The Tropical Fruit Forum

The closest I've come to seeing similar foliage on seedlings I've grown has been when I over fertilized on one occasion and used Coconut Coir as seed starting media on another occasion. Unless Coconut Coir is properly buffered it can harbor high salt content, which I understand must be buffered rather than rinsed out.In both cases I was able to salvage some of the seedlings by unpotting them and rinsing them before replanting them into fresh media of different composition.

I strongly suspect your plants were exposed to some sort of nutritional imbalance. Another possibility might be light deprivation during the earlier phases of germination.

Here's a photo of the Starburst pomelo seedlings that I'm starting to grow. All appear to have normal chlorophyll.

Being a slightly immature F¹ Poncirus hybrid, I didn't detect any sweetness, Second generation seedlings might have a percentage of sweeter fruiting selections as well as hardier individuals.

Albino seedlings can be avoided by using an appropriate Fungicide, or removing the seedcoat at the time of planting.

I haven't opened them yet, I'll do so within the next 2 weeks.

Starburst fruit are high quality indeed. The ones I purchased had an average of 2 seeds per fruit.

Excellent photos, great clarity showing details of the fruits, foliage and tree form. I've forwarded some of the pictures to a German colleague and he's leaning towards Carrizo Citrange, largely due to the short and broad central leaflet. The deep orange color is in strong contrast to the bright yellow color of my potential C-35 fruits.


Possible C-35 Citrange rinds. Clear yellow without appreciable orange tint.

Is the tape being removed prematurely, before the healing process is completed? In such a case the edges of the bud union peel back and desiccation destroys the graft. Erring on the side of caution (patience) may save many of these. I'm speaking from previous experience.

Yes, this is one of the factors that leads me to be uncertain as to it's identity. The only reason I contemplate it being C-35 is that during the outdoor trial some of the seedlings root-grafted to one another. Subsequently, it appeared that some of the hardiest F² seedlings roots enabled F¹ seedlings to survive.

However, there's no definitive proof of this occurrence in this particular case. The low seed count seems to be a lower than C-35 seed count (6 vs 9 average seeds per fruit. Also, one third of the fruits were completely seedless. Unfortunately, I have no first hand experience with the fruiting habits of C-35, unless this tree is indeed C-35.

I'm doing a seedling test to determine if the C-35 Zygotic seed percentage of 15% is replicated among these seedlings. If this selection is not C-35, it could contribute fruit size and tree vigor, low seed count and juiciness to its progeny. On the negative side is the fruits high acidity and unremarkable flavor. The Poncirus flavors aren't overwhelming, but there's also nothing remarkably Citrus-like in its flavor.

2 were past peak in juiciness, especially the largest one. The smaller ones had more juice and better flavor.

 One consideration is the position of the tree from which the scionwood was taken. Low positions will be more inclined to exhibit juvenile characteristics. This is especially true for cuttings and scionwood taken from seedling trees, but applies to a lesser degree to cloned trees. Partial reversion to juvenile phase is seen in suckers and water sprouts.

Interesting Millet, what are the dimensions of your enclosure? Mine has 5 gallons of water per square foot of glazing. Greater insulation value would be beneficial for mine; such as ground perimeter rigid foam board and rolling insulated curtains on the roof glazing. My previous Solar greenhouses never got ice inside except for the roof surface. This one may need a bit of supplemental heat.

Variation in cold sensitivity among Bishop Citrandarin seedlings



Grafted Conestoga 011, 010, 006 and 001 Segentranges have built up some caliper. A number of these flowered late in the Summer and should fruit next year.


US 1279 Fruits struggle to attain size and color this late in the season.