The Tropical Fruit Forum

Bought a guava labeled as "Mexican" two fruit set in spring, today one fruit dropped while still green, more of a light green.

It was soft and juicy, but 0 sweetness. Tasted like tomato, I thought these are supposed to turn yellow?




Here is the other fruit, hasn't dropped yet

This is a seedling that survived 2021 mild winter in zone 7a without any protection grew well and developed a thick trunk but died to the ground this year after 6f.

I was cutting dead / rotting trunk that was freeze damaged until only a small stump was left. It's now growing buds on the stump!



I have mature Yuzu in a container now so this plant is not worth protecting as it is a seedling, but thought I would report on this finding. If this was a mature Yuzu on its own roots I'd probably try to protect it.

I picked these up from an asian grocery store. They were labeled as "Japanese kumquats" nothing else.

They are not sweet in the middle, although some did have a hint of sweet. They are definitely acidic but not as much as a Nagami...




I don't think they are Meiwa although that was my first guess. I looked at pictures of Marumi but those had a small depression at the base (not as pronounced as a Fukushu) but I also saw pictures of completely round fruit so the pictures online could be misidentified.

Long story short my citrus medica "turunji" died of root rot. It appeared like the roots did not grow out of the root ball from when I transplanted it from the container it came in (Logees largest size as a rooted cutting), it was in an almost perfect square shape of the container except wet and rotting, I should have teased the roots out or washed out the nursery soil before potting it back in the summer.

I took some cuttings in hopes that they will root, and grafted some to the only other citron ancestry plant I have (Ponderosa Lemon).

Are citrons compatible with trifoliate? I have a few seedlings but it will be a while before I can graft if my cuttings/grafts survive.

I just received two trees that I ordered in the winter for spring shipping from a nursey in Florida 

Has anyone heard of these rootstocks?






Some searching online I found that
The Meiwa is grafted on SCS = Sun Chu Sha mandarin
Are kumquats commonly grafted to mandarins or is the acronym for something else?
It isn't a hybrid with poncirus so I'm not really interested in propagating it. 

The Xie Shan is grafted to US-1284= Citrus reticulata Ninkat x P. trifoliata "Gotha Road" a vigorous poncirus type.

I am going to let a bud of the US-1284 grow out and either root it or graft it to my outdoors poncirus (or both!). It seems hardy to 5f /-15c from what I've been reading. 

I am hardening them off now. It's still technically winter in 7a but day temps are above 50s and 60s. Bringing them inside at night.

March 2020




March 2021 from those 2 original plants I now have 6 rooted cuttings to experiment planted in ground around the house.

These are all 2 year old seedlings with the exception of the Poncirus+ which is grafted onto regular Poncirus. All without any protection, they are all up against a brick wall. So far the lowest temp has been 12f which happened last month, I covered them in fresh snow before that happened. Daily temps have been above freezing all winter which has been mild overall. I don't have any long term goals for the plants. I took cuttings and rooted them before the winter so if they perish which they might I do have backups. 

Poncirus+




Citrumelo (noticed these less narrow and more round trifoliate lookin leaves with yellow coloring) no damage aside from some leaf curling



Tai-tri no damage aside from some leaf curling



Yuzu has the most damage but it's still alive. Some leaves have no damage, others are dried up or curled up. Young branch tips turned white (desiccation?)

Has anyone heard of this cross? I know there are already mandarin + poncirus crosses, such as the US 852 but those hybrids ripen in late fall/early winter after heavy frosts that damage fruit in lower zones.

Kishu mandarins (Citrus kinokuni mukakukishu) are very small mandarins which are seedless. The tree bears early, found a blog where someone had ripe fruit in September, so the fruit can ripen in the early fall or sooner, and is still edible when the peels are not fully orange.

It will be a few years, and I am a complete novice don't get me wrong, but I am interested in creating this cross using a better tasting Poncirus+ (I am acquiring this tree from a member of this forum) as the mother to possibly create a cold hardy hybrid tree for zone 7. 

Thoughts?