The Tropical Fruit Forum
Citrus => Citrus General Discussion => Topic started by: BonsaiBeast on February 20, 2018, 04:04:08 PM
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I am trying to get my hands on the ruby tango to plant in my yard. The producer 'sunwest' in northern california claims they are the only producer of the fruit outside of Italy, where it originates. However, because of their agreement, they cannot give out graft wood.
My question is: although these are virtually seedless, assuming I find a few seeds, would planting them give me a fruit tree true-to-seed? The ruby tango is a natural cross between the Clemenules Mandarin and the Tarocco Blood Orange.
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I really don't know about the trueness of the Ruby Tango. My best guess would be that it would NOT come true from seed, because one of its parents (clementine) does not come true from seed.
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I really don't know about the trueness of the Ruby Tango. My best guess would be that it would NOT come true from seed, because one of its parents (clementine) does not come true from seed.
Damn! I seem to be hitting a very unavoidable dead end with my search for the ruby tango...
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Closest thing for awhile will be the Amoa 8 which UCR will be releasing as budwood soon. It is a cross between Moro Blood and Avana Mandarin, it is seedy. Full profile here:
http://www.citrusvariety.ucr.edu/citrus/amoa8.html (http://www.citrusvariety.ucr.edu/citrus/amoa8.html)
Not sure when it will be released but it has a much higher chance of happening before Ruby Tango which is for the foreseeable future a private variety. Although we saw what happened with Sumo/Dekopon/Shiranui so there is always a chance.
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Seeds from hybrid citrus varieties have a strong tendency to show characteristics different from their parents when they are zygotic (the result of sexual recombination). However, in many citrus varieties (especially many hybrids) the majority or all of the seeds tend to be nucellar (not the result of sexual recombination, and thus genetically identical to the fruit parent).
I believe in this case the seeds are more likely than not to be nucellar, but don't know for sure. Usually most mandarins tend to be zygotic while oranges are almost all nucellar.
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I got some fruits at FM. I like the flavor. It reminds me of a Minneola, juicy, sour/sweet pleasant taste. No seeds so far.
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I got some fruits at FM. I like the flavor. It reminds me of a Minneola, juicy, sour/sweet pleasant taste. No seeds so far.
You got ruby tango at a farmers market in la? Did this person grow it themselves? I was under the impression no one had access to a tree.
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FM - Fresh Market store, sorry for the confusion. I believe they order from Melissa's Produce.
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Well its been a year but I found this post tonight when doing a search for Ruby Tango seeds because I thought they didn't have any seeds. Well tonight I was munching away on a Ruby Tango that looked a little bit different than the others in the carton. It had a slight little bulge at the top where the stem connects and was slightly deeper orange in color than the rest. The inside was also a little more red than the others. It peeled easy and tasted like the others.
But guess what it had inside?? A seed! 1 and only 1 seed. I am going to do all I can do to try and germinate and get it going. Wish me luck!🍊😁👍
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Hybrid citrus varieties (between different species) typically produce high percentages of nucellar seed (thus coming true to seed).
Not all of them will be true to seed but most of them will.
This is not always the case however.
If the seed from a hybrid citrus is not nucellar, it is much more likely to turn out different from its parents, more different than a seed that was not nucellar which came from a variety of citrus that was not a hybrid between different citrus species.
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More specifically, tango is a mutation from Murcott mandarin. I don't have any specific information on that variety, so it might produce all zygotic seed or it might produce almost all nucellar seed. If they are zygotic, the seedling might turn out similar to its parents but slightly different.
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From my experience most all "hybrid" citrus come true or mostly true from seed.