Author Topic: 17 brix marsh white grapefruit  (Read 1297 times)

mrtexas

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17 brix marsh white grapefruit
« on: July 09, 2020, 10:47:36 AM »
A friend has a mature marsh white grapefruit that tests 17 brix in Houston,TX. 17 brix is sweeter than
most round oranges. Sweetest grapefruit I have ever eaten. I have eaten the fruit for several years and it is amazingly sweet. Ate several 5 gallon buckets last year. His tree was loaded last year but is looking on it's last leg this year, probably
wet feet. We had a very wet spring. My friend hasn't fertilized regularly and the tree has very little budwood.
Have tried two years in a row to propagate with no luck due to questionable budwood in the fall. I picked some decent
looking bud wood a week ago, nice and green and have t budded several rootstocks
and bark grafted to my mature seedling. I have my fingers crossed. I usually don't bud in the heat of summer like the 95+F weather we have been having. Budwood was only max 4 inches and was hardened off current flush. In my experience a tree has to be growing
vigorously to have abundant and high quality bud wood.

Hope the grafts take and fruit quality is so sweet. I grafted a super sweet satsuma
years ago with poor luck. The young trees didn't have the same high quality fruit.
Sometimes size of tree or location are the cause of exceptional fruit quality in citrus.

Millet

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Re: 17 brix marsh white grapefruit
« Reply #1 on: July 09, 2020, 11:25:36 AM »
Dr. Malcolm Manners  once wrote that the best grapefruit that he ever ate was a seedless Marsh grapefruit picked off of a 25 year old tree in Florida.  I am growing an in ground Marsh grapefruit, but so far it is not sweet at all.  Probably for two reasons. (1) the tree is still a young tree, (2) The tree does not get enough heat unties to generate sugars.  Therefore, this year I have set the greenhouse air conditioning not to come on until the greenhouse temperature reaches 90F (35C).  This should help with sugar build up.  Even then the tree is still only 6 years old.  Well see.

mrtexas

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Re: 17 brix marsh white grapefruit
« Reply #2 on: July 09, 2020, 01:09:46 PM »
My experience as well. I had a branch of marsh white on my
large grapefruit tree. Never got sweet either. Best satsumas I ever ate
were from 25 year old tree. Have had to wait 10 years to get edible
fruit on satsuma myself. Common problem for satsumas.
https://mrtexascitrus.weebly.com/citrusfruitquality.html
« Last Edit: July 09, 2020, 01:21:40 PM by mrtexas »

brian

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Re: 17 brix marsh white grapefruit
« Reply #3 on: July 09, 2020, 01:23:42 PM »
I always hated grapefruit when I was young, but it has grown on me more and more as I get older.  I have a Marsh, Flame, and Valentine.  They all have immature fruit, looking forward to trying them.

countryboy1981

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Re: 17 brix marsh white grapefruit
« Reply #4 on: July 09, 2020, 03:21:55 PM »
I had a white grapefruit from an old tree growing wild at the Canaviral National Seashore about a decade ago and it was the best one I ever had.  It was prpbably a duncan due to the seeds it had.

W.

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Re: 17 brix marsh white grapefruit
« Reply #5 on: July 10, 2020, 09:50:42 PM »
Duncans were reputed to be the sweetest grapefruit ever grown, with trees producing larger crops of sweeter fruit as they aged. Before greening devastated Florida citrus, there were still century-old trees producing very coveted, very delicious crops of the sweetest, seediest grapefruit anywhere.

Yorgos

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Re: 17 brix marsh white grapefruit
« Reply #6 on: July 14, 2020, 05:20:57 PM »
I had a white grapefruit from an old tree growing wild at the Canaviral National Seashore about a decade ago and it was the best one I ever had.  It was prpbably a duncan due to the seeds it had.
I wonder if you will get enough heating units to lake your grapefruit sweet?
Near NRG Stadium, Houston Texas. USDA zone 9a

countryboy1981

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Re: 17 brix marsh white grapefruit
« Reply #7 on: July 14, 2020, 05:59:27 PM »
I had a white grapefruit from an old tree growing wild at the Canaveral National Seashore about a decade ago and it was the best one I ever had.  It was probably a duncan due to the seeds it had.
I wonder if you will get enough heating units to lake your grapefruit sweet?

This one was in Brevard County, Florida growing wild.  I have a young duncan and marsh neither are large enough to set fruits yet.  I also have a bloomsweet grapefruit and had one ripen on the tree last year and it was really good.