Author Topic: Dr. Robert Dunstan  (Read 2167 times)

BorisR

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Dr. Robert Dunstan
« on: February 15, 2022, 04:52:03 AM »
Can anyone tell me about Dr. Robert Dunstan? About citrus growers Brown, Chapman, Nagle, you can find at least some grains of information. I didn't find anything about Dunstan, except that he is from Gainesville, FL. As far as I understand, judging by the names, he is the author of "Dunstan citrumelo" and "Dunstan Honey Mandarin"? And the synonym of the latter is probably "Honey Changsha", the seeds of which I got last fall. Who is familiar with the origin of these varieties, or who knows anything about Robert Dunstan? Are his other creations known?

kumin

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Re: Dr. Robert Dunstan
« Reply #1 on: February 15, 2022, 05:28:37 AM »
https://chestnuthilloutdoors.com/learning-center/dr-robert-t-dunstan/
This may your person of interest. He was a very active plant breeder, involved in grape and American Chestnut breeding among other pursuits. He lived at a time when people seemed to be larger than life. Perhaps social media has allowed us to become bland and jaded?

BorisR

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Re: Dr. Robert Dunstan
« Reply #2 on: February 15, 2022, 06:14:57 AM »
Thank you, kumin! Apparently I wasn't looking there (mostly on citrus forums). So he's the creator of Dunstan Citrumelo and Honey Changsha? Did I draw the right conclusions? Because there is also very little information about the origin of these varieties.

kumin

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Re: Dr. Robert Dunstan
« Reply #3 on: February 15, 2022, 06:18:42 AM »
Unless there was a doppelganger I think he's the same "amateur" breeder. Seriously dedicated enthusiasts may lack the credentials, but have historically been great achievers.

Galatians522

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Re: Dr. Robert Dunstan
« Reply #4 on: February 16, 2022, 10:04:26 PM »
Yes, he is responsible for the Dunstan Citrimelo. I have never heard of the mandarin. He is also in a way responsible for the Southern Home hybrid grape. His "impossible" hybrid material was given to Bob Zehnder who continued the work and eventually gave seed from some of his hybrids to Dr. Mortensen at the University of Florida. Mortensen grew the seed out selfed the best selection and from that seed grew the Southern Home grape which he patented. Neither Zehnder nor Dunstan are ever mentioned in the write up about the grape's development.

Pandan

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Re: Dr. Robert Dunstan
« Reply #5 on: February 17, 2022, 01:18:24 AM »
Yes, he is responsible for the Dunstan Citrimelo. I have never heard of the mandarin. He is also in a way responsible for the Southern Home hybrid grape. His "impossible" hybrid material was given to Bob Zehnder who continued the work and eventually gave seed from some of his hybrids to Dr. Mortensen at the University of Florida. Mortensen grew the seed out selfed the best selection and from that seed grew the Southern Home grape which he patented. Neither Zehnder nor Dunstan are ever mentioned in the write up about the grape's development.
more on the fella here:
http://floridagrapes.com/dunstan/dunstanbio.html
"They said it couldn’t be done.
But Bob Dunstan did it.
And they began to call him a “Southern Luther Burbank.”
He successfully crossed the sturdy native American Muscadine
(Muscadinia rotundifolia) with the fancy elite European table “bunch” grape
(Vitis vinifera) - to create the basis for a whole new burgeoning grape
agribusiness in Florida, his adopted state."
What an inspiration

BorisR

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Re: Dr. Robert Dunstan
« Reply #6 on: February 17, 2022, 03:59:17 AM »
I have never heard of the mandarin.
It was also interesting to discuss, given that neither "Honey Changsha" nor "Dunstan Honey Orange" have ever been mentioned on this forum.
There is a little mention of Honey Changsha here.
There are eyeckr mentions on the old citrusgrowers. There is a mentions on "Virginia Fruit Grower" YouTube channel.
How did I begin to associate Dunstan Honey Orange and Honey Changsha? Once I asked Tom McClendon on Facebook about the origin of Honey Changsha. He told me that it was probably a cross made by Robert Dunstan between a Changsha and some kind of orange. Then I found this topic, an article by Sherwood Akin where he mentions Dunstan Honey Orange. There were also some mentions. Well, now I assume that these are synonyms. Maybe I was wrong.
Maybe @eyeckr or @citrusman99 or some other forum members will be able to tell us more about this?
« Last Edit: February 17, 2022, 04:01:48 AM by BorisR »

citrange

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Re: Dr. Robert Dunstan
« Reply #7 on: February 17, 2022, 05:50:29 PM »
I have just a small piece of information linking the names Zehnder and Dunstan which I was told about when researching the origins of a citrus tree in the English city of Nottingham. This quote is taken from my website at http://www.homecitrusgrowers.co.uk/citrumelos/citrumelonottingham.html
Quote
However, I did have a lot of citrus seedlings raised from seeds a contact in the USA had sent to me and think this is where the connection comes from. I  received the seeds from a Mr Zehnder who said the parent plant was a citrumelo, not a citrange. He didn’t give me the cultivar name of the parent plant so I initially called the young plants ‘Zehnder Seedlings’ although subsequently he told me that the true name was ‘Dunstan’.



eyeckr

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Re: Dr. Robert Dunstan
« Reply #8 on: February 22, 2022, 09:47:09 AM »
I have grown both Dunstan Honey Orange and Honey Changsha and they are totally different. I am not aware of any other Honey Changsha than the one that I selected and named from a few trees that I grew out locally here in Virginia Beach. In retrospect I wish I had named 'Honey Changsha' something else to lessen confusion with Robert Dunstan's Dunstan Honey Orange. In any case Honey Changsha is much more cold tolerant than DHO and still is growing in my 8a zone even after surviving a single event of at least -16C and many other below freezing temps.

