The Tropical Fruit Forum

 
Now comes the last part of reviews. These are the big boys.



Amanatsu
Brix 11, every segment has at least 1 seed





For JSea's sake I tried the rind. It tastes Citrusy but a little bitter and peppery, the pith is dry, spongy and neutral. Together they are still not worth eating. Rind fragrance is very Citrusy, it has its own aroma but if I had to say what it's resembling most, it would be orange. Very easily peelable and it peels off clean.

Flesh is orange, juicy. Taste is very good, refreshing. It has a tiny bit of grapefruit bitterness but it's really just an underlying tone. It's moderately sweet, acidity is low but still enough. This is a very tasty fruit, I do like it a lot. It's like a mild grapefruit with orange notes. If I had to figure out what an orangelo may taste like, I think this would be the flavour in my head. I still taste the pepperiness after 3 segments, I'm not sure if it's still from the rind or the juice also has some of it. There is only one negative which is just the same as in the case of Shunkokan: the membranes are tough, rubbery and very chewey, making it difficult to eat. Other than that, it's absolutely recommended. I expected it to be more bitter. And I was quite surprised by the size of the fruit. Being kind of a bitter orange style fruit, I thought it would be orange size but it's a whole lot bigger. I had an idea and tried to peel off the membranes like I do with pomelos and I succeeded. Vesicles are not as solid as pomelo vesicles but it wasn't very difficult to do. That did the trick: if consumed that way, it's a really nice fruit.


Melogold
Brix 10, numerous empty seeds, 1 viable





As soon as I start peeling it, the bitter but pleasant, fresh smell of grapefruit hits my nose.
It's peelable but remnants of the thick pith remain on the segments. They must be peeled off afterwards.
It has a typical white grapefruit smell and look. The colour is pale yellow like expected. Flesh is very juicy and tender. The taste is suprisingly mild. Probably it was sharper before standing for over two weeks. But it's still an enjoyable fruit. Acidity is low but just enough for me, bitterness is also low, barely there, just enough to make the taste a bit more interesting, not disturbing at all. Sweetness is moderate but as it's not a sour, bitter fruit, it's okay. Membranes are worse than I found with Amanatsu. I had to spit it out because I got tired of chewing in vain. So I tried to peel off all the membranes again. It's possible and that makes it easier to eat but the flesh is so juicy that the peeling process is very messy. I think it would be better for juicing. Overall, a good tasting fruit. A grapefruit that has barely any bitterness and I detect a little lemon/lime aroma, too.


Kao Pan
Brix 8,5
Somewhat seedy, there are seeds but I'm hesitant to say how many are viable.







The pith is already a little pink at some places, which says there is some coloration in the flesh and indeed there is. Flesh colour is beautiful, a transition between white and all shades of pink. It has pomelo smell. Flesh texture is firm as expected, I can easily peel off all the membranes. Taste is more acidic than I expected. Melogold was apparently sweeter and not just in terms of balance but also quantitatively. The Brix reading backs it up. It has more complex aroma than regular storebought pomelos but I enjoy them more than this. Maybe another 3 weeks on the tree would have done good to this fruit. It's described as one of the best Thai pomelos and I can't see the reason why, based on this particular fruit. Maybe it's just not fully ripe. It's not bad but it lacks the wow factor for me completely.


Valentine
Brix 10, many seeds







The rind has a dominantly orange smell.
Not as intense though.
Very easy to peel, it all came off it two pieces.
I think this is past its prime, Valentine doesn't seem to be a well storing fruit. I liked it better the first time.
Colour is beautiful. Flesh has a faint blood orange smell to me. Taste is very mild, somewhat sweet and a little watery. It's a mix of blood orange, mandarin and some pomelo, no surprise there. It's very high juiciness and tender flesh seem to be on par with Melogold. Segments can be eaten with membranes. It's possible to peel them off but it's very messy.
It's still a good fruit but apparently overripe now. Nevertheless, I enjoy it. I can't decide if the very low acidity and wateriness are the result of being overripe or come from the acidless genes.

Amanatsu was the clear winner and the positive surprise for me of this lot.

I've noticed the narrow leaves every so often, they seem to be a genetic abnormality of sorts. I would expect more trifoliate or at least bifoliate leaves from a first generation cross with Bajusz. I have seen them pop up later though so I would be on the lookout as they age!

Got it. But at least it really seems to be a zygotic seedling, that's already a good thing. We'll see if the different genetics are for better or worse. I guess hardiness will be the first thing to learn about and if these three guys pass that test, I must wait for the first fruits to appear.

I also expected trifoliate or at least bifoliate leaves to appear. I'm sure they will show up later. The stem apparently shows trifoliate influence. We'll see what the later leaves will be like.

I had a look at the three identified N30 x Bajusz hybrids. The one with narrow leaves looks like a standout one.

