Today the first fruit of my HRS899 seedling has fallen off. On the outside it looks very similar to Poncirus, the furry hair, the fruit size, the fruit colour....apart from that, the habitus, the spines and also the flowers have more in common with Poncirus than with any other Citrus.
Whereby I have not cultivated a normal Poncirus in the garden for some years, but only Flying Dragon, so I only have Flying Dragon as a basis for comparison.
left: Poncirus trifoliata 'Flying Dragon'
right: HRS899 seedling
After the opening came the surprise!
Poncirus FD: thin skin, relatively little pulp, orange-yellow color, many seeds
HRS899 seedling: thicker skin, relatively much pulp, greenish-yellow color, few seeds
Fragrance:
Poncirus FD - as we know it
HRS899 seedling: less PT scent, slightly citrus-aromatic
Taste:
Poncirus FD - pulpe: resinous, sticky, little juicy, almost unpleasantly sour, a little bit bitter
Poncirus FD -shell: extremely unpleasant
HRS899 seedling - pulpe: not resinous, not sticky (on the teeth), juicy, aromatic, slightly sweet, hardly unpleasant aromas
HRS899 seedling - shell: Aromatic, not more than 1/3 of the unpleasant taste of the FD fruit.
Conclusion: I was very positively surprised! After having been winter-hardy for about 15 years, it is more like a replacement for Poncirus for me, it is for me for climate zone 7b (maybe also for 7a or even colder zones, I couldn't test it yet) without winter protection, a citrus cultivation value with which lemonades and jam can be produced safely.
I pollinated several flowers with lemonade from New Zealand. I will sow all seedlings, also the freely flowered ones. Let's see if I have the space and the patience to bring them all up to flowerimg and fruiting maturity!