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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] P.trifoliata

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  • From: "Donna &/or Kieran" <holycow@cookeville.com>
  • To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] P.trifoliata
  • Date: Thu, 8 Mar 2007 14:14:35 -0600

Just got back from visiting my folks in Florida, stopped on the way to see Chris Inhulsen's citrus (and other fruits) in southern GA. I get blamed for a few of the trees I recommended or even sent him seed or budwood of, but at least I can take credit for recommended Kimkoji aka kinkoji, which is a very nice early pummelo cross. It's sold around Houston TX as "Bloomsweet grapefruit", and is available from the Florida Budwood collection in Winter Haven FL. Mind you, I think the minimum order out of state is $25, for that price you could maybe find a source for a whole tree.
I guess I am pretty much the expert on trifoliate and it's crosses. The recipe Lucky gave is a bit of an exaggeration, but to quote Chris, "With enough added sugar, even feces can be delectable." Trifoliate is indeed hardy to Z5, someone once called me from a pocket of Z5 in the Chicago area and told me about a tree that cropped there for years. It is a pity that no one has found a strain that is less packed with seeds, as there is very little room in the fruit for juice. The sticky gum in the rind will muck up your juicer and I am told that only acetone will remove it. If you want to play with it at the very edges of it's hardiness, it may make a difference whether you get the large flowered or the small flowered strain. I believe it is the small flowered strain that matures earlier, and this was the reason for the phone call from Chicago, that the plant the guy had known about DID mature it's fruit, and his didn't. This gets pretty esoteric, as few know which they have. I CAN tell you that the Flying Dragon in the Winter Haven collection is the large flowered, and half it's seedlings will be normal, not twisted. (They know this because visitors from China seem astonished and say, "This isn't regular Flying Dragon, this is CLOUD Flying Dragon!" So unless all the US stock came from one source, the small flowered one is probably here somewhere.) Flying Dragon carries one mutation for dwarfing and twisted thorns and branches, it is extremely picturesque especially in winter, and is easier to get along with than the normal trifoliates, but the fruit are also smaller. Double genes for the mutation give a seedling that never grows. Might make a nice little potted plant. ( I do have plenty of Flying Dragon on hand, but getting me to the post office to mail anything is like pulling teeth. It's probably still possible if someone wants to try. It's getting to be big enough to get in the way. I have set out one for myself and the others are just there taking up space. )
Crosses of regular citrus to trifoliate are mostly not very edible. It seems that the sticky gum and the bitterness it carries are no longer trapped in the peel but are spread throughout the fruit. The exceptions to this rule are Morton, US 119, Thomasville Citrangequat, and a cross to Siamese Sweet pummelo. The fruit needs to be dead ripe to be good, so you need plenty of heat units to ripen it. This means that even though the plants will generally survive 10 degrees or lower, forget the PNW for ripening the fruit. I could go on, and you would think I was crazy. But I really do think someone should be working with the existing crosses to make some hardier citrus. We are overdue for an ice age, and this brief fling with "Global Warming" is a chance for some NAFEXers to play with citrus germplasm and maybe make some crosses that will be useful later.
For citrus in general, growing from seed creates all kinds of problems with prolonged juvenility and excessive thorniness. Always do your best to get budded trees or bud them yourself from cropping trees. Many citrus will root, tangerines are the hardest to do. Even a scrap of nurse root if you can get it from someone can be grafted and will get you a tree going.
I have to agree about the calamondins, I have seen them do well indoors both here and in England. Donna







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