BorisR

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Re: Dr. Robert Dunstan
« Reply #9 on: February 25, 2022, 12:48:50 AM »
Thank you, eyeckr!

eyeckr

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Re: Dr. Robert Dunstan
« Reply #10 on: February 27, 2022, 02:05:51 AM »
I just noticed your location Boris. I hope you are doing okay over there considering what's happening right now. Prayers out to all over there.

Many years ago I sent a variety of seeds to my friend Aleksey who lived in Kiev. He planted many of those seeds including my Lemanadarin in the Nikitsky Botanical Garden. The first to start fruiting was changsha that as it matured over the years became less seedy and was reported to produce very delicious store quality tasting fruit. Next were Ventura Lemandarin, Calamandarin, Taiwanica and Clem-Yuz 2-2. A couple years ago the Lemandarin was featured in local the news but was mistakenly called a "grapefruit" by the employee of botanical garden that was never engaged in citrus.
 
Here is that video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MoeLddOPz4&list=PL88FAo1sct2J6C73M4BB8Gyzwu0rh7DZb&index=168

I wonder since you are not too far from there if you have ever been there to see the plantings?

BorisR

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Re: Dr. Robert Dunstan
« Reply #11 on: April 11, 2022, 04:06:31 AM »
I'm fine, thanks.
It was from that Changsha tree about which you write that I received the fruits last autumn. All thanks to Alexey. But I haven't seen the tree itself yet. It grows in a closed part of the Nikitsky Botanical Garden. I planned to visit there this year with Alexey, but...
here's an even more recent video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6Z4Qc3262w&feature=emb_imp_woyt
On camera, local agronomists attribute all the laurels to themselves without mentioning either you or Alexey. They say that they collected varieties all over the world.

850FL

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Re: Dr. Robert Dunstan
« Reply #12 on: May 17, 2022, 07:07:36 PM »
Anyone wonder why when Dunstan came across the last American Chestnut, why did he also not vegetatively propagate it, after he had hybridized it? I'm not saying in mass numbers but enough to go around a bit..

Francis_Eric

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Re: Dr. Robert Dunstan
« Reply #13 on: June 05, 2022, 02:53:22 AM »
Yes, he is responsible for the Dunstan Citrimelo. I have never heard of the mandarin. He is also in a way responsible for the Southern Home hybrid grape. His "impossible" hybrid material was given to Bob Zehnder who continued the work and eventually gave seed from some of his hybrids to Dr. Mortensen at the University of Florida. Mortensen grew the seed out selfed the best selection and from that seed grew the Southern Home grape which he patented. Neither Zehnder nor Dunstan are ever mentioned in the write up about the grape's development.
more on the fella here:
http://floridagrapes.com/dunstan/dunstanbio.html
"They said it couldn’t be done.
But Bob Dunstan did it.
And they began to call him a “Southern Luther Burbank.”
He successfully crossed the sturdy native American Muscadine
(Muscadinia rotundifolia) with the fancy elite European table “bunch” grape
(Vitis vinifera) - to create the basis for a whole new burgeoning grape
agribusiness in Florida, his adopted state."
What an inspiration


I'm fine, thanks.
It was from that Changsha tree about which you write that I received the fruits last autumn. All thanks to Alexey. But I haven't seen the tree itself yet. It grows in a closed part of the Nikitsky Botanical Garden. I planned to visit there this year with Alexey, but...
here's an even more recent video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6Z4Qc3262w&feature=emb_imp_woyt
On camera, local agronomists attribute all the laurels to themselves without mentioning either you or Alexey. They say that they collected varieties all over the world.

Great pictures

I used to be able  to access more of those grape pictures
(here -- maybe I need to change browser  )
https://web.archive.org/web/20100417095043/http://www.grapebreeders.org/Gb/Articles/Bob_Zehnder/Bob.htm

Maybe these DRX selections (of grapes)
can hint people at least in USA to search the GrIN selections (of citrus)

Sorry if this does not help find His selections (of citrus Only a Idea ) would be interested to know though

https://thefruitblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/florida-grapes-website-gone.html

I also  saw Hs pictures on Way back machine not long ago

Not good with all the computer stuff though

(I cannot figure it out on https://www.ibiblio.org/ either
but may look at saved links I have maybe see some stuff saved and figure it out in about a week (or not)

(https://www.aol.com/zehndergrapes/ does not work for me_