Author Topic: Sweetest citrus for mild climate  (Read 1393 times)

tropic_tester

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Sweetest citrus for mild climate
« on: September 14, 2022, 01:57:16 AM »
Hello,

I'm hoping to grow sweeter kinds of citrus but I'm in San Francisco bay area along the coast. I know that since my summer is somewhat short and very mild, this will be difficult. I've heard that the longer the citrus can hang on the tree, the best chance it has of gaining some sweetness. I'm trying to identify any citrus that could potentially fulfill these criteria. I know I won't get anything near a fully sweet orange but, anything that could get at least partway there would be great. These below were pretty much all I could find, and a lot of it was based on just comments by people or articles online.

Oro Blanco pummelo (trying now) - have read that it can hang on tree and doesn't need as much heat to get sweet
Tahitian pummelo - read it tastes great and can potentially do alright in cooler/milder climates
Valentine pummelo - low acidity and can potentially do alright in cooler/milder climates
Murcott mandarin - read somewhere it could potentially do alright in cooler/milder climate
Meiwa kumquat - sweet rind and flesh, less acidic and holds well on trees

Honestly it has been difficult to find any info but I wasn't expecting it to be that easy or extensive. If people had suggestions for other kinds of citrus that could work, I'd love to hear your opinions.

pagnr

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Re: Sweetest citrus for mild climate
« Reply #1 on: September 14, 2022, 02:13:51 AM »
I am wondering if New Zealand Citrus varieties might be suitable for your climate ?
Wheeny Grapefruit, Poorman Orange, NZ Lemonade.
Tahitian Pummelo is somewhat savoury flavoured, bit like mild grapefruit with a dash of lime. Nice but not overly sweet.

Florian

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Re: Sweetest citrus for mild climate
« Reply #2 on: September 14, 2022, 03:23:36 AM »
What about the different varieties of Satsuma?
Also, I have an Oronules clementine that matures early and tastes excellent in my climate (unless it is a year like this one, we don't usually have long periods of very hot weather).

tropic_tester

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Re: Sweetest citrus for mild climate
« Reply #3 on: September 14, 2022, 12:29:57 PM »
What about the different varieties of Satsuma?
Also, I have an Oronules clementine that matures early and tastes excellent in my climate (unless it is a year like this one, we don't usually have long periods of very hot weather).

I didnt pick up any satsumas initially because some articles said that they need on average warmer days. I'm probably going to have to get them from the CCPP since I'm in California, so I went through a couple in their list but i couldnt figure out which would be suitable. Do you have any recommendations for satsumas?

Also, I really appreciate that tip regarding that clementine. CCPP doesn't have Oronules, but I looked up some clementine varieties, and it says they need lower heat requirements so I will try a clementine for sure.
« Last Edit: September 14, 2022, 12:48:30 PM by tropic_tester »

tropic_tester

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Re: Sweetest citrus for mild climate
« Reply #4 on: September 14, 2022, 12:45:51 PM »
I am wondering if New Zealand Citrus varieties might be suitable for your climate ?
Wheeny Grapefruit, Poorman Orange, NZ Lemonade.
Tahitian Pummelo is somewhat savoury flavoured, bit like mild grapefruit with a dash of lime. Nice but not overly sweet.

That's a good point. I hadn't thought about looking at variety origin as an indicator.  I couldn't find the Poorman orange on CCPP, does it go by a different name? Do you also have any other recommendations for NZ citrus?

I'm limited in space and so would probably have to graft it onto rootstock portion of my Oro Blanco. I'm thinking of grafting similar varieties onto the same rootstock to hopefully keep the vigor balanced around the tree.

poncirsguy

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Re: Sweetest citrus for mild climate
« Reply #5 on: September 14, 2022, 02:01:36 PM »
Meiwa sweetens up nicely in cooler weather.  It grows really good in ground but is a real pain to grow in a pot.  My New Zealand lemonade ripen in the winter and does well without heat but it is not very sweet or acid.  It is my favorite

tropic_tester

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Re: Sweetest citrus for mild climate
« Reply #6 on: September 14, 2022, 03:25:06 PM »
Meiwa sweetens up nicely in cooler weather.  It grows really good in ground but is a real pain to grow in a pot.  My New Zealand lemonade ripen in the winter and does well without heat but it is not very sweet or acid.  It is my favorite

Thanks for the confirmation on the meiwa, I'm definitely going to get some budwood or full plant for that.