Here is the youngest:



The second:



And the oldest:



Even these two look very different, here they are in one picture:



Those narrow leaves look very atypical for a Citrus. They are like the foliage of a random Pursha seedling which also looks very different from its siblings:



I have never seen any other Citrus seedling besides these two with such leaves. I'm really curious what these will grow into.

In the meantime Clemenrubi is already flowering and Cocktail pomelo will soon follow:

I planted a few Citrus youngsters last year for the sake of it. I checked them yesterday. First the ones that were covered with fleece.

Two yuzu 'Cologne' seedlings:






They got hit but I think they will survive just fine. For the tiny size (25-30 cm) I that's okay.


2 seedlings of Kinga1:







Some dieback at the end of the stems, nothing serious.


Till's yuzu seedling:





This one looked dead but started to grow from underground very late last year, around mid summer. But it quickly grew 30 cm. The thin, new growth mostly died back but the lower 5-8 cm of the stem looks fine.


PT++ graft:



I made several grafts of it last summer but they refused to move. However they remained green. I thought I would take a chance on one in the name of science. It seems to be alive but the top of the scion has a yellow hue. We'll see.


I have a few tiny specimens of Till's yuzu seedlings that had no fleece, just some dirt piled on their base. The difference is obvious.





Most of them died back to ground level but these two show some green colour on the stem. Quite impressive from 5-10 cm tall seedlings but I will wait before I'm too keen about them. As visible in the last pictures, we still had some freeze this morning. March and April will be long.

Further fruit reviews.

Please note these fruits have stood 2 weeks since they arrived. That means some of them are a little overripe, or even past their prime.













Pursha Brix 9; 9 seeds



Pleasant sweet lemonade taste, descibed before.


Ortanique Brix 10; 0 seeds



It was very sweet and quite sour two weeks ago. Now a lot milder, still very pleasant. My personal taste is sweet and not too acidic. This one fits the bill now.


Moro Brix 12; 1 lazy seed



It feels very similar to what I remember from 2 weeks ago. Maybe a tad less acidic but still a very good fruit.


Arcobal Brix 8,5; 6 seeds



These two weeks improved its edibility a lot. Now I feel I could eat this fruit easily. Its acidity is ideal now. Just sweet enough, acidic enough, I like it now. It has some notes I still can't identify. Its aroma is mainly lemonlike but blood orange is also present. Very juicy.


Moro de los Valles (Violettes des Vallées?) Brix 8; 5 seeds



Absolutely beautiful fruit.
It has a sourer smell, like freshly squeezed orange juice.
Nice flavour, a little less acidic than I anticipated. Not too sweet. It has a nice taste but it's not really intense. A fairly neutral fruit. Very juicy.


Tarocco Lempso Brix 10,5; 2 empty seeds

I will try to add a picture later.  ☹️

This has a more classic blood orange smell. The taste is absolutely spectacular, I detect raspberry in spades. Also milder than expected, leaving a sweet overall taste. Very good. Very juicy.


Webber tangelo Brix 11; 4 seeds



Very-very juicy. Absolutely wonderful. It lost some acidity and now it's a really good fruit for my taste. Sweet enough, it has a sweet lemonade-pomelo taste. Milder than before but not insipid at all. I could eat a box of this. I love it.


Minneola Brix 9; 5 seeds



Dominantly orange smell.
Very good taste, very juicy. It's like an exotic orange. Good balance of sweet and acid. My wife ate a fruit two weeks ago, she said that was sour, she didn't like it but this one is good. Refreshing, nice flavour with enough interesting notes to be regarded higher than a regular sweet orange.


Amoa 8 Brix 13; 1 good seed and some tiny aborted ones

I will try to add a picture later. ☹️

It has a mandarin aroma with a hint of blood orange, very nice scent. Radically different from the blood oranges. When I looked in the Brix meter, the white part was pink. Very intense colour.
Very sweet. Not overly juicy now but the flavour makes up for it. It has honey notes. I love it. Sweet and mild.


Tarocco Hipolito Brix 9; no seeds



It's really juicy and tender. The intense scent hit me in the face when I opened it up. It's like the orange scented effervescent vitamin tablets but not in a bad way. It smells pleasant.
Very sweet, very juicy, very tender, very good. I love it. Mild in a pleasant way. These Tarocco strains are magical.

I think I discovered another zygotic N30 x Bajusz hybrid. It also appears to have a small single preleaf on the stem:





I checked and this fruit had 3 greener seeds. That probably means the now three seedlings with PT style preleaves, the one with a random bifoliate leaf must be a nucellar N30 seedling that just threw a strange leaf. That one shows no other sign of PT influence apart from that leaf at this point. Nevertheless, I will keep that one, too. Just in case.

I had some throat issues and I didn't want to torture myself with acidic fruits. But it seems I recovered so I'm going on with fruit reviews.

