# Toxic Citrus



## Maria

I've been growing dwarf citrus in large pots for a few years now. There's a lemon, a lime and an orange tree. They've been quite healthy and this year the orange tree fruited. It was quite exciting watching them grow and eventually turning orange. When we picked one to eat, though, it was SOUR. Worse than a lemon, such that I had to spit it out.

So, I let them sit on the tree another month and finally picked them when they seemed to be getting lighter. I cut them open and they were still super sour. So I figured that if they were acting like lemons, I'd treat them as such- I squeezed the juice and made lemonade out of it (orangeade, actually) It was still sour at the right sugar level for lemons, so I added more sugar and watered it down further and drank some of it. It was tart but acceptable.

About 10 minutes later I was throwing up violently.  I haven't done that in _years!_ As soon as my stomach was cleared, though, I felt fine.

Has anyone ever heard of such a thing? It's rather disappointing that the oranges aren't usable.


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## NickieL

WOW, I've never heard of such a thing! mine were always very sweet, even the lemons were pretty sweet.


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## woodsman

Was the juicer you were using made of plastic? I once noticed that a juicer I had, got etched by the juice as I was squeezing oranges. Had to dump 2 quarts of juice - didn't want to risk drinking it with the plastic dissolved in it.


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## Guest

Do you know the specific variety of orange that you have? 

There are many kinds of oranges and not all of them are sweet. No variety of citrus is toxic though there are some that taste so bad that you might think so. 

.....Alan.


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## mnn2501

When I lived in FL I had an orange tree in my backyard that was there when I bought the place. I found out not all oranges are edible - this was just an ornamental -- while it didn't make me sick, I sure wouldn't want to eat the oranges or drink the juice - I tried adding sugar and it never did taste good.
I did some research and there are a number of 'garbage' citrus tree's = good for ornamental purposes but not for eating.


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## woodsman

I have some citrus trees that have strange fruit, one looks like large round lime, is orange in color inside and tastes like very sour lemon. Macaws seem to like them and spend a lot of time in the tree pecking at the fruit.


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## Maria

It was a glass juicer. The tree was part of Gurney's dwarf citrus collection: http://gurneys.com/product.asp_Q_pn_E_74109 Looks like it's a Dwarf Venous Orange.


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## Guest

Ah, OK. Places like Guerney's are notorious for making up names. There is no "venous orange" variety that I can discover. If the plant pictured in the Guerneys site is accurate then it's not a trifoliate or trifoliate cross so it's simply some variety of sour orange.

There's a lot of uses for acid citrus. I use them for meat marinades, make ade type drinks, marmalades, and for zesting. I like to squeeze a small one over ice then pour in some seltzer water the way I do with limes.

.....Alan.


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## rocket

It still might have ended up as a trifoliate orange. Lots of citrus trees are grafted onto trifoliate root stock. If the root stock manages to send up a shoot, it seems like the grafted citrus growth stalls or even dies and most of the growth is trifoliate.

I had a lime tree a few years ago that seemed to grow great and set a whole bunch of fruit. But the fruit seemed kind of funny. Almost a little fuzzy. Then my "limes" turned orange. Then I tried them and found out how horrible they tasted. That's about the time I noticed how all the leaves on my "Lime" tree were in clusters of three. Now I make sure that I check my citrus trees for trifoliate suckers and chop them back.


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## garnetmoth

heh. I got a veinous orange from them before I knew better. All of the trees were funny shaped, and after 3 years and 3 lemons, my Meyer finally kicked the bucket.

The "Veinous" should fruit this year, but its got regular leaves, not trifolate (at least on mine)...?

Something like calamondin is good and puckery...


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## ksfarmer

There are non-edible ornamental dwarf orange trees, lovely to look at, terrible to eat. I have one that is nearly 60 years old. Oranges are so sour I never forced myself to eat one. Even the Baltimore orioles won't eat them at the bird feeder.


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## Maria

I don't see much use in keeping the tree if the fruit isn't edible.


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## Guest

If it's simply sour and not actually bad tasting then just use the fruit as you would a lemon or a lime. Plenty of uses for acid citrus.

Do the leaves of your tree look like the ones in the Guerney's picture or do they have three leaves per stem?

*Guerneys Dwarf Venous Orange*









*Trifoliate Orange*









If they're singled leaved then it's just some variety of sour orange. Use as you would any acid citrus. Instead of a lemon or lime flavor you'll get an orange one. A bit of experimentation will soon reveal how much dilution and sugar will be needed.

