When we bought the house, the previous home owners said it was a lime tree. I'm not sure if this is a lime tree. The fruit is big and smells like oranges. Help!

I believe you are right; that looks like an unripe orange to me.

If its an orange, it will turn orange with cooler weather. But most oranges ripen in the spring/early summer (mandarins tend to ripen in the dead of winter for some reason). That's pretty big to winter over. And why do you think the previous owners thought an orange tree that large was a lime tree? It seems they would have figured it out by now unless they lived in the house for a very short time themselves.

How long have you lived in this house? A full year? It takes a full year at least to figure out all the eccentricities of a new yard. One more question: What does it taste like? After tasting, do you feel like making daiquiris? (Oops, two more questions).

In Texas our citrus starts ripening at Thanksgiving and continues into the new year. My oranges are currently about that size.

I would let them hang on the tree then and see if they turn orange or just stay green and eventually fall off.

That leaf shape with the little extra lobe near the petiole is more typical of a grapefruit, I think.

Oh, also there are different varieties of oranges and grapefruit that ripen anywhere from late October through April. The old classic Hamlin starts ripening in October, Navels ripen around Thanksgiving here, but Valencia can be as late as May.

Advise you to give that tree some extra water so it will size up those fruit in time for ripening. Most grapefruit can ripen anywhere from November to May.

Oh, you are right. Those do look like grapefruit leaves. If its a grapefruit, it has a LONG ways to go - they can take up to a to year ripen. You will be getting fruit next summer some time.

This is the second crop of fruit on this tree. Last year there were only about 3 fruit on the tree and they were at the top. They turned a yellowish orange and fell off sometime around January and flowered around March. I was able to grab one that fell and it was rotten so I didn't taste it. The previous owners were the ones who planted the tree and planted it so close to the deck and pecan tree. We are hoping to find out the tree type so we know when to move the tree and when to trim. It does get plenty of water, we make sure the pecan tree and that tree do. I thank y'all for your advice and help!

Here is a picture of the bloom this past March.

Gosh, I don't think I'd risk moving it at that size. It looks pretty happy and healthy. Water must get through the decking to the roots of the tree doesn't it? Citrus have a large mat of very fine feeder roots near the soil surface. Moving a tree that size would almost surely kill it.

Maybe wait until you get a ripe fruit to taste and then decide if it's worth the risk. If it has lousy fruit, no worries but if it produces really nice fruit, I'd be inclined to prune back the pecan tree and leave the citrus tree where it is.

Here is a picture of the fruit now. This one had fallen off the tree. It's the color of a lemon on the inside, smells like an orange and the juice is still bitter, but semi-sweet.

Hi Jo, do you know anything about the origins of this citrus tree? Is it a big old tree, or a young one that someone may have started from a seed? (Edit: sorry, went back to the beginning of the thread to see your picture of the tree) A seed-grown tree can be just about anything including a cross

The fruit looks like a sour orange, which is often the root stock used for grafting sweet orange trees. If the tree was damaged or cut in such a way that it grew again from below the graft, you may have a sour orange.

Or, you may just have to wait a bit longer for the fruit to ripen. Be sure to water it well through the dry spells, especially out near the drip line of the tree. If it got too dried out, sometimes orange trees will drop fruit before it is ripe.

I'd give it another month, then if the fruit still doesn't taste any good, cut that baby down! No use growing a fruit tree that gives yucky fruit.

That is probably an unripe orange, but it is not a sour orange which would have many more seeds and be inedibly sour. My citrus usually starts ripening around Thanksgiving.

Limes do turn yellow when ripe, but they aren't usually that round, and definetly don't smell like oranges.

To the original poster: Does it have thorns? If you break a stem, does the wood have a fragrance?

I thought it might be a Yuzu but it would have to have thorns.