Outside the Mediterranean basin Eureka is the most widely grown lemon variety, forming a major part of the crop in California, Australia, South Africa and a significant proportion of Argentina's production. Most of Israel's lemons are the Eureka variety also.Despite some shortcomings it has many favorable characteristics, which have led to its being planted on such a wide scale. Of Californian origin from seeds imported from Sicily in 1858, it was selected by W. C. Workman and two decades later was propagated by T. A. Garey and introduced as Garey's Eureka but soon became known simply as Eureka.The tree has a spreading habit but is only moderately vigorous and is much smaller than the other widely grown variety, Lisbon. Only sparsely foliaged and markedly less cold-resistant than Lisbon, it is well adapted to the coastal areas in Australia and California where frost damage is more rarely experienced. Being smaller, it is often less productive than Lisbon but has a well-distributed harvest season through late winter, spring and early summer. There is a marked tendency to pro-duce the fruit in terminal clusters, with the result it is often more prone to wind blemish and sunburn than the Lisbon or Fino varieties, where the fruit is well protected inside the canopy of the tree. Eureka trees are less thorny than Lisbon's, making for easier picking than most other lemon varieties.Eureka is incompatible with trifoliate orange and its hybrids with the exception of Benton citrange on which it performs well in Australia, producing consistently good quality crops on inter mediate size trees in New South Wales.Eureka fruit is somewhat smaller than the other important lemon varieties Lisbon and Verna. Although the rind is smooth when grown in many locations, in Spain and in other areas with similar climatic conditions it may be coarser and the main crop deteriorates in quality and becomes puny two or three months after reaching maturity. However, it is well suited to the 'curing' process in California and keeps well in cool store.Rind thickness is medium to thin, and the fruit has a high juice content with a high acid level. Seeds are few, rarely more than five, and often the fruit is seedless. Although out yielded in Spain by both Lisbon and Fino when fully grown. Eureka production is superior to both in the early years.
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