Productivity of kumquats and their hybrids

[sc4001992]

Brian, your Nordmann fruits don't look a little different than the Nagami? The large trees I have seen with fruits show the Nordmann fruits or a little more skinnier, not perfectly eliptical elongated to me. I'll take a few photos of the two fruits and show you what I mean. I may have the photo already. I have grafted the Fukushu on my trees but no fruits. I hear some people say it is not as good as Meiwa.

Ok, I did see your bonsai Nordman and that is how I see the fruits, but the Nagami is more shorter and eliptical (egg shaped).

Here's some phtotos i took this year comparing the fruit shapes. I like the Nordman fruits, maybe the Nagami fruits might be just a little more tart.

[brian]

You are right that the nordmann fruits are often more tapered than plain nagami which are more round, though I find many nordmann fruits in the crop that are quite similar.  The growth habit of the two trees appears the same to me, though, whereas for example fukushu has a much more upright habit and rounder leaves.

I can't speak much about meiwa as mine have never survived long.

[sc4001992]

Brian,

I just went to a guys house who has a large Fukushu tree and he gave me a few fruits to try.

Do you have any photos of your Fukushu? If you do, post it here. I'd like to compare it to the fruit I just ate.

I didn't know the fruits were so large, but when I ate the fruits, the first one was very good, sweet skin, inside flesh was also good, no acid/tartnes. Then I ate the second fruit and it was very sour inside, not sure why it was like that. It was much more sour than any of the Nagami or Nordmann's fruit.

[Gkight]

For me Nagami are definitely the heaviest producers, but my little Meiwa and Maru are hot on its heels. The Fukushu is yet to bear fruit, so likely takes longer to mature. I would tend to think it can be a much more shy bearer than the other 3. I’d say the main benefit for Meiwa and Maru is they are ripe a full 2 months before Nagami for me. Lost about half of my Nagami crop 2 winters ago from that Christmas freeze.

[eggeto]

@Gkight,

What kind of rootstock do you have for your cumquat?

[Gkight]

Most are flying dragon, or basic trifoliate. I plan to root some cuttings soon to see what difference that makes.

[sc4001992]

FYI, I also have Calamansi/Calomondin, Nagami, finger lime, all grafted on the Bears Lime with no compatibly issues. I'll graft the Meiwa next to see how it grows. Kumquats grows best on macrophylla for me.

[brian]

Brian,

I just went to a guys house who has a large Fukushu tree and he gave me a few fruits to try.

Do you have any photos of your Fukushu? If you do, post it here. I'd like to compare it to the fruit I just ate.

I didn't know the fruits were so large, but when I ate the fruits, the first one was very good, sweet skin, inside flesh was also good, no acid/tartnes. Then I ate the second fruit and it was very sour inside, not sure why it was like that. It was much more sour than any of the Nagami or Nordmann's fruit.

I love fukushu fruits, I think it is the best kumquat and one of the best citrus in general.  If you got a sour one it was probably under-ripe or a runt.  They have always been sweet-sour for me and with much less of the tingling/astringent effect that nagami types have.  I had a few fukushu and one marumi at one point and they were all sweet-sour.  One thing I noticed, though, is that the small to medium fruits that you can eat in one bite are better than the large ones my in-ground tree started to develop over time.  Once they are too large to eat whole they are a bit like sloppy mandarins. 

Also, when unpollinated it seems fukushu is totally seedless.  I had a few entirely seedless crops on my greenhouse tree, but the ones outside developed seeds.

Here is one of my container fukushu trees from a few years ago.


Here is when I had posted some unusually large fukushu fruits:


I used to have a large in-ground one in my greenhouse but it became plagued with mealybugs that I could no keep under control and kept spoiling all the fruit.  It was very difficult to spray thoroughly because the dense, cupped, and upright leaves provided excellent shelter for the scale.  I ripped it out intending to replace it with one on FD but my FD replacement just croaked from phytopthera!  I am about to order a new fukushu and yet another meiwa. 

[Gkight]

I have only had Fukushu from Madison citrus, it came in a mixed fruit box a couple years back. It was fantastic, perhaps my favorite kumquat and that’s saying something, I love them all. I really look forward to my tree hopefully producing some this year.

[grant5185]

I agree- only Fukushu I had was from Hershell - my favorite so far

[Gkight]

Does Fukushu produce true to seed? I know Meiwa does but idk about Fukushu

[martweb]

Most of the seeds are identical.