Citrus > Cold Hardy Citrus
new thoughts on breeding hardier citrus
poncirsguy:
Marumi kumquats on Poncirus trifoliata and Flying dragon are said to be safe to 0F with leaf loss and down to 10F with no damage. I am in Zone 6 (-10F) which is to cold. The length of winter cold is also to long causing desiccation death in citrus. In zone 8 a polar vortex will drop to 0F and the Marumi losses leaves and the winter cold is 2 months shorter so the tree doesn't desiccate before growing in spring.
vnomonee:
My potted kumquats take around ~8-9 months to ripen fruit, turns orange around winter but still needs time to sweeten up into the spring once I bring them in my grow room, except the hindsii which turns orange in half the time? Point being what good is a hardy tree if the fruit will freeze to mush before it's ripe.
For a fully outdoor (unprotected) cold hardy citrus in zone 6 & 7 especially, fruit will need to ripen before hard freezing otherwise if you're going to go through the trouble to protect the fruit while it ripens you might as well grow the non-hardy types with delicious fruit hehe.
--- Quote from: poncirsguy on August 26, 2022, 10:23:17 AM ---Marumi kumquats on Poncirus trifoliata and Flying dragon are said to be safe to 0F with leaf loss and down to 10F with no damage. I am in Zone 6 (-10F) which is to cold. The length of winter cold is also to long causing desiccation death in citrus. In zone 8 a polar vortex will drop to 0F and the Marumi losses leaves and the winter cold is 2 months shorter so the tree doesn't desiccate before growing in spring.
--- End quote ---
Walt:
Ponciris does ripen fruit here in zone 6. OK, what good is a ripe fruit that tastes awful? But the genes are there for ripening before hard freeze. I think that there will be those trees that can ripen better tasting fruit before freezing. Then keep selecting for sweeter less acid fruit.
When I was just starting out. I slowly ate 4 P. trifoliata fruits, trying to ignore the resin and acid flavors and concentrate on the other flavors. The orange flavors are there. We just need to select for more sugar and less acid. The resinous flavor is said to be lacking in Ponciris+.
poncirsguy:
Clem-yuzu 2-2 goes down to 10F and ripens in September and October. More cold hardiness needed. Grafting onto PT of FD should help.
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