Orlando Lime Zone
Sets
Tahiti lime, then a press
The lime in the grocery bag is a Tahiti, also called Persian. Citrus Culture in the Home Landscape files it under acid fruits and says fruit can be picked any time of year from a bearing tree. It is more cold-tender than a sweet orange, which is the January problem. Key lime is listed everbearing, seedy, and cold sensitive, with scab, anthracnose, and aphids against it. They are different fruit. Ask the nursery which name is on the tag. Ask the nursery which name is on the tag before you pay for a press.
The home-landscape citrus guide's Table 1 puts Persian lime at zero to one seed with a June through September note, and flags postbloom fruit drop. Full sun, 15-foot spacing, weeds off the trunk, no mulch against bark. Where freezes come every few years, the paper's answer is a different fruit, or a pot.
Press
A citrus press is for fruit you already picked. A lime-green Zulay squeezer is the same job in the color people expect. OXO's juicer does not care whether the fruit is Tahiti or a grocery bag. Buy it because the bowl is full.
Juice a Tahiti lime you already picked. Get this.
Same job, green handle. Get this.
Named press, same bowl. Get this.
Food, picker, cloth
Citrus-tone is for a Tahiti you already keep. A picker is for a tree past arm's reach. Frost cloth is a freeze-night object for a tender acid fruit, not a substitute for siting the tree.
Feed a tree you already keep. Get this.
Cover a clump you mean to keep on a light freeze. Get this.
Reach fruit already on the tree. Get this.
A lime magnet is last
A lime magnet is a fridge souvenir. Test the steel. A citrus trio tee is later. Pack the Persian vs Key split first, then the press, magnet last.
Stick fruit on a steel door. Get this.
Tahiti first, then the squeezer
If you are buying a tree, read the tag for Tahiti versus Key first. If fruit is on the counter, the press is first. If a freeze is listed and the tree is tender, cloth or a garage is first. If the tree is yours and hungry, Citrus-tone is first. If the job is a souvenir, test the steel, then the magnet.
Key lime is everbearing, three to eight seeds, cold sensitive. Persian is the grocery lime, zero to one seed, June through September note, postbloom fruit drop. Limequat and calamondin are different rows. Do not plant a Key because a pie recipe used the word if the nursery sold Tahiti. Do not plant Tahiti because a magnet is green.
Where a lime differs from a sweet orange is the freeze paragraph. Frequency of freezing temperatures should drive the choice. A Tahiti is on the tender side. A pot you can roll inside is the version that does not depend on a forecast. Full sun still beats light shade for fruit. Fifteen feet. Weeds off the trunk. Mulch a foot back if the bed is mulched at all.