At our Southern Fruit Fellowship (SFF) meeting a few months ago, in
Elizabeth City, NC, I was chatting with Jim Mercer who mentioned that he
grew all of his citrus, in Florida, grafted on Severinia. He has two types
of Severinia, and prefers his dwarf cultivar as a rootstock over the
standard, although both work. He just sent me a package of the Severinia
fruit in order to generate seedlings to graft with. These are very small,
hard, greenish berries. My question to any Severiniologists out there, is
how to germinate these. Do they require stratification or scarification or
any other manipulation or simply be planted immediately, as we do citrus
seeds? It is remarkable that this small shrub, when used as a rootstock
with citrus, produces a moderate sized and well anchored tree, with a nice
thick trunk and requiring no support.
Regards, Ethan
[NAFEX] Severinia buxifolia,
Dr. Ethan Natelson, 09/05/2003