The Tropical Fruit Forum

Hello all,

As we all know, citrus flowers smell amazing, so I was hoping to capture that aroma. Orange blossom water is a thing, but for now I will not be able to harvest large amounts. My plants are small, some are too small to carry fruit, so I will remove flowers sporadically. Storing them to collect enough over time to make 'blossom water' doesn't seem like a practical thing, so I was thinking alcohol instead.

Could I just have a bottle of grain alcohol and chuck more flowers in it whenever I pick some of the plants? Should I strain and remove old flowers in between sometimes, or just let everything collect for half a year and strain it afterwards?

I'm also looking into if I should dry the flowers or not before putting them in the alcohol.

Anyone else that has been doing things with the citrus flowers? I'm curious about different things to do with them.

Kind regards,

I try to do my own research but after using lava split/grit last time and this apparently being not the ideal choice for citrus, I wanted to make sure to make a good mix this time. Especially because I'll be repotting 50 or so plants.

What I have around at the moment is:
- Coarse perlite 2 - 6 mm 
- COMPO Bio Potting soil - Extra light (pic: bottom right)
- Pine bark mulch 10 - 25mm (pic: bottom left)
- Coco husk mulch - compressed blocks - (pic: top left)
- 100% Coco potting soil - compressed blocks - (pic: top right)





Pot sizes: 20 - 30 cm
Climate: Belgium
Winter: outdoors (wet)
Summer: hot rooftop
Rootstock: mostly Poncirus, few C4475

For the coco products I hear about a problem with salt. Some say it's fine, some say to rinse it with water, some say to rinse it with certain products... Is it worth the effort or better to use something else...

I'm only in my second year growing citrus so I hope I can get some advice from people with a little more experience

Not available anymore

I could use some help regarding Taiwanica cultivars.

I bought the Taiwanica from Adavo, expecting the Nansho Daidai, which is known for it's narrow leaves, and this matches their picture and description (although they use pictures from other people / internet) https://www.rakytnik.com/index.php/rostliny/citrusy/hybridni-citrusy/429-c-taiwanica-oe-tan-y-shimado-c-grandis-x-c-reticulata

The leaves on the plant I received are quite round, with wide petioles (see my picture below). So I emailed about it and I got an answer:

Translated from Czech:

You're right. The Nanshô-daidai variety has narrow leaves: https://www.forestryimages.org/browse/subthumb.cfm?sub=71562

We do not offer this variety. We offer only the original species. He doesn't have narrow leaves:
https://taieol.tw/pages/44601
https://www.lesfruitiers.net/fiche.php?idVariete=1999

So it seems their own description on the website is not correct for the cultivar that they sell.

Does anyone know the name of this 'original species' cultivar?

On the web pages he gives I don't really find a name. Translated from the Taiwanese page it says "The difference from the original mother is that the petiole wing of this species is linear and the fruit is 7-9cm." So the plant from Adavo would be the 'original mother' mentioned here.

I also have the Taiwanica from Lenzi, of which I also don't know a cultivar name. But it seems different from the one that I have from Adavo. And Lenzi's Taiwanica leaves also don't seem narrow enough to be the Nansho Daidai.

Plant from Adavo:



Plant from Lenzi:



Newer leaves seem to get larger:



Best regards,

I bought both the "C. Unshiu x C. Junos" and "Poncirus x C. Unshiu" from Adavo. I was wondering if people here have experience with these.

The description of the "Poncirus x C. Unshiu" is fairly positive:

• "Probably a Czech variety, the branches are flat and twisted similar to the Flying Dragon with small single, double or triple leaves of irregular shapes with smooth edges, small flowers and large twisted thorns. Frost resistance is between -15 and -20°C. It grows significantly. A partially deciduous variety, the younger plants practically do not fall at all, the older ones can be said to be almost as deciduous as Poncirus, although the plant always keeps a leaf here and there through the winter. The fruits are smaller, mandarin-shaped, sweet without the influence of poncirus in taste, but rather of a lower mandarin quality, the length of our growing season also seems sufficient in the lowlands, although obviously at the cost of smaller and less ripe fruits. It grafts poorly."

Description of the "C. Unshiu x C. Junos" is a little less positive about taste and there is also no information about cold resistance:

• "The new hybrid, not described in detail, has a looser structure and has thorny twigs. Stems up to 2.5 cm long. The leaves are deep green, 5-15 cm long, with less prominent veining and a bluntly bifurcated tip. The lower part of the leaf is a stipule up to 4 cm long and 2 cm wide. In younger leaves, the stipules are less noticeable. Rather straight, visible as a petiole, which is, however, short 5 mm. It has white five-pointed flowers. The pear-shaped fruit, lemon-yellow in color, 5-7 cm long and 3-4 cm wide, has a rough, rough skin. The peel is firm, hard, 1 cm wide. There are 9 segments inside, medium seeds (about 10) and very little juice. The color of the pulp is white-yellow-brown. The taste is bitter, astringent and almost inedible."

