The Tropical Fruit Forum

Great!
Hmm, I took photos for one of my projects. In the future, I planned to make sketches from them. The scans look good. But I don't like that when a leaf is flattened, it is less recognizable on the tree. You also don't have enough scale.

Yes, over time I will see if I can find some good naturally flat leaves from the plants, so they don't deform on the scanner. But as I make a little setup to photograph flowers, and eventually fruits, I will also try it with leaves and see how it compares to the scans.

just a short notice

HRS 899A is Changsha x Poncirus , the other way around as on your scan

great work !

Thanks, good tip, I'll update it soon.

For this one I was also not sure if everything was correct and optimal:

Kumquat 'Nameiwa'
Citrus Japonica
Citrus Margarita 'Nagami' x Citrus Crassifolia 'Meiwa'

Also not sure if I should remove the Kumquat from the name, because in another one I also don't write Changsha Mandarin, but just Changsha. But I do write things like Ichang Papeda 'Ivia' and Yuzu 'N°3' and not just 'Ivia' by itself. So the question is if the name 'Kumquat' is on the same level as 'Ichang Papeda'

I have obtained an Ichangmoï Elisa, it is a hybrid between Ichang Papeda and Moï (C. Ichangensis x C. Pennivesiculata). It is supposedly very sour.

There is not much information about it, there is a little bit here, but I take the mentioned hardiness with a grain of salt: http://www.agrumes-passion.com/viewtopic.php?p=66826

It doesn't seem very popular, but I think it might still have some potential. I think it could potentially also be interesting to cross it with Kumquat, and hope for an 'Ichangmoïquat' that is hardier than the lemon-/limequats, but with better fruit quality than Ichangquat.

The leaves of this Ichangmoï Elisa smell quite pleasant, I compared it with a leaf of Ichang Lemon, and prefered the Ichangmoï. I did only take one Ichang Lemon leaf to compare, so not sure if some leaves might be less or more fragrant. 

I think it's by category.

So if that's the case, then the Nansho Daidai was the best of all the sour orange entries? 

From the pictures they look like quite high quality fruit!

Little update here;

I managed to add some new varieties to my collection. I got four plants from Vessieres:
- ClemYuz 2-2
- Yuzu N30 Hybrid
- Ichang Lemon 'Wagashi' (this cultivar apparently has small fruits, but the description from Vessiers is all the information I have on it)
- Keraji 'Voss D14' (according to Vessieres a little more hardy compared to the common Keraji cultivar)

I also received scions and made a graft from Taiwanica Nansho Daidai (the variant with long narrow leaves), and received a new Taiwanica plant from Lenzi (different cultivar) because the first plant I had was something else and wrongly labeled.

You can allways follow the progress of my collection through my spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1bDS69kX9iBFFes3AHoAaj-wvSEzkFKqQe8QJ008WsaE/edit?usp=sharing

The four plants from Vessieres after repotting:

I copied some notes on it myself, because I have Ichangquat, but no fruit yet. This is information I found written by Ilya:

Quite edible , less sour then Nagami, a little bit bitter but not excessively, piny scented skin with some sweetness. In the past I made quite good marmalade from them. But the quality of the fruits is quite variable, probably depends on the season of harvest. Sometimes they are quite dry inside. When nearby citrus are flowering simultaneously fruits contain large seeds.

The taste is very distinct, to be objective, not everyone will like it.
But certainly it is many times better than taste of poncirus or ichangensis.
It is a very early ripening variety, its fruits from May blossoms are good by the end of August.
The second, main wave of bloom occurs at the end of July and fruits are ripe by November.
For the best taste fruits should be harvested when fully ripe on the tree and are readily detached.
Usually there is a moderate amount of juice inside, but after a drought some of the fruits are dry and barely edible.
The skin smells distinctly, for me it resembles feijoa with some piny note.
I am now get addicted to them, although they are a little bit bitter when eaten with the skin like kumquat.
A very special marmalade could be made of this fruit.

CORRECTION: I should probably update this, because the first "Taiwanica" that I had received from Lenzi was wrongly labeled. This summer it started to grow fruits that had a pointy end, while Taiwanica should have round fruit. I received a replacement plant from Lenzi. It's still very small, but I want to update this topic with photos of the leaves. I see that I can't edit my original post in this thread, so I will try breaking the link to the pictures of the wrong plant, so I don't spread wrong information.

Besides receiving the correct Taiwanica from Lenzi, I have also received Taiwanica budwood from Citrus BaLi. This would be the "Nansho Daidai" cultivar with long narrow leaves (at least the variant that is in Europe). It's clear that the correct Taiwanica from Lenzi is still something different, but that is not unexpected, as there are multiple Taiwanica cultivars.

So it will take some time for my different Taiwanicas to grow, after which I can update with more information on the cultivars.

- This is the correct (hopefully this time) Taiwanica from Lenzi:






- This is my graft of the Nansho Daidai Taiwanica with scion from Citrus BaLi, it has the beginning of a leaf, but it stopped growing, I expect the scion will start growing again next spring:



This is a picture I received from Citrus BaLi, the mother plant:



- The third cultivar I have is the one from Adavo, but this is apparently described as the "original mother of Nansho Daidai" and I'm not sure if it qualifies as a Taiwanica or not.