If they're triple leaved then it's either a pure trifoliate or a trifoliate cross which is not going to make a fruit that anyone would want to eat. Not just sour, but bad tasting. Pretty plant, nice smelling blossoms, but unless you want to learn to bud your own citrus no practical use.

.....Alan.


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## RideBarefoot

Yikes, on my list of wants this year is dwarf citrus trees. And I was thinking of ordering from Gurney's, because of the good price. Won't take that chance now and end up getting something I can't eat right off the tree eventually.

Anyone have suggestions of where to order quality trees?

Twila


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## Guest

What sort of citrus are you interested in?

.....Alan.


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## RideBarefoot

There isn't any kind of fruit I don't like, but I thought I'd start with the usual suspects: oranges, lemons, limes. I like my oranges sweet and my lemons tart!

Ooooh, oooh, oooh, and grapefruits, too!

Any input appreciated..

Twila


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## Guest

Unfortunately I can't recommend any of the nurseries that I buy from as they're all in Florida and they can't ship citrus trees out of state now due to the quarantine.

But there are a lot of nurseries in other states that sell citrus. I'm going to recommend going here: http://citrus.forumup.org/viewforum.php?f=5&mforum=citrus. It's the Citrus Forum and they have quite the list of nurseries to choose from. You may have to join the board to see the actual links, but it's an automatic process so you don't have to wait.

Now as for varieties. I'd suggest going with a mandarin/tangerine/satsuma of some sort for the sweet citrus as they're more cold hardy, easier to keep small, and typically don't need as much heat as a true sweet orange does to produce sweet fruit. You'll have many choices of specific variety to choose from. I like the Kimbrough satsuma myself.

For acid citrus the Eureka, Lisbon, or Harvey lemon is good. All will make a nice sour, lemony smelling lemon. I have the first two myself and plan to add a Harvey as soon as I can get one.

Limes you basically have a choice between the Persian/Tahiti limes which is the larger limes one sees sold in the grocery stores and the Key or Mexican limes which are smaller, but with a more pronounced flavor. Both are nice and sour. If I just had to choose only one I'd go with the Key but then I really like them. 

Another tart citrus you might consider is the calamondin which is a cross between a mandarin and a kumquat. The pulp is sour, the skin is sweet (you can eat the peel on this one) and they look like miniature oranges. You can use them for anything you'd use a lemon or lime for, but with an orangey flavor.

Grapefruits on the other hand I would not recommend for a container plant. There are some folks that keep them, but they are by nature one of the largest of citrus trees and they need considerable heat to properly ripen the fruit. Maybe once you get a few years experience you can try it, but I'd go with a satsuma, lemon or lime, and a calamondin first.

The board with the nurseries list has many folks who have been growing container citrus for years so you'll find lots of advice once you're ready to start.

.....Alan.


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## RideBarefoot

Thank you so much for all that info, Alan! Much appreciated.

Twila


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## Maria

My tree isn't a trifolate- but the fact that the "orangeaid" I made caused me to throw up makes me think it isn't good for me.


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## Grandmotherbear

ey limes calamondins and kumquats make a great no-cook pie.
For a standard crumb crust (if you have a deepdish crumb crust make double)

1 can sweetened condensed milk.
1/3 cup juice
1 teaspoon grated rind (if you have kumquat use more- its sweeter)
Stir all up together and pour into the crust. Refrigerate till solidifies.

I have won cooking contests at Boy Scout camp several times with this.


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## Hubiphaney

Those sour weared oranges you were wondering were are not ornamental, thet are actually wild oranges. Wild oranges grow from dead edabil orange treed that were prevously their, other wild citruses lile the picture of that weard green one above is also from the wild. You should never eat them even with sugar , because wild orange may look like a normal orange but iys actually poisonouse. Should you cut it down? No actually. Your lucky if it grew big. You can hire a proffesional or learn from youtube videos how to graft an edubil fruit variety on the stump, best done early spring or fall, however learning how to graft cam be hard and chalenging, you will have a lot of fun doing it. You can turn your citrus in to any king of citrus you want. Wild citrus grows from suckers that come from root stalk wich has a stronger and more diseased resistant root system for domesticated edible fruits. Learn more on youtubes grafting citrus and preventing citrus diseases video. Good bye!