I'm not very familiar with this kinds of crosses, would it be expected that these are F1 crosses? Or could they be F2 or possibly further in generation? I bought these two because I might eventually want to use them for breeding. But would it also be useful to grow seeds from these to make selections from?


Here is a picture of my "C. Unshiu x C. Junos" that I received:


I'll update with a better picture and also one of the "Poncirus x C. Unshiu"
 

Best regards,

Last time I was asking about satsuma's, now the eremo's.

From what I have gathered there is:

1. Eremorange (-14°C)
2. Eremolemon Coachella (-12°C)
3. Eremomandarin (-?°C)
4. Citrangeremo (-15°C)
5. Citrus glauca x shekwasha (-?°C)

- Eremorange is the most popular, so I expect it to be good and it has good cold resistance, so I will add this to my collection

- Eremolemon is also reasonably popular, not as cold hardy, but because lemons overal aren't very cold hardy, I still think it is interesting to have (I have this one already).

- Citrangeremo, some information about it on the internet, but I did not find much about fruit quality or how it compares to Eremorange. It could be a little more cold hardy due to the poncirus genetics, but I'm wondering if it's worth it if Eremorange has better taste.

- Eremomandarin I haven't found much about it...

- Citrus glauca x shekwasha, I think this is also considered an eremomandarin. Not much information, especially about fruit quality. Adavo has it.


Any people here that have some experience with these? I could just get all of them for my collection, but I will already have so many varieties that I would rather preemptively remove some, instead of waiting until I can test and taste them all.

Here's a picture of my Eremolemon Coachella on poncirus. I have another one from Lenzi on carrizo, which I took a scion from and grafted on poncirus

Hello everyone,

In summer of 2021 I started my citrus collection with a few plants from Lenzi, and have kept learning and adding varieties during the year. I thought I'd just make a topic to put some information about my plants, my experiences and people are free to ask questions if they have any.

I'm located in the city of Antwerp and while the back of our house and garden are facing south, the hours of sun can be limited due to walls and buildings blocking the sun. So I keep my citrus plants on a flat rooftop, two stories high up and get a reasonable amount of sun there I think (it's not at the top of the house, I still get some shade from other buildings). Downside is that it can get a bit more wind up there. Other than that, the winter temperatures are not too harsh here in the city I think. According to the book from Olivier Biggio "Agrumes résistant au froid" I'm on the edge between zone 8A and 8B.

These are the varieties I have now:

- Yuzu
- Yuzu N°3
- Smooth Skin Hanayuzu
- Yuzumelo / Yuzu x Citrumelo
- Thomasville Citrangequat
- US119
- Furrowed Bitter Orange
- Taiwanica
- Sudachi
- Eremolemon Coachella
- Prague Chimera
- Shekwasha
- Keraji Mandarine
- Changsha Tangerine
- Okitsu Satsuma
- Maxima Satsuma
- Enzo Pomelo
- Citrangequat 4 Season
- Meyer Lemon


Some of them came from Lenzi and are on carrizo rootstock, so I am taking scions from them and grafting them onto poncirus. I had never made grafts before and from reading on the internet it seemed like I should not expect a high success rate, but it really wasn’t an issue. Most of them succeeded and if they failed it was often when the mother plant wasn’t doing very well at the time or if the scion was just a terrible piece.

Here you can find more information about my plants, the rootstocks, my grafts, and any information I collect:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1bDS69kX9iBFFes3AHoAaj-wvSEzkFKqQe8QJ008WsaE/edit?usp=sharing

I’m still looking to add a lot of varieties, this is what I still have on my list right now

These I have no good source for yet (Vessieres doesn't reply again):
- Kumquat Nameïwa
- Clemyuz22 (or Clemyuz33)
- Kishu(-mikan)
- Tachibana
- Eremomandarin
- Bloomsweet / kinkoji

Quissac has these two, but they are expensive, so still looking for alternatives or get scions:
- Yuzu Nishiki Tada
- Yuzukichi

These I think I can get from Adavo, but I'm still interested in scions (just less of a priority):
- Ichang lemon CRC 1215
- Trifeola
- Satsuma Hashimoto
- Satsuma Iseki
- Citrangeremo
- Eremorange
- Kabosu
- Ichangensis x Sinensis
- Citrus glauca x shekwasha

For these I know someone in France that is willing to send me scions:
- Satsuma Collot
- Satsuma Corsica SRA 145

And this one I should get from a local nursery in August, he says it's very cold hardy, when I go there I'll try to get more information about it, because online there is nothing to be found about it:
- Kumquat Rafael

I'm also interested in making crosses in the future, so Poncirus+ would also be nice to add to the collection.

If you see a variety on my list that is not worth getting, or if you think a variety should be added to my list, please let me know!

And if you can help me with scions, I’d be very happy to talk about that.

I'm also happy to share scions, but I don't know when I will have which variety available as my plants are rather young right now so I don't get many good scions from them.

Here is a picture of most of my plants together:





Feel free to request pictures of specific plants.