I have never lived anywhere that citrus grows so I have absolutely no knowledge about it. But I have been to California many times and seen lemon and lime groves. The lemon trees are about the same size as apple and pear trees back home. That is, they are usually around 15-20 feet tall and planted in the ground. In the courtyard of my hotel this week I noticed about 10 of these:
Attachment 1212
I do not know if you can really get a sense for the size from the photo, but the pots these are planted in are about 3 feet tall. The lemon trees are only about 2-3 feet above the pot at the tallest point. In other words, the lemon trees are smaller than tomato plants. The "trunks" on these plants are less than an inch in diameter. They actually had to stake it up to hold the weight of the lemons! On the plant in the picture, I counted 22 lemons in various stages of growth and the lemons that were ready to be picked were about the same size as the lemons in the grocery store.
So my question is: Are these some kind of special mutant hybrid lemon tree that is designed to be really small and produce a buttload of lemons? And if you can grow them in pots, could us northlanders also grow them and just bring the pots inside in the winter?
I mean how cool would that be if SHTF? The mobs are rioting for food and Mrs Inor and I are sitting on the back deck with our M4geries across our laps drinking fresh-squeezed lemonade from our own lemon tree.