The Tropical Fruit Forum

As mentioned by others here, this is a passion/hobby, without an expectation of any profitability regarding fruit yield. One can make an argument that selling plants could be a viable venture, but not much else. Pragues are in my experience, shy and slow growers. As some mentioned here, grafting on Swingle citrumelos may increase vigor. The rule of thumb is not to graft a mandarin on citrumelos due to potential incompatibility, so I am unsure how long such grafts will remain viable. If you run the numbers, you will find that growing any of the hardy citruses makes little to no economic sense in comparison to any other more conventional fruit.

As someone also in the PNW, I'd note that some commercially available sudachi sold in our region seem to be rooted cuttings, which is interesting — and mine has survived winters that knocked out whatever citrange Four Winds was using some year.

I'm skeptical of flying dragon in the PNW, given what I understand as slower overall growth and deeper dormancy. It seems worthwhile to me to have a bit of die-back now and then in exchange for being able to make the most of the short growing season. That's a matter of speculative personal opinion, though! But I spoke to one nursery owner who was outraged and couldn't believe that his trees grafted onto flying dragon (he ordered them that way) had hardly grown in one season. He was sure that wasn't how it was supposed to be, I'm confident because his previous orders has been grafted onto some kind of citrange.

It's a bit like people imagining that lemons are better to grow in the PNW because they're sour and therefore need less ripening and must also be more cold tolerant. Everyone on this forum, of course, knows better.

I have a similar (and not so popular) opinion regarding rootstocks. I had a Nagami on Poncirus that suffered severe dieback whereas my Keraji on a Carrizo rootstock suffered no damage. I also prefer having a more vigorous rootstock that will push out more growth after dieback rather than having a "hardy" dwarf.

From pictures it seems 3-3 has narrow petioles and 2-2 has wider petioles, but the 2-2 plant from a nursery in France that me and at least one other person got a 2-2 from, seems to have narrow petioles. So not sure what's up with that.

I have heard this from at least two other people as well. They bought a clemyuz 2-2 from a French nursery and they suspected it was actually a 3-3.

I would not exclude the Morton citrange. Mine has a flavor between an orange and lemon with no poncirus off flavors. The only disadvantage is that its peel stinks. You could find yourself gagging while peeling the fruit.

In any case, this is indeed a very impressive undertaking. In your experience, how long does it take your seedlings to bear fruit? Do you subject them to cold stress or plant them outside as a selection pressure?

It is an amazing effort, but I am not too hopeful about palatability. Do you have a Taiwanica? I think it would be a promising candidate for crossing as demonstrated by Virginia Fruit Grower's Lemandarin.