North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Stephen Sadler" <Docshiva@Docshiva.org>]

The Wekiwas I found were closer to orange-sized.  I seek these because I loved grapefruit as a child, but developed a strong sensitivity to their bitter components.  The ‘non-bitter’ grapefruit varieties still taste like lye to me.  The tangelolo has all the sprite and flavor of grapefruit, but zero bitterness, and I think they’re delicious. Of course, I also do like to find and grow rare fruit.  The juice is also a surprising and attractive color. 

 

So after you juice yours, do you concentrate and freeze the juice?  I’ve made juice concentrates by freezing the juice in large plastic soda bottles, then upending them over jars and letting them thaw.  The higher the concentration of juice, the lower the thawing temp, so what melts first is a concentrate.  I wait until about a fourth of what I had frozen melts into the jars, then store, freeze, and use as I would store-bought concentrate.  At that point, what’s left in the bottles is mostly water ice.

 

Your raspberry tangor sounds great.  Last summer a local food coop sold citrangequats, so some of these unusual crosses find their way to local market.  The flavor of the fruit and peel was very much like kumquat, but the fruit were much bigger.

 

~ Stephen S.

 

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From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of philip sauber
Sent: Sunday, December 26, 2004 4:59 PM
To: North American Fruit Explorers
Subject: [NAFEX] Citrus varieties I am growing in the ground

 

I am growing wekiwa tangelolo or lavender gem.  The taste to me is like pumelo with a fruit the size of a tangerine looking like a miniture grapefruit.  I have about 10 gallons of them to juice picked yesterday as the freeze last night was 27F.  BTW, the citrus belt in Texas had 4 inches of snow last night!  I saw a few snowflakes.  I banked my trees with soil and covered and heated a few.

I have grown several citrus trees from seed.  They have fruited for me from 1-3 years in the ground but a friend waited 17 years for a cocktail grapefruit to bear.  The downside is the trees tend to be very thorny in their juvenile stage.  A friend has a mature seedling kumquat.  The seeds at the base of the tree are 2 inches and longer.  The bearing wood at the top of the tree has no thorns.  Grafting bearing wood bypasses the thorny and fruitless juvenile stage.  About 50% of grafted trees will flower the first year, with the rest the second year.  I've grafted and grown about 300 trees.

The citrus I know that do not come true from seed (mono-embryonic) are clementine, pummelo, yuzu, umatilla tangor, and limequat.  These are used as the female in crossing.  Friends in Houston have made many crosses.  I am growing satsuma x fairchild and umatilla x blood orange.

Citrus seeds that have multiple sprouts from a single seed come true from seed.  This is called polyembryony.

Here are the varieties I am growing:

http://members.fortunecity.com/pjsauber/Varieties.htm

phil in z9a near Houston, TX

----- Original Message -----
From: "Stephen Sadler"
To: "'North American Fruit Explorers'"
Subject: RE: [NAFEX] Citrus from seed, and tangelolos
Date: Sun, 26 Dec 2004 15:08:32 -0800

 

 

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From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of philip sauber
Sent: Sunday, December 26, 2004 6:47 AM
To: North American Fruit Explorers
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Pummelo

 

Is there a source that mentions what chances of success one might have trying different citrus from seed?  I’ve found several that say Pummelo is commonly grown from seed, but of course, as Phil says, that doesn’t mean it will come true to type.  In fact, sources mention that named varieties are grafted.  It’s my rule of thumb that citrus can be grown from seed, and will often come true to type, but variances can certainly occur. 

Here’s a reference re: Pummelo seed:  http://www.tradewindsfruit.com/pummelo.htm

A page on citrus from seed: http://h2othouse.com/html/citrus_from_seed.html

And a request: I’ve been looking for tangelolo (tangelo x grapefruit) for years, after tasting the very refreshing and completely non-bitter Lavender Gem tangelolo.  I hear there’s a second commercial variety coming along in Florida.  I have found a source in Southern CA – I’m in Northern – and after years, the intrastate quarantine seems to be lifted.  But they’re pricey.  Anyone else know of a source for plants or seeds?

And Phil – which citrus are you growing?  I envy you the number of plants.  No room here for so many.  Right now I have a Kaffir lime and an unidentified orange, Valencia-like if not Valencia

~ Stephen S.

Zone 10