Sun Dragon navel orange
‘US Sun Dragon’
Photo courtesy of USDA-ARS
‘US SunDragon’
USDA-ARS recently released the ‘US SunDragon.’ This variety was been observed in the USDA trial blocks for quite some time, as the cross dates back to 1999. The fruit is large (about the size of a navel orange), is peelable, and has some seed (five to 10 per fruit). The highly pebbled peel is orange. The flesh is light orange with a slightly crisp texture. It is relatively low in acidity, and the flavor is like a mild orange with a distinctive zesty note. This variety has shown strong tolerance to HLB and will be a good breeding parent for tolerance but also may have value as a niche or homeowner variety. It certainly fits the “exotic” label. The fruit is mature October through January. The ‘US SunDragon’ is public domain.
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New Orange-Like Citrus Hybrids to the Rescue - Growing Produce
By Peter Chaires|January 10, 2022
Citrus tasting display at CREC
The Citrus Research and Education Center Plant Improvement Team at UF/IFAS compares orange-like hybrids with the current standards.
Photo by Peter Chaires
A tremendous effort is underway to develop select, trial, and release early and mid-season orange-like hybrids for possible use in the orange juice stream. Investments in breeding have established a large pipeline of material, much of which is beginning to bear. Each year, the process gains greater focus, as new breeding parents, each with a demonstrated propensity to pass on useful traits, are pressed into service.
For Florida, the next big step is the identification of potential orange-like contenders. This is no small undertaking. As efforts are underway to address regulatory hurdles, plant improvement teams are scouring their collections. The first few variety displays of the year highlighted some of the possibilities.
USDA-ARS
Selection 1: ‘SunDragon’. ARS’ best characterized HLB-tolerant sweet-orange-like hybrid. Anne Plotto’s work shows tasters consider its juice to be one of most OJ-like hybrids tested to date. She notes that it maintains quality from late November to late January or even early February.
Titratable acidity (TA) range 0.60 to 0.87, Soluble Solids Content (SSC) range 10.3 to 14.0, SSC/TA range 13.6 to 22. Several processors have tested and report promising results. Trials in multiple sites. Initial analyses showed around 11 Brix , 11 ratio and 33 color score on Nov. 1. Quality remains good through Jan. with 12-13 Brix and 12 ratio and 35 color. Taste and internal texture are very orange-like and very good according to most tasters.
Very few seeds. No detectable trifoliate taste or smell. Fruit are often nosy and range greatly in size. Peel adherent and fruit seem sturdy enough for standard trailer loads, but needs to be tested. Yield is modest at 1-2 boxes per tree. Tree architecture is leggy and may be well suited to higher density plantings. Pedigree may complicate regulatory approval for OJ. Budwood trees are clean at DPI and the cultivar is publicly released and selected for CRDF replicated trials.
https://citrusrdf.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/2019-05-21_Hybrid-citrus-supplementing-OJ-stream_Gmitter.pdfAdditional links relating to Citrus - Poncirus flavor evaluations.
https://irrec.ifas.ufl.edu/postharvest/presentations/2020_Packinghouse_Day/6-Citrus_Hybrids_Tolerant_to_HLB.pdfhttps://crec.ifas.ufl.edu/extension/citrus_rootstock/rootstock-literature/2020-Baldwin-E-et-al.-Accerlerating-Implementation.pdf
