The Tropical Fruit Forum

Recent photos:


1282 Citrandarin fruitlets.


Poncirus Plus fruits pollinated by Conestoga 058. Its low degree of fuzziness raises the question as to whether it might have a low degree of conventional Citrus hiding in its genetics? An increase of monofoliate seedlings when crossed with monofoliate Citrus cultivars might point in that direction. Conestoga 026, although completely trifoliate, produces an increased percentage of monofoliate and bi-foliate seedlings when crossed with Meyer lemon.

A second cold tunnel under construction to house select seed parents in an effort to mass produce cold hardy seedlings for additional winter hardiness tests.
Edith Bogue Southern magnolia in the background These trees are hardy in S.E. Pennsylvania.
The tall tree in the far background is a northern Pecan.

Sun dragon fruits.

Several photos from today: 3rd generation 5 Star Citrumelo survivors at -8°F. Some hardy above snow, the remainder below snow. The yellow labels indicate above snow survivors.
Also a current photo of 1 year old Meyer lemon x Conestoga 026 Segentrange.







The dead branches in the background are also 5 Star Citrumelo, but weren't trialed for Sub-Zero temperatures. The yellow -tagged survivors should be hardier than the dead branched tree.

Butterfly eggs?

Yes, it experienced dieback, but a bit less than Bishop Citrandarin did. It's slightly less hardy than several others in the row, however this one has less Poncirus-like petioles.

In the case of 5 Star two out of a dozen seedlings flowered late in the second year. There's a tendency to focus on the most precocious individuals while overlooking slower maturing siblings. With the notable exception of a few dwarfish, precocious selections, poorly grown trees often languish for years.
The majority of the earliest flowering trees were vigorous, well grown trees quickly attaining height ahead of their siblings. There's clearly a genetic component coupled with ideal cultural conditions.
Additionally, trees grown outdoors appeared to lag tunnel grown trees by a year or so.

I always find graphic information very useful for summarizing and understanding things. I took photos from the Conestoga tasting video so I could have scale images of the fruits. There are comparisons of the parents and other Citranges, in case anyone has one and wants to know their respective sizes. I also added what I was suggesting about mitosis and the possible reason why a Citranges can be so similar to its grandfather, Poncirus (as in resistance). I hope you find it useful.

Thanks Laura_hibrid, one consideration is the extreme selection pressure that was applied to the theoretical 3,000 zygotic seedlings among the 20,000 initial C-35 seedlings. There are realistically only about 10 survivors that have cold hardiness approaching the hardiness of Poncirus. In appearance these exhibit only minor deviation from Poncirus proper. However, several have reduced bitterness and resin content.
Of particular interest is Conestoga 026 which when crossed with monofoliate cultivars produces a substantial percentage of monofoliate and bi-foliate progeny. Conestoga 006 and 010 haven't been tested for this characteristic.
An unanswered question is whether Poncirus Plus might perhaps also have similar ancestry? Again, the tree is indistinguishable from common Poncirus.
Interestingly, during time of bloom there are differences between Poncirus Plus, 006, 010 and 026. 026 is small flowered, Poncirus Plus is large flowered as is my strain (Collins) of common Poncirus.
During grafting Conestoga 006, 010 and 026 there are differences observed in the extent of blind buds at the lower ends of growth flushes.

Various hybrid seedlings some outdoors, some in seedling pots.

A small percentage of F² hybrids will exhibit characteristics of one it's grandparents as noted. This is often not a complete reconstitution of the grandparents' genetics, however it's often sufficient to give the appearance complete replication.
A case in point is Conestoga 026, which appears identical to Poncirus in the tree characteristics, yet when crossed with Meyer lemon produces, monofoliate as well as bi-foliate, trifoliate and mixed leaf types among its progeny.

Quote from: kumin on April 28, 2025, 05:38:11 AM

Quote from: Ilya11 on April 28, 2025, 03:14:39 AM

What I ordered from B.Voss in 2003 was its hybrid Voss1, claimed to be ChandlerXPT, but it came with  a label Swingle 5star.
At those moment I had not much cared for this, my goal was to have something decorative looking like a real citrus.

Here's a photo of a grafted tree from July 2020 of what was believed to be 5* at that time.

Very similar, if not identical. Thanks Illya.

What I ordered from B.Voss in 2003 was its hybrid Voss1, claimed to be ChandlerXPT, but it came with  a label Swingle 5star.
At those moment I had not much cared for this, my goal was to have something decorative looking like a real citrus.

Here's a photo of a grafted tree from July 2020 of what was believed to be 5* at that time.

At 7 years of age Conestoga 058 has produced a flower bud. This selection is the least hardy of all the Conestoga selections. However, the leaves are aromatic and predominantly monofoliate. Hopefully it'll set a fruit so it's zygotic vs nucellar status can be determined.

Unfortunately, the flower was staminate and lacked the pistil. Several Poncirus Plus flowers were pollinated using this pollen. Perhaps a few will set fruit.

It's a multifaceted effort.
1. Second generation C-35 seedlings tested for Sub-Zero temperatures.
2. Meyer lemon X Conestoga 026 (seedling resulting from the effort stated above.
3. Hybrids between Citrandarins and again selections resulting from the trial in #1
4. Hybrids created between Citrandarins and Citrumelos.
5. Additionally crosses utilizing miscellaneous trees from my collection.
6. Goals: Creating breeding parents with winterhardiness, producing zygotic seedlings that can continuously be field tested for Sub-Zero temperature survival

Advanced generation 5* Citrumelo seedlings. These photos are of ~5% that have survived -8°F (-22°C) in SE Pennsylvania. These seedlings are a year old.

A dwarf survivor with no damage


A normal size plant with modest damage.