Cocktail Grapefruit

[sc4001992]

Reply to Steve:

The fruit skin changes (thick or thin) depending on the rootstock. I have my large tre (photo above), it tastes very good and juicy, skin is medium, about the same thickness as Valentine. This cocktail is grafted on a grapefruit tree as interstock.

The same scion wood I grafted on an Lane Late Navel orange tree as interstock has smaller fruit with skin that is about 1/2 the thickness. That grafted tree seems to have fruits that are sweeter than the larger fruits on grapefruit interstock. Here's the other grafts on Lane Late Navel, see how much smaller the cocktail fruits from that tree are.

[sc4001992]

Here's the UCR photos of different pomelo comparison photos.

[Rispa]

Have you noticed a difference in fruit with any of your other citrus depending on graft?

[snowjunky]

Yes, that's what the yummy cocktail fruit form the supermarket looked like!  My tree had fruits that looked more like oroblanco in size and skin thickness, but full of cocktail seeds and lacking flavor.  That just blows my mind that the interstock/rootstock can make that much of a difference.  I don't think there many other citrus with this severe of a difference.  Rare exception of a citrus that doesn't taste better on sour orange rootstock.

[snowjunky]

That #2 is a Cocktail fruit right? Not Valentine.
How is the Chironja compared to Cocktail?  I grafted the CRC 4045/VI 559 Chironja version on Seville Sour and chopped it off due to bad granulation.
Any worthwhile citrus that has granulation issues I just re-graft it to C-22 because C22 is even better than Seville Sour for Arizona calcareous soil.

[snowjunky]

Here's my original post that Kaz's answer is for:

Kaz, do you have the smaller thin skinned version of Cocktail?  I planted a cocktail grapefruit bought from a local nursery after tasting some from the supermarket that were delicious and were large orange size with thin skin.  The fruits from my tree turn out much larger with thicker skin and didn't taste good, so I decided to graft Cocktail budwood from CCPP and unfortunately these turn out the same as my tree.  After the fifth year of disappointing fruit I chopped it down.  Maybe there was a Cocktail bud mutation at some point at the CCPP.

On a positive note, the Rojo Blanco turned out super flavorful for me.  High acid and high sugar with low bitterness in the skin.  It refused to grow for the first two years on Seville Sour, but grew quickly grafted on C-22.

[sc4001992]

Steve, the #2 shown above is a Valentine, I wanted to take a photo of a smaller Valentine fruit with thin skin. It is from the same tree but a month different in ripening on the large tree I have. Funny how even on the same tree the size of the fruit changes depending on when it is ripe.

Also, notice how one Valentine above has the nice red color in the flesh, but the #2 fruit is all yellow, same tree different ripening time.

Cocktail tastes much better.

[sc4001992]

Steve,

I should admit, my original large Cocktail tree with the 34 fruits is not from CCPP, it was before it got released. One member I know from the CRFG gave me a cutting in the 80s.



I also have the Cocktail from UCR/CCPP budwood, it has slightly different fruits than my original.

[snowjunky]

Then there's possibly two versions of Cocktail citrus out there and CCPP likely has the inferior one. 
Good to know your original Cocktail is better than CCPP Chironja.  Maybe Puerto Rico has a better Chironja.

[snowjunky]

Kaz, why don't you donate some original Cocktail wood to CCPP so they can stop spreading that sucky bud mutation.  I already told Rock at CCPP about the different Cocktails in 2019.

[sc4001992]

My Tony #1 grapefuit hybrid is a seedling, also looks similar to Valentine, has more red flesh and tastes better to me.

[Rispa]

I'm jelly. Probably no chance of getting scions all the way over here.

[snowjunky]

Interesting Tony #1 looks huge.  What do you think are the parents?

[sc4001992]

I don't know, a person who worked with me said his mom planted a seed from the pomelo fruit she liked.

I does ripen 1 month after Valentine.

[snowjunky]

If it was a supermarket pummelo, my guess would be Chandler.

[sc4001992]

Nop, not a Chandler, I had it and doesn't really have the same flesh texture and not as juicy as Valentine. Also, the Valentine rind is softer and easy to peel, Chandler has hard rind, thick, not easy to peel, taste is average to not much sweetness here. It also never colors up where I live, the only pomelo that colors nice is the Tony #1, then Valentine (sometimes). None of the blood oranges colors up for me. I never grafted the Morro because I read it was not the best tasting of the blood oranges, so I have the others (Tarocco #7, Maltaise Sanguine, Bream Tarocco,, Maltaise demi sanguine, Shahani Red, Smith Red, Vaniglia Sanguigno acidless, Washington Sanguine blood orange) but none turns red flesh inside.

[BorisR]

Has anyone sowed the seeds of Cocktail Grapefruit? How many seedlings do they produce, one at a time or several?

[sc4001992]

I try to grow most of my pomelo and rare citrus. But I just put them in a community pot (all same varieties) and let them grow. After 6 months - 1 year, I pick the strongest ones and put them each in their own pot. Then when the seedling grows large enough to graft, I use them for my named varieties. If I see the Cocktail seedlings I will let you know. I also have this current batch of seeds so I can watch the seeds grow and let you know.

[BorisR]

Thanks. The Cocktail variety is hybrid and therefore I wonder what kind of seeds it has, monoembryonic, like pomelo, or polyembryonic.

[sc4001992]

I will let you know when I have time to check my seeds that should be germinated now in pots outside. I have too many pomelo and other seeds growing out in pots so will need to check each pot.