Frosthardiness experience with citrusvarieties in zone 7, down to 3,2 F

[tedburn]

Hello Muberry0126 and a_Vivaldi,
I can confirm you, that Keraji has a realy very good
manarin/lemonade taste and is
eatible from end of November also in my colder
climate. Only small disadvantage is the
medium seediness but for crossing it s no disadvantage.

[tedburn]

Today I started my crossings.
Had Pollen Yuzu N30 from Skandiberg (thanks again) and a nice
Flower of 5* Citrumelo.
Unfortunately after 90% of work getting pistil free one bad movement
of the knife broke the pistil .
O.K. lets wait for the next flowers  .
See pictures.

[Skandiberg]

You're welcome, Frank!

A piece of advice: if you use tiny manicure scissors, you can drive your maneuvers more easily than with a knife.

I'm glad you are making that cross because I have made the reciprocal one. We can compare our seedlings if my plant holds on to its fruit. We'll see.

By the way, I still have a few flowers left on yuzu N30. If anyone is interested, I can probably harvest a bit of pollen.

[mikkel]

one bad movement
of the knife broke the pistil .

You can still apply pollen to a damaged stigma. To do this, simply cut off a small portion of the stigma and apply the pollen directly. This method is well-known for overcoming pollen incompatibility issues and often yields good—sometimes even better—results.

[tedburn]

I wasn' t aware of that, thanks Mikkel 

[tedburn]

One of my 3 resting Yuzmelo x Bloomsweet seedlings  shows a nice
terminalflower, also with nice decent smell.

[Skandiberg]

Wow Frank, how old is that plant? It looks quite small to me.

Very handsome specimen, congrats!

[tedburn]

Thanks Tamasz, the plant is from December 2023.
Yes for 1,5 years they are not too big, but in 2024 they didn't grow very well
and some died. So 3 left and now in 2025 they grow not fast but look good
 .

[Skandiberg]

Flowering at such a young age is great! And that's really a nice looking plant.

[tedburn]

Finally after 5 years in ground my Thomasville brings first flowers  .
Never damaged in Winters but with late sun she grew slowly




Also very nice, that slava micurina after 3 year in ground
had a few flowers


Bloomsweet after 3 years in ground also has some flowers,
very curious if fruits will be hold and how
they will mature in my climate.
My potted Bloomsweetfruits are eatable
November/ December.

[tedburn]

From the crossings Yuzmelo x Bloomsweet  left side and Chandler x Bloomsweet right side,
the Yuzmelo x Bloomsweet with Terminalflower set small fruitlet.
Before dropping the fruitlet I decided to taste it against a
Oroblanco Grapefruit fruitlet.
The positive surprise was that the fruitlet of Yuzmelo x Bloomsweet was
with nearly no bitterness, while Oroblanco was still very bitter.
So taste of this cross seems promising, so only frosthardiness
is still to test.

[Skandiberg]

Fingers crossed for the hardiness of that cross! Hopefully it will be closer to yuzumelo's hardiness.

[tedburn]

Thank you Tamasz. Though I have not tested frost hardiness, due to
my experiences with the parents in ground since a few years.
And with three plants even one should have herited frosthardiness  .

[Skandiberg]

Well, it's precocious enough for sure. If it proves to be sufficiently hardy for your area and tastes relatively good as well, you might have had a lucky day when you did that cross. May it be so!

[tedburn]

After setting and keeping 2 fruitlets from 2 flowers,
Thomasville remembers her Kumquat ancestry and
pushes a lot flowers after some hot days 

[Newbgrower]

Keraji harvest ongoing,
good balance now sweet/ sour.
Good mandarin/ lemony taste and good
fosthardiness, also the fruits took several times
-2 to -4 °C, without any damage.
Only the light skunky taste of the rind I don't like
very much 😉.

Is there a seedless branch of this variety? I only found seeded ones. this would make it more worth to grow for me

[tedburn]

No I didn' t have seedless ones.
Seems that without cross pollination they shall be seedless.