 

what about this one?

https://bluewood.yo.fr/produit/eremomandarine-hybride-satsuma-eremocitrus/

in the picture there is a label glauca x Shekwasha, so nothing special. But the description says Hybrid of satsuma-eremocitrus.
The label that comes with the plant says Eremosatsuma.

Who can help?

Maybe they accidentally used a wrong picture, or used the Glauca x Shekwasha picture because they didn't have a picture of the other and they look very similar.

Can only speculate, better to ask them directly.

What I know is that some people call Glauca x Shekwasha an Eremomandarin, because Shekwasha is a mandarin. But there is a diferent, let's say regular, Eremomandarin that is a different cross. But what I don't know if this "regular Eremomandarin" is the same as Eremosatsuma, or if that would be a third one in the mandarin crosses category.

My Kabosu has died in the meantime. What ever it was this plant from Adavo was not healthy.

I received my Kabosu from him in Autumn, and in spring it took a very long time before it started growing while also having a few leaves turn brown and dropping, so I got a bit concerned, but then it started growing and now it looks quite healthy. Also made a graft with it that was successful and looks alright so far. 

EDIT: adding some pictures:

This was it  on June 9th:



This is it now:

There are salt clearing solutions like https://generalhydroponics.com/products/florakleen/

Thanks, it seems interesting. I think I might test it to see how effective it is. If it works well enough it could be a solution. This only works as a flush, right? I should not use it to treat the water every time that I water the plants?

I have also heard a long soak can help mitigate salts but your salt buildup looks quite severe.  I suggest repotting into fresh soil to fix the immediate problem, but if you do not find a cleaner source of water your plants will struggle.

Yeah I think it's quite severe. But now I'm thinking that it could be amplified by the coco coir that I used and flushed beforehand with epsom salts. The epsom salt is supposed to remove other salts from the coco coir, but now I am a bit confused if epsom salt also causes negative effects? I read people use epsom salt to add magnesium to their plants, but does this not cause salt build up? Or are some salts good and others bad? How to tell the difference in my soil 

I do flush the coco coir with fresh (tap) water after flushing it with epsom salt water. But it might not remove all of it. Maybe I should use the product recommended by K-Rimes to flush the coco coir next year when mixing new substrate.

Hello,

I'm quickly getting salt crystal / crust build up on the soil of my potted citrus plants. Part of this could be caused by the fertilizer (https://www.compo-expert.com/products/floranid-twin-permanent-16-7-152?country=global), and I might have fertilized a little bit too much, but I suspect that the main problem is my tap water.

I don't have rainwater to water them with. Recently I bought PH strips and I believe the water was around 8 PH. I now add a little bit of vinegar to the tap water to adjust the PH to something suitable for citrus, but if I'm not mistaken, this doesn't really help against the soluble salts issue?

Is there any other way to treat my water and improve it? I have too many plants to be able to just buy demineralized water.

I read that it helps to sometimes flush the soil by watering a large amount, which I did, but I don't believe it will solve it well enough. Any ideas and tips are appreciated.

Here are some pictures of the soil:

Little update.

- A fair bit of resin blobs have kept coming out if it, In random places and also where a branch was freshly cut off.

- I cut down most of the plant, usually insects prefer the younger growth so I hope the stump that's left is 'clean' and I'm keeping an eye on it.



- I found this insect on another plant, it looks similar to gall wasp, but also like an ant: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lasius_claviger_male.jpg



Any bug experts here?

Also, I wonder, will only the citrus gall wasp infect citrus, or are there others from the hundreds of different species of gall wasps that will also infect citrus? I'm in Belgium, Europe, and it seems that citrus gall wasp is mainly a problem in Australia.

copper deficiency?

Last year someone also mentioned this, but unless Keraji needs way more copper than other citrus cultivars I don't see how only this plant would have this repeated issue. A few weeks ago I gave it some copper sulfate anyway, but this was after the symptoms were already there, so currently I have no idea if it has any effect.

I'm so glad you enjoyed the tachibana orange! I really don't know why western sources persist in calling it inedible or unpleasant. I think it's quite nice.

I kind of enjoy how small the fruits are, it's cute and the plants are pretty. But I try to have only useful and hardy varieties, so Shekwasha is the obvious one to have. But I also wanted Kishu, because the fruit quality/taste is supposedly very good so I made an exception on hardiness. But then I also felt like I had to complete the trio of these tiny-fruit varieties, so I reasoned to myself that Tachibana is at least hardier than Kishu, and I don't remember where, but from memory I think I've read somewhere that, despite the 'supposedly unpleasant' taste of Tachibana, Tachibana can create good/interesting flavor when using it to make a new hybrid. I don't know what information is accurate or not. The taste was a bit weak and boring, but not bad. Maybe it's better when used green, like Shekwasha often is. Or maybe it's when green that there is an unpleasant taste? Anyway, at least I wouldn't have to discard the (ripe) fruits, and would use them to make marmelade or throw them into kombucha or something.

For temperatures I've read:
Shekwasha -13 °C
Tachibana -11 / -12
Kishu -8