The Tropical Fruit Forum

Conestoga 067 survived 2°F with high winds last December. Many of the leaves are monofoliate.


Conestoga 058 has mostly monofoliate leaves and is less hardy than 067.

I would suspect the monofoliate survivors to have a greater likelihood of being palatable. The leaves of at least one of them has a more fragrant scent than most of the other selections.
On another note, the 5 Star Citrumelo seedlings show considerable variation in fruit size as well as productivity. I was impressed with the precocity of several of them.

Conestoga 010 grafted on Poncirus rootstock has transitioned to reproductive phase out of doors. There's no chance of the fruit ripening on this tree. However, there are maturing fruit in the tunnel. I hope to test the fruit for flavor and the seeds for zygotic embryony. 

 Conestoga 006 trees are also transitioning to mature phase.

Since both parents are of hybrid origin it might be expected to have widely divergent characteristics in their progeny. I'm also inclined to believe the broad genetic base could reduce inbreeding depression.
If a zygotic sibling to Conestoga 026 were to be discovered the next step of crossing Conestoga selections with Changsha X Poncirus crosses might be realized. Again with the goal of keeping a diverse genetic base.

Meyer lemon x Conestoga 026 zygotic seedlings. Despite 026 having exclusively trifoliate leaves its backcross to Citrus exhibits monofoliate, bifoliate and trifoliate leaves among its progeny. Quite a few of the seedlings have mixed leaf types.
Although the seedlings may not be hardy to subzero temperatures like its pollen parent, some should exceed the hardiness of Meyer.

To this point most have a lighter pubescence than Poncirus, but all have at least a faint fuzziness. The supposed C-35 has less, if any pubescence.

Recent photos of various seedlings, grafted trees and fruits:

This tree may be a C-35 seedling. It's got approximately 10 fruits at 5 years of age. The fruits are 2" (5cm) in diameter.

1279 Citrandarin fruits are rather small.



First fruits on Conestoga 006.

Poncirus Plus fruits.


First fruits on Conestoga 021.

First 010 fruits.


Grafted Bishop Citrandarin



Grafted Dragon Lime


Grafted Conestoga 067


Grafted Flying Dragon with fruit


Grafted 5 Star Citrumelo


Grafted Thomasville Citrangequat





Grafted Citremon



1282 Citrandarin foliage


1281 Citrandarin foliage


More Flying Dragon fruits.

I have about a dozen grafted 5* Citrumelos.

My next adaptation will be to mount the square tubing on a turntable, allowing rotation by hand to remove the lower thorns, as well as to access the best exposed part of the rootstock stem.

Rootstock in Citripots is prone to fall to the side. Rootstock can be awkward to budgraft in upright,or even flat position. This is a crude positioning apparatus to secure the rootstock in a favorable position while budding or grafting. Upon using it I should be able to critique its ergonomic pros and cons.

The supposed C-35 fruits continue to grow larger.

I've just discovered an additional 5 year old seedling tree with 10 fruitlets. These are the first fruits for this tree. I'm not totally certain if this is a zygotic sibling to the remainder of the cold hardy test survivors, or Tag along C-35 that survived via a root graft to a hardy selection that subsequently died.
This tree's in the Cold frame/tunnel and has avoided the harshest cold winds.
The fruitlets show little, or no fuzziness exhibited by Poncirus and some of its hybrids.