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Citrus General Discussion / 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.
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.