Author Topic: Tasting the Citrondarin, a Bizarre Citrus Fruit from Soviet Russia  (Read 1440 times)

fruitmentor

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Hi Everyone,

As part of my project to introduce new citrus varieties, I had the chance to taste the citrondarin, a very unusual citrus variety that came from the Soviet Union. It was suggested to be introduced by Juli Mallett, a reader of this forum, and I thank Juli for the suggestion. I visited a citrondarin tree at the University of California Givaudan Citrus Variety Collection, picked some fruit, and tasted it with a couple of volunteers and made a video about it.

With the video I am hoping to raise awareness for my project to introduce new citrus varieties (see my prior post). In the future I will publish more videos of the other citrus varieties that we tasted that day. If you have any varieties that you would like to see introduced, please let me know via the following survey, which should take just a few minutes:
Citrus Variety Introduction Survey


Here is the video:

http://youtu.be/VoBsEPL1jug

Please feel free to share the survey and the video elsewhere.

By the way, it had been thought that the citrondarin is a graft chimera but it is not clear that this is really the case. It may be a hybrid fruit rather than a chimera.

Thank you,
Dan

Sylvain

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Re: Tasting the Citrondarin, a Bizarre Citrus Fruit from Soviet Russia
« Reply #1 on: April 13, 2021, 07:24:23 AM »
You made a mistake. Prague chimera is a chimera but Citrondarin is not, and we see it on your faces!...
Next time, taste the right one!   ;D

Ilya11

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Re: Tasting the Citrondarin, a Bizarre Citrus Fruit from Soviet Russia
« Reply #2 on: April 13, 2021, 11:32:17 AM »
I liked this comment under the video:
Tymoteusz Babiński
In Soviet Russia oranges eat you
  :'(
Best regards,
                       Ilya

SoCal2warm

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Re: Tasting the Citrondarin, a Bizarre Citrus Fruit from Soviet Russia
« Reply #3 on: April 13, 2021, 02:57:38 PM »
Well, in the video it says it "failed the flavor test" and was nasty.

I have tasted Poncirus trifoliata fruit from an apparently unordinary tree that I could manage to eat and had a flavor less worse than Poncirus hybrids I've tasted.
I do wonder what the results would be if these crosses were remade using a less bad tasting type of Poncirus.

I was told the tree was just sold as an ordinary Flying Dragon from One Green World. They must have grown it from a seedling. Everything about it appears to be just like a Flying Dragon, pretty sure no chance it could be a hybrid.
I'm now growing several seedlings from it.

A question: Shouldn't this have been posted in Cold Hardy Citrus?
« Last Edit: April 13, 2021, 03:01:50 PM by SoCal2warm »

orangedays

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Re: Tasting the Citrondarin, a Bizarre Citrus Fruit from Soviet Russia
« Reply #4 on: April 20, 2021, 11:02:05 AM »
Fruitmentor,  Thank you for all the grafting videos you put on you-tube. After watching your videos I have had good success with both cleft and bud grafting of citrus. I used the same technique on peach and plums this year and found it worked with 100% success.  I really appreciate the knowledge you have shared and enjoy all your videos. They are very well done. Thanks again.

sc4001992

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Re: Tasting the Citrondarin, a Bizarre Citrus Fruit from Soviet Russia
« Reply #5 on: February 03, 2024, 02:13:26 PM »
I tasted the first fruit of the Citrondarin (VI 396 ) on my grafted branch, and I can tell you it does tastes terrible.
You really can't eat this fruit out of hand, worse tasting citrus I have eaten.


Lauta_hibrid

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Re: Tasting the Citrondarin, a Bizarre Citrus Fruit from Soviet Russia
« Reply #6 on: February 03, 2024, 03:01:40 PM »
people is the possibility of putting pressure together to release buds of varieties that would be useful for our citrus programs, such as the acidless Siamese Pummelo, which has the heritable "acidless" gene.  If we all put the same thing in the survey, maybe they will release some material 💪🙉

Lauta_hibrid

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Re: Tasting the Citrondarin, a Bizarre Citrus Fruit from Soviet Russia
« Reply #7 on: February 03, 2024, 03:05:51 PM »
Thank you for joining the group, for your videos from here in Argentina there is another citrus enthusiast.  I got hooked on your citrus hybridization video and I have already achieved most of my goals, I have 66 varieties in my collection and 44 different crosses.  Maybe I'll upload photos of some fruit soon.  It was just to thank you.  Maybe one day something of what I made can be entered into the collection.  🫡😊

Hi Everyone,

As part of my project to introduce new citrus varieties, I had the chance to taste the citrondarin, a very unusual citrus variety that came from the Soviet Union. It was suggested to be introduced by Juli Mallett, a reader of this forum, and I thank Juli for the suggestion. I visited a citrondarin tree at the University of California Givaudan Citrus Variety Collection, picked some fruit, and tasted it with a couple of volunteers and made a video about it.

With the video I am hoping to raise awareness for my project to introduce new citrus varieties (see my prior post). In the future I will publish more videos of the other citrus varieties that we tasted that day. If you have any varieties that you would like to see introduced, please let me know via the following survey, which should take just a few minutes:
Citrus Variety Introduction Survey


Here is the video:

http://youtu.be/VoBsEPL1jug

Please feel free to share the survey and the video elsewhere.

