learn, and share information and experiences--not to be condescended to and/or spoken to like an inane colonial. I'm not referring to your post i any way, but this is the impression I received from BB's post. Perhaps I'm being too sensitive. I have familiarized myself with the terms and conditions of ...swapping, seeds on this site since being directed to them by veggiechicken, have not attempted to subvert any of them, and intend to continue to comply with all of them. My goal is, and always has been, to expand the biodiversity and availability of edible species globally. So far, I have made very few connections in the UK and Europe more broadly, but I am hoping to change that through networking on this site, in time, by building up trust with other members.