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## VicCl

Guest said:


> Unfortunately I can't recommend any of the nurseries that I buy from as they're all in Florida and they can't ship citrus trees out of state now due to the quarantine.
> 
> But there are a lot of nurseries in other states that sell citrus. I'm going to recommend going here: http://citrus.forumup.org/viewforum.php?f=5&mforum=citrus. It's the Citrus Forum and they have quite the list of nurseries to choose from. You may have to join the board to see the actual links, but it's an automatic process so you don't have to wait.
> 
> Now as for varieties. I'd suggest going with a mandarin/tangerine/satsuma of some sort for the sweet citrus as they're more cold hardy, easier to keep small, and typically don't need as much heat as a true sweet orange does to produce sweet fruit. You'll have many choices of specific variety to choose from. I like the Kimbrough satsuma myself.
> 
> For acid citrus the Eureka, Lisbon, or Harvey lemon is good. All will make a nice sour, lemony smelling lemon. I have the first two myself and plan to add a Harvey as soon as I can get one.
> 
> Limes you basically have a choice between the Persian/Tahiti limes which is the larger limes one sees sold in the grocery stores and the Key or Mexican limes which are smaller, but with a more pronounced flavor. Both are nice and sour. If I just had to choose only one I'd go with the Key but then I really like them.
> 
> Another tart citrus you might consider is the calamondin which is a cross between a mandarin and a kumquat. The pulp is sour, the skin is sweet (you can eat the peel on this one) and they look like miniature oranges. You can use them for anything you'd use a lemon or lime for, but with an orangey flavor.
> 
> Grapefruits on the other hand I would not recommend for a container plant. There are some folks that keep them, but they are by nature one of the largest of citrus trees and they need considerable heat to properly ripen the fruit. Maybe once you get a few years experience you can try it, but I'd go with a satsuma, lemon or lime, and a calamondin first.
> 
> The board with the nurseries list has many folks who have been growing container citrus for years so you'll find lots of advice once you're ready to start.
> 
> .....Alan.


I need to ask this question. I live in Southern California. Had citrus trees all of my 70 year life. All kinds, with great success. Recently I find I am in need of very tiny citrus fruit, tiny like a walnut. I’m working on a tiny Christmas tree that I need dried citrus, whole and sliced to use as ornaments. While driving around town I’ve been looking for tiny mini fruit. Eureka, started to find trees that looked like mini lime, thinking possibly key limes, picked the tiniest ones, round 1/3 of walnut size. Found 2 additional trees, picked and went home. Some green, some yellow. Sliced the smallest, dried to use on my tree. Smelled horrible and a bit sticky inside, no juice, and literally filled with seeds. Curious as to what these are, my 95 years old mother touched it to her tongue, bitter. Moved to picking #2, bigger, now walnut sized, a bit smaller, some juice in this batch, smelled worse, and sticky juice, like the milky white liquid in toxic plants. Sliced and dried, moved to batch 3 of these tiny lime look alike. More juice in these. smelled horribly. No citrus smell at all. But the appearance is totally lime like, skin, inside! Well my mom touched the olive sized one to her tongue and didn’t die, so I touched it to my tongue. Beyond bitter, and a wierd chemical taste, nothing citrus, tasted as bad as the smell. Horrific! Couldn’t get the smell off of my hands for a day. Horrible!,, after touching this to my tongue, my tongue went numb. For hours, and as the smell on my hands lasted for hours so did the taste and numbness in my mouth. Toxic! What are these miniature lime look alikes that are not citrus at all, just nasty, toxic little citrus like balls. The appearance inside and out is totally citrus, the smell and taste is something from a killing field. Can’t imagine one person keeping this tree in their yard, but 2 more properties. They are loaded with these fruit look alikes. The owners must laugh their heads off when they see someone collecting the fruit hanging over the street, they know how these taste. Now this is nothing like an under ripe fruit… this is a nasty toxic something that grew in their yards. Does anyone have a clue what this is. Or what they are. 3 different trees, 3 different locations. Please jump in here.
Vicki


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## Danaus29

Do you have pictures of your mystery fruit?


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## st0n3

I grow trifoliate oranges and use the fruit to make lemonade.
After reading some of the posts on this thread, I tried searching inedible oranges.
Seems like even the sour ones can be used as food, marmalade or something.

Surprising that you got sick... Maybe something else was going on (with your stomach) that day?


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## st0n3

VicCl said:


> trees that looked like mini lime,
> No citrus smell at all.
> Beyond bitter, and a wierd chemical taste, nothing citrus, tasted as bad as the smell. Horrific! Couldn’t get the smell off of my hands for a day. Horrible!,, after touching this to my tongue, my tongue went numb.


I think we need pictures of fruit, & of trees...


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