To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Yuzu
Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2007 22:35:04 -0600
Betsy, Yuzu is pleasant, as described. It probably really won't take temps
much below 10 F, as described. It will ripen it's fruit even at 42 degrees
north in Japan, which is a lot cooler than NC. However, your big problem
is that like us over in TN, you have fluctuating winter temps. In Japan the
temp is likely to go down and stay down for the winter. If it goes up and
down, the tree could be caught by a cold snap following weeks of warm
weather. This is a problem for citrus in general in our continental
climate. I suggest once you get your tree, you consider doing things to
minimize this problem. For example, trim it to bush form so you can cover
it if necessary. Definitely make some more grafts, using trifoliate orange
for rootstock, and bud very low or do root grafts so that you can heap dirt
over the graft union when cold weather threatens. If you can save the
graft, you can have fruit again in a couple of years after a bad winter.
This is standard practice for young citrus groves in Florida.
The one other thing you need to know about citrus in general, and Yuzu
in particular, is that seed grown trees take forever to crop. Yuzu is one
of the worst, taking about 15 years to start cropping from seed. Get a nice
budded tree to start with. Surely Stan McKenzie, Stan the Citrus Man, has
Yuzus. Donna