By the way, it had been thought that the citrondarin is a graft chimera but it is not clear that this is really the case. It may be a hybrid fruit rather than a chimera.

Thank you,
Dan

drymifolia

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Re: Tasting the Citrondarin, a Bizarre Citrus Fruit from Soviet Russia
« Reply #8 on: February 07, 2024, 03:33:20 PM »
I tasted the first fruit of the Citrondarin (VI 396 ) on my grafted branch, and I can tell you it does tastes terrible.
You really can't eat this fruit out of hand, worse tasting citrus I have eaten.

That's a shame! I grafted it hoping that maybe it was the same as Prague, but it sounds like nope. I'll probably get rid of that one then.

sc4001992

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Re: Tasting the Citrondarin, a Bizarre Citrus Fruit from Soviet Russia
« Reply #9 on: February 07, 2024, 05:29:16 PM »
Nop, the only nice thing about Citrondarin is that is has neat leaves. Other than that, nothing to brag about, top work it with anything else. My graft is 2 years old and only 18" long branch.


sc4001992

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Re: Tasting the Citrondarin, a Bizarre Citrus Fruit from Soviet Russia
« Reply #10 on: February 07, 2024, 06:16:06 PM »
Here's my one fruit in 2 years. I misspelled the Citrondarin on the tape label in these photos.












« Last Edit: February 07, 2024, 06:19:23 PM by sc4001992 »

drymifolia

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Re: Tasting the Citrondarin, a Bizarre Citrus Fruit from Soviet Russia
« Reply #11 on: February 07, 2024, 10:05:14 PM »
Those leaves look familiar! Here's my graft that I'll probably remove:




sc4001992

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Re: Tasting the Citrondarin, a Bizarre Citrus Fruit from Soviet Russia
« Reply #12 on: February 07, 2024, 10:20:45 PM »
Your branch looks good, let it fruit so you can taste it before you remove the branch.
I see you have Meiwa, same here, my graft had some nice large fruits this year (1 year old graft) and tastes good. But it doesn't taste that much sweeter than the nagami, so I'm grafting my trees with the seedless nagami (Nordmann).
https://minnetonkaorchards.com/nordmann-kumquats/


bussone

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Re: Tasting the Citrondarin, a Bizarre Citrus Fruit from Soviet Russia
« Reply #13 on: February 08, 2024, 11:42:25 AM »
I tasted the first fruit of the Citrondarin (VI 396 ) on my grafted branch, and I can tell you it does tastes terrible.
You really can't eat this fruit out of hand, worse tasting citrus I have eaten.

It looks promising, anyway. How does the flavor compare to a sour orange?

Millet

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Re: Tasting the Citrondarin, a Bizarre Citrus Fruit from Soviet Russia
« Reply #14 on: February 08, 2024, 12:22:43 PM »
Couple comments.  1. Why does anyone bother with citrus like Citrondarin.   2. I grow both meiwa and nagami and I find meiwa MUCH sweeter than nagami.  However, each to their own.

drymifolia

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Re: Tasting the Citrondarin, a Bizarre Citrus Fruit from Soviet Russia
« Reply #15 on: February 08, 2024, 12:53:52 PM »
Couple comments.  1. Why does anyone bother with citrus like Citrondarin.

I only added it to my CCCP order last year because I had seen someone who theorized it was the same as the Prague citsuma chimera, and I hadn't found anywhere selling Prague scions. I would love to try Prague outdoors here, it seems like one of the only fairly edible citrus varieties I could probably grow outdoors without protection here.

bussone

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Re: Tasting the Citrondarin, a Bizarre Citrus Fruit from Soviet Russia
« Reply #16 on: February 08, 2024, 01:41:15 PM »
Couple comments.  1. Why does anyone bother with citrus like Citrondarin. 

Most sane people would wonder why we try to grow citrus outside the tropics at all.

sc4001992

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Re: Tasting the Citrondarin, a Bizarre Citrus Fruit from Soviet Russia
« Reply #17 on: February 08, 2024, 04:23:01 PM »
Millet,

1. I grew the Citrondarin since it seemed like a good cold hardy one but the fruit is terrible. I just like to grow all the rare or hard to find variety.
2. Yes, I remembered the same thing about the Meiwa fruits. But the scionwood I grafted from UCR a year ago has these large round fruits, but doesn't taste sweet like i remembered it to be. I do have two purchased trees (small ones) of the Meiwa and when they had a few fruits it seemed to be sweeter but I didn't have the Nagami or Nordmann fruits to compare at the same time.


« Last Edit: February 08, 2024, 05:26:53 PM by sc4001992 »

sc4001992

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Re: Tasting the Citrondarin, a Bizarre Citrus Fruit from Soviet Russia
« Reply #18 on: February 08, 2024, 04:28:05 PM »
bussone, to answer your question "How does the flavor compare to a sour orange?"

I can eat most lemons and sour orange out of hand, and it doesn't taste so bad I need to wash out my mouth. Even the Flying Dragon fruits I can eat freshly picked and drink the juice. But the Citrondarin is very bad, hard to drink or lick any juice from the fruit or to take a bite of the flesh, terrible.