The Tropical Fruit Forum
Citrus => Citrus General Discussion => Topic started by: simon_grow on January 22, 2019, 07:52:29 PM
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the Last couple of days have been pretty windy and I just got home from work and noticed that two branches of my Shiranui(Dekopon) were snapped in half. I’ve noticed that Shiranui, like most tangerines, tend to hold too many fruit on their branches. I thought I was smart and thinned about 70% of the fruit when they were about marble size but that just made the remaining fruit bigger. My larger fruit are as big, if not bigger than the store bought Premium Dekopon fruit. My largest weighed about 1 lbs 2 Oz.
Anyone else have issues with their Shiranui grafts? The fruit were already colored up but I was hoping to let them hang a bit longer to sweeten up more. I just cut open a smaller fruit to take a Brix reading and it came in at 14% Brix.
Without curing the fruit, the flavor was good with good sweetness and an acidity similar to an Orange. I will cure some of the fruit in my garage for 1-3 weeks in order to let the citric/ascorbic acid mellow to see if flavor improves. Here are some pictures of the fruit harvested from the branches that snapped off.
(https://i.postimg.cc/fkFxc2yC/13260-B11-59-E7-4-EAD-8940-70-C3-CEAA042-C.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/fkFxc2yC)
(https://i.postimg.cc/t773VQq7/46-E4774-B-F7-C0-42-DF-8321-28-EECF5-A4-EDF.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/t773VQq7)
(https://i.postimg.cc/9DHZSDGq/58-DA637-F-797-A-434-E-A700-F09-EC4-D63-F3-C.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/9DHZSDGq)
(https://i.postimg.cc/bst13x2h/BE0-A2138-3603-483-D-8-B00-7537-B739-BD2-C.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/bst13x2h)
(https://i.postimg.cc/xNkLrHxL/E5-FEBFBB-EA89-4-EA4-957-E-C685-B6-D78616.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/xNkLrHxL)
Simon
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A suggestion. when you cure your fruit, you might consider wrapping it in paper, as the Japanese do.
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I have an unknown type of pomelo that had the same issue with winds this year, and a plot last year. Always a learning experience... I lost a full wheelbarrow off one branch from my pomelo this year the fruits were soccer ball size!
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Thanks for the suggestion Millet, I’ll give it a try.
Zephian, that sucks. Hopefully your fruit were still edible.
Simon
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All mine broke their twigs this year. I haven't tasted any yet, but the squirrels chewed on the green fruits before I plastic boxed them.
Millet, so a few days to dissipate excess moisture, some days wrapped in paper? Or just directly wrap them in paper for a few weeks?
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Look at these monsters
(https://i.postimg.cc/d73PmRCp/20190127-154630.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/d73PmRCp)
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Red this for Dekopon to promote sugar content.
https://shizuokagourmet.com/2012/03/28/dekopon-oranges-producer-nobuhiko-onuma/
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Behl, those are huge!
Thanks Millet, 2 months at below 59F and covered in the dark.
On a side note, I purchased some Dekopon at Sprouts and it had a Brix reading of 14%, same as what I got from my grafts.
Simon
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Interesting info. Has anyone got some links to the science behind the "maturing" or "curing" of citrus? Citrus is a non-climacteric fruit and also doesn't sweeten with added ethylene (but does change color). There's no starch to convert to sugar in the fruit... I thought that (to quote Wikipedia): "Once [citrus fruits] are separated from the tree, they do not increase in sweetness or continue to ripen. The only way change may happen after being picked is that they eventually start to decay." I'm sure I'm missing something, though ;D ;D
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Although citruses are considered non climacteric, ethylene is present constantly and exerts a multitude of influences on the fruit quality.
There is an excellent review (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304423818300682) on harvest changes, probably even too detailed
"Citrus are longtime recognized as non-climacteric fruit, as respiration
rate declines progressively during fruit ontogeny and mature fruit
produce very low and constant amount of ethylene (Aharoni, 1968;
Eaks, 1970). However, by particular and transient response of most
citrus fruits to exogenous ethylene have been also referred to as pseudoclimacteric.
Ethylene biosynthesis is also regulated in citrus fruits in
a usual manner, since at early stages of fruit development, ethylene
stimulates its own production in an autocatalytic-like system, whereas
mature fruits responded as an auto-inhibitory system (Katz et al., 2004;
Alós et al., 2013). These results confirm that ethylene is able to stimulate
a myriad of molecular responses in the peel of citrus fruits, but
as a non-climacteric fruit, it requires the continuous presence of the
hormone to sustain these physiological and molecular responses"
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Thanks for the reference, now I'm trying to figure out how to get the full text, ugh. I hate Elsevier and that whole journal system...
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Give me your email by PM, I have this pdf