I was curious about the NZ lemonade but CCPP UCR info page mentioned that lemonade would sometime have unknown legions on the bark. Has that been an issue for you at all?
« Last Edit: September 14, 2022, 03:27:17 PM by tropic_tester »

mbmango

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Re: Sweetest citrus for mild climate
« Reply #7 on: September 14, 2022, 04:28:18 PM »
How mild is your weather?  Our location is like this:


Gold Nugget, Kishu, and Shiranui taste great for us. Cara Cara and Moro remained overly sour, so those are being topworked.

pagnr

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Re: Sweetest citrus for mild climate
« Reply #8 on: September 14, 2022, 05:19:55 PM »
Poorman
https://citrusvariety.ucr.edu/citrus/Poormans.html
Wheeny
https://citrusvariety.ucr.edu/citrus/wheeny.html
You could find some NZ Citrus Nursery sites and see what they grow.
Also you might want to narrow down the areas in NZ for cool growing regions.

tropic_tester

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Re: Sweetest citrus for mild climate
« Reply #9 on: September 16, 2022, 01:52:56 PM »
How mild is your weather?  Our location is like this:


Gold Nugget, Kishu, and Shiranui taste great for us. Cara Cara and Moro remained overly sour, so those are being topworked.

Very mild. Here is some info regarding averages for the San Francisco area. The bay area has many many micro climates, and where I'm located is more on the coastal side so the highs are lower compared to where measurements were taken (downtown SF).  https://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/san-francisco/california/united-states/usca0987


« Last Edit: September 16, 2022, 05:22:15 PM by tropic_tester »

poncirsguy

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Re: Sweetest citrus for mild climate
« Reply #10 on: September 16, 2022, 10:39:22 PM »

tedburn

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Re: Sweetest citrus for mild climate
« Reply #11 on: September 17, 2022, 03:45:14 AM »
if I have checked the discussion completely, no one is recomending satsumas ?
So I would recommend you satsumas. I' m in zone 7 and I have severeal satsumas in pots. Since 3 years I have a satsuma miagawa and she is bearing though on not a very big plant the second time about 16 fruits. The fruits get ripe in autumn and they have excelent taste, for my opinion one if the best of the citrus varieties very good balanca sweetness and very little sourness. Only smal disadvantage of my miagawa is alternate bearing, last year no fruits, perhaps a problem of the young plant age.

tropic_tester

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Re: Sweetest citrus for mild climate
« Reply #12 on: September 18, 2022, 02:50:57 AM »
if I have checked the discussion completely, no one is recomending satsumas ?
So I would recommend you satsumas. I' m in zone 7 and I have severeal satsumas in pots. Since 3 years I have a satsuma miagawa and she is bearing though on not a very big plant the second time about 16 fruits. The fruits get ripe in autumn and they have excelent taste, for my opinion one if the best of the citrus varieties very good balanca sweetness and very little sourness. Only smal disadvantage of my miagawa is alternate bearing, last year no fruits, perhaps a problem of the young plant age.

Florian recommended satsumas, but I was a little overwhelmed by the options through CCPP. Thanks for the recommendation. I'll start from there and see if I can find similar ones to miagawa.
« Last Edit: September 18, 2022, 03:00:20 AM by tropic_tester »

tedburn

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Re: Sweetest citrus for mild climate
« Reply #13 on: September 18, 2022, 05:05:27 PM »
graft from my satsuma miagawa on lemon shows after one year 4 nice satsumas, even a little bit bigger fruits than on motherplant.