Pink Lemonade Tree Question

[MattyB]

Hi y'all!  I've got a friend with one of those pink lemonade trees. The one with the variegated fruit with pinky flesh. For years they only got a few fruits off of it. Then someone told them they needed a second lemon tree to help with pollination. So they planted a regular lemon tree next to it. Ever since then the pink lemonade tree has produced ample fruit but they are completely yellow skinned, yellow fleshed, and huge!  No sign of the original variegated fruit ever again. Can anyone explain this?  Did the variegation mutate away?  Is the other lemon trees help with pollination doing this?  Thanks for any ideas. 

[Silas_Sancona]

Matt, 

Can't say for certain but other variegated lemons I've seen always had produced variegated fruit. It's entirely possible that these are cross pollinated, leaning toward production of regular lemons. I also don't recall hearing that they need another tree to produce fruit.. had heard the opposite a few times ( self- fertile) in the past. I'm sure others here more versed in citrus have additional insights. 

[Jdiaz31089]

if I recall correctly, the fruit turns a uniform yellow once it ripens and becomes soft. 

[Tampa Scott]

I use to grow this Eureka Lemon sport and when the fruit became fully ripe the stripes faded from the fruit, until fully ripe the fruit showed the variegation. A reg Eureka Lemon tree grew a few feet away.

 

Edited June 18, 2017 by Tampa Scott

[fastfeat]

Pollination by other trees will have no affect on the color of the fruits, tho possibly on the seedlings of such fruits if you were to plant them out. (Tho variegation itself seldom comes true from seed in most plants anyway).

Is the foliage still uniformly variegated? Or has that disappeared as well? If foliage is still variegated, I assume too that the fruit variegation just disappears as it ripens. If the whole tree has reverted to green, well... ;) 

[Laaz]

Nope, sounds like the rootstock has taken over & that's what is producing the lemons. If you have no variegated leaves, it's the rootstock...

[fastfeat]

  On 6/18/2017 at 3:06 PM, Laaz said:

Nope, sounds like the rootstock has taken over & that's what is producing the lemons. If you have no variegated leaves, it's the rootstock...

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Hence my question about the foliage color. Either the rootstock has overtaken the graft or green has replaced the variegation. Different variegations have different levels of stability. Gotta say that I haven't grown this plant; I don't know its stability.

[Laaz]

Also, seed from variegated fruit almost always produces albino seedling which die. The only citrus I know of that produces variegated trees from seed, is the variegated sour orange.

[Laaz]

They are very stable. I have grown & grafted many.

[MattyB]

The foliage!!!!!  Oh right!  The foliage is completely green.  The first thing I checked is whether or not this was a root sucker but I couldn't see any graft line. I did see what I thought was a root sucker that had been cut off years ago but now I'm thinking that was probably the original tree. Ok so this tree is a root sucker. I always heard citrus root stalk was trifoliate orange which from what I understand produce small bitter fruit. This tree produces huge juicy lemons as pictured above.  New mystery.......go. 

[fastfeat]

  On 6/19/2017 at 3:51 AM, MattyB said:

The foliage!!!!!  Oh right!  The foliage is completely green.  The first thing I checked is whether or not this was a root sucker but I couldn't see any graft line. I did see what I thought was a root sucker that had been cut off years ago but now I'm thinking that was probably the original tree. Ok so this tree is a root sucker. I always heard citrus root stalk was trifoliate orange which from what I understand produce small bitter fruit. This tree produces huge juicy lemons as pictured above.  New mystery.......go. 

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I know that trifoliate orange is used mostly as a "dwarfing" rootstock, but I suspect that other lemons (maybe 'Lisbon' ?) are used for lemon rootstock. Lemons and 'Meyer' lemon hybrid root rather easily from cuttings and can be grown without grafting. But I suspect the variegation of this cultivar makes it difficult to root successfully, hence the grafting.

[Laaz]

Trifoliata produces tri leaves & isn't usually used with lemons. Without seeing the leaves, I would say it's rough lemon or sour orange...

[MattyB]

Great info guys!  Thank you so much.  I'll let them know.