S16 - Session P1 - Current yield, packout and fruit quality results from four lemon scion trials in California

Authors: Glenn C. Wright *, Tracy Kahn, Mikeal Roose

We established lemon scion trials at four sites in Spring 2015. These locations include: the Lindcove Research and Extension Center at Exeter, CA (LREC), a LimoneiraCompany-owned block near Santa Paula CA (SP), the UCR Agriculture Operations Fields at Riverside, CA (UCR), and the Coachella Valley Agriculture Research Station (CVARS), near Thermal, CA. At each location, we planted 18 trees each of 'Limoneira 8A Lisbon' (L8A), 'Limoneira 8A-IR1' (IR1 - a seedless irradiated selection of 'Limoneira 8A'), 'Corona Foothills'(CFH), 'Limonero Fino 49'(F49), 'Walker Lisbon' (WLK), and 'Yen Ben'.(YBN) Trees were budded to three rootstocks which varied by location. Yield data from LREC indicates that WLK and L8A have performed the best so far, while at SP, these two are joined by IR1. At UCR, CFH, F49 and WLK have performed well, while at CVARS, these three selections are joined by L8A. YBN performs poorly at all locations. There are scion by rootstock interactions at each site, but the best performers have cumulative yields of between 450 and 600 lbs. per tree regardless of site. CFH, F49 and occasionally IR1 typically have the largest fruit size, followed by L8A. and WLK. YBN has the smallest fruit. Again, there are interactions between scion and rootstock affecting fruit size at each site. Both IR1 and YBM have significantly fewer seeds than the other selections. The authors wish to thank the Citrus Research Board for financial support of this project.