Shunko kan (Brix 9, 20 seeds)








First of all, I must apologize: I forgot to take a picture of the cross section. But I have one more fruit, I will try to remember when we eat that one.

The rind peels easily. The fragrance is dominantly limey. The zest tastes a little bitter, limey, the pith is thin, spongy and neutral. Eaten together, I don't think I will want to eat it again. It's not inedible but not pleasant enough to justify dealing with it.

Flesh colour is a pale yellow, just like a white pomelo. But this one is quite juicy. You get nothing of the solid, stiff vesicles of pomelo here, the flesh is much more tender. Taste is very good. It's sweet. Not very sweet but the mild acidity will provide a dominantly sweet flavour. It's not insipid though. It has some acidity, just enough for me to find this a very pleasant tasting fruit. Refreshing. It has a mixed aroma of 'sweet lemonade' (like Keraji) and a mild pomelo. I think the sugar-acid ratio is similar to what you find in an average Satsuma. It's definitely among the milder Citrus.

However there is one problem. The membranes among the segments are very thick and rubbery. Not easy to chew, I got tired of it and spit it out. I think I will squeeze the second fruit and enjoy just the juice without the hassle. But maybe I will try to remove those mebranes first. The problem is you can do that easily with a pure pomelo because that has firm texture but this one is more tender.

All in all, a very pleasant tasting fruit. I wish it was easier to eat.

The presence of the acidless Siamese gene makes Valentine a valuable crossing partner for any acid Citrus.
Hybrid or not, I guess it's still zygotic to a good degree. And its hardiness isn't bad, I recall Frank had some young seedlings that survived quite some cold a while back. He posted about them in his thread. My only concern about it is its late ripening.

If your yuzu keeps flowering this year, you can do yuzu x Valentine and Valentine x yuzu, too. It would make perfect sense, and red flesh could also be possible.

Good idea about those red crosses! Carolina lime seedlings have a diverse look so I guess it's zygotic enough. Meyer is also highly usable as a seed partner.

Yes, red flesh is said to be the result of cool nights and warm days.

They look good, Frank! I hope winter has kicked its last for this season. After this ugly winter we deserve something better to come.

Oh yes, that one can have beautiful stripes and some reddish flesh. Good luck with the seeds!

Just in case you are interested, I will probably post some fruit reviews in the near future. Some of the above mentioned varieties will be involved.

Besides Amoa8, I'm also thinking about blood oranges that could provide red colour inside and outside, too. Doppio Moro and Violettes des Vallés have beautiful purple rind while their flesh is also red. That would push yuzu even further on the bloody way. 😀 And Violettes des Vallées is probably quite hardy, too. But I'm afraid you don't have these ones overseas.

Okay, I'll keep an eye on this thread for your pictures. A Triclemyuz is something to have.

Cascadia,

Congrats! Maybe it was pure coincidence that you managed to use those pollen partners but I think all crosses are interesting, for different reasons.

Yuzu x Meyer and Yuzu x NZ lemonade can give you a fairly lemon-like hybrid and if you (we) are lucky, they may even be somewhat hardy. Yuzu x Cocktail can be something sweet and very complex but the yuzu x Vaniglia sanguigno cross has actually quite a lot of potential.

Yuzu N30 (yuzu x Satsuma) has wonderful aroma which is a blend between the two parents but it's acidic and not sweet at all. So the acidity of yuzu dominates the sugar-acid ratio of their hybrid, Satsuma couldn't make it much milder, even though the sugar content of N30 is good enough for a sweet fruit (I think I measured Brix 12,5 or something like that). A directly acidless sweet orange may be able to bring down the acidity to a level where the fruit can be good for eating out of hand easily.

And those seedlings look very pretty indeed!

Bravo, keep on making crosses! I wish I had started doing it when I was 25... Any plans for this spring?

I think I have about 15-20 nucellar looking N30 seedlings. I want to monitor them for a while (just in case some odd leaves show up later), select the most vigorous ones and plant one of them in ground next spring. Then protect it for the upcoming winter. If it dies, there will be more backups to try one year later. Maybe after a while they will be big enough to survive a winter. If not, nothing valuable is lost. I think N30 itself is on the edge of being hardy here. I guess it could be generally hardy enough to survive but every second or third winter would set it back substantially.

As soon as the hybrids are big enough, I will try to make multi grafted trees of them and plant those trees in ground when they look sturdy enough, while keeping the original seedlings in pots, just in case. I think the best comparison would always be with grafts on the same exact rootstock.

That seedling with the narrrow leaves really stands out from the others. I hope the newest one will also be totally different. I think I will pollinate N30 every year with something because why not? 😉

On that note, if I don't mess up something, I think I will have a few extra N30 and other seedlings this year. If anyone is interested, let me know, I can send them for free (for shipping fee in Europe). As soon as the weather allows, I will move all my Citrus outdoors and evaluate what I have and in what shape. But I will post that report in May.