The Tropical Fruit Forum

Sanford seems to be susceptible to fruit split.
Due to fruit flies I made an early harvest  .
Still not very big and therefore not too much
juice, but the juice I got was very tasty.

I had a graft of Clemenules on my Keraji in ground and with frostclothprotection
the clemenules graft survived -11° C and some frost days.

Late fruits, but better late than nothing  .

Poncirus #7, assumed to be Benton citrange, but thinking it s not Benton.
But fruits are told to be sweet - don' t know if they still get ripe, perhaps
to be prooved next year



Chimäre Prag, first two fruits after 4 years in ground  , hope one will get ripe or nearly ripe before
Winter freeze in December or January

Today due to curiosity tested at very early stage a inground Kerajimandarinfruit,
diameter 2,5 cm, for my opinion it looks already very promising.
Juicetest is sour like lemon, but could be already used as lemon substitute.

After 4 years also Chimera Prag seems to keep 2
fruits from 3 flowers. Though the flowers came late
and the fruits are still small.
But they are there  .

For thinning out, as I have to do with Sanford or Bloomsweet, I jeep the twig with the fruit in one hand and with the other I take the fruit and turn it and it breaks away.
 This works quite good.

Thankyou very much Millet  .
Yes, hardy citrus is a hard bussines in zone 7 , but very
satisfying and interesting.
Biggest challenge is to find beneath ornamental plants
Citrus hardy citrus with delicious fruits.
So for the moments the best hardy ones with delicious
fruit for me are:
Bloomsweet, Nippon Orangequat, Keraji, Sanford Curafora and
Thomasville. Though I still have to expirience this year if
ripening time in my zone is sufficient for acceptable sweetness in the fruits.
Bloomsweet and Thomasville hopefully next year without fruit drop.
Citrus still keep so much secrets  .

In my opinion the Yuzu x Citrumelo is the frosthardy citrus with
the best colours - here young leaves with nice colours

Here all the 1 year old seedlings which have seen several freeze days and -8 ° C ,
(pictures of Chandler x Bloomsweet I already posted here) now winter damages shows
from dead/heavy damage (N1 tri Voss) to nearly no damage (Citrumelo N82).
Chandler x Bloomsweet now also shows more damage, but slso some still look quite good
as a positive surprise.
Also very interesting how different the frost hardiness within
one variety.
Because the stickers can' t be red, here the varieties
from left (worst) to right (best):
N1 tri Voss, 5* Citrumelo, Yuzu, Chandler x Bloomsweet, Citrumelo N82

Current status of survivors of the freeze test - shown for
Chandler x Bloomsweet cross.
Winter damage still separated fairly against status in March,
but now the survivors are clear, though despite bark cracks they survived,
and show no healthy green resprouting.
So now I will protect them the following winters before
grafting them on some of my multifruit hardy citrus in ground,
in assuming frosthardiness as good as Bloomsweet and good fruits.

That was my experience, the hardiness was largely compromised  by the presence of soft new growth as well as fruits hanging on the tree.

Thanks Ilya , I will try this late summer   

Satsuma Collot, first two fruits in December 2023,
about 1,3m high died back this winter about 10  cm
over the graft union, after 3 or 4 freeze days with a low of about - 8,5 ° C
unter protection fleece.
Fortunately there it stopped and regrows now.
Think I will graft one scion on Poncirus to try getting perhaps a little
bit more frost hardiness than on the current Swingle rootstock.

Yes I also heard about late fruit ripening. No I hope for at least one fruit to
see how it will ripe and taste. I will keep you updated.
In foresight I pollinated with Bloomsweet. Bloomsweet is among my citrus
a good pollen donor.
Good success with your Budwood  .

Very nice to see, how the experiment turns to success.
Is the xie shan also in ground ? If yes astonishing that it took 7 ° F.