F2 citrange winter hardiness trial

[Ilya11]

Kumin,
What about the smell of xMeyer  leaves? Is it correlated with leaf shape?

[kumin]

Interesting question, I'll investigate the taste/smell.  In an unrelated matter, the Conestoga 058 has a pleasant fragrance.

[kumin]

Interesting question, I'll investigate the taste/smell.  In an unrelated matter, the Conestoga 058 has a pleasant fragrance.

Ilya, I tasted all of the seedlings and found only one with a bit of Poncirus taste. That particular plant is monofoliate. However, the strongest Lemon taste was among two of the monofoliate plants.
I'm intrigued by the high percentage of monofoliate seedlings originating from 026 pollen. 026 has the appearance of a Poncirus tree, but to this point has the best flavor when diluted and sweetened as a drink. Despite its appearance, it clearly carries recessive genes for the monofoliate character. Unfortunately, its fruit is quite small, but also early ripening.
Among the monofoliate seedlings one does find the odd bifoliate leaf.




Conestoga 026 fruits.

[Ilya11]

Is it exceedingly  bitter in taste?
I found that bitterness is strongly dominant in crosses with 5star citrumelo as well as small size of the fruits.

[kumin]

There's enough bitterness to give the diluted drink a hint of grapefruit taste, but it's not overwhelmingly bitter. The acidity is more prominent in my recollection. There'll be another opportunity to evaluate the flavors in October/November.

[kumin]

The miniature Conestoga selection I'm naming Mini Conestoga is smaller in all its characters, leaves, flowers, and fruits as well as the tree itself. I've noticed for the first time that its fruit don't exhibit much fuzzy down, unlike Poncirus.
This selection is producing an abundance of fruits. And is quite precocious, having fruited for several years.



I may test this selection as a highly dwarfing rootstock. This tree has been outdoors for the past 6 years.

[Wahl]

It does have a lot of fruit and very small plant. How does the fruit taste?

[kumin]

I haven't tasted a fully ripe fruit to this point. The fruit I did taste weren't that great, but were immature. Some of these  again set on late flowers. Having a degree of precocity, I may experiment to test if it's able to impart earlier fruiting to seedling scions grafted on to it

When grafted on Poncirus it retains its precocious and dwarf nature.

[kumin]

Cooler night temperatures are causing a bit of color break on the Conestoga 026 fruits. This is one of the earliest maturing of the Conestoga selections. Although 026 is rather small, it makes one of the better flavored drinks when diluted and sweetened. Unfortunately, its seedlings are almost totally nucellar. When its pollen is applied to Meyer lemon flowers nearly half of the resulting progeny are monofoliate.  So it doesn't produce exclusively trifoliate seedlings, unlike Poncirus.

Code: [Select]

[Wahl]

Do you have the Meyer x 026 unprotected? Is this the first winter it will go through? The Conestoga 058 I got from you seems to be a very slow grower and the Conestoga 067 much faster.

[bussone]

The miniature Conestoga selection I'm naming Mini Conestoga is smaller in all its characters, leaves, flowers, and fruits as well as the tree itself.

Isn't a miniature Conestoga a Prairie schooner?

[kumin]

Do you have the Meyer x 026 unprotected? Is this the first winter it will go through? The Conestoga 058 I got from you seems to be a very slow grower and the Conestoga 067 much faster.

I don't expect Meyer X 026 to be fully hardy in my area. The goal is to discover a relatively hardy selection that produces zygotic seedlings. So, once again as a breeding parent rather than an end result.

[kumin]

The miniature Conestoga selection I'm naming Mini Conestoga is smaller in all its characters, leaves, flowers, and fruits as well as the tree itself.

Isn't a miniature Conestoga a Prairie schooner?

That's a good point!

[kumin]

Today I did an impromptu immature fruit taste test of a number of the Conestoga and Poncirus Plus selections. The worst flavored one at this stage of development was Conestoga 006 possibly as bad as Poncirus itself. Conestoga 011 and Poncirus Plus were intermediate in taste. The best were Conestoga 010 and Conestoga 026. 010 had discernable Citrus flavor and little bitterness. 026 was similar, but perhaps less citrus taste in the rind.
All of these fruits were set from June-bloom and not mature. When the fruits are fully mature, I plan on using the fruits in a beverage and reevaluate their suitability for use in beverages.
I have minimal 026 seedlings due to early ripening last October and finding the fruits mixed with others, thereby losing their identity.
In regards to 010, however, there are several hundred field planted nucellar seedlings.

June Bloom 006


April bloom 026


April bloom 010

[Wahl]

Looks like they are starting to ripen up there.

[kumin]

Looks like they are starting to ripen up there.

Wahl, once the fruits attain adequate maturity cool night temperatures will cause the rind to color. I'm not certain how strongly rind coloration is correlated with flesh ripening, especially the increase of sugars. The hardiest selections abscise and drop when ripe. This is likely inherited from the trifoliate parentage. 5* Citrumelo, in contrast retains its fruit until much later.
I suspect there may be some correlation between early fruit abscission and deciduousness.

[Wahl]

That makes a lot of sense, because the sap will be going down making everything turn yellow.

[kumin]

Bishop fruits are developing nicely, but clearly show that blooming on new growth delays maturity in Autumn.


In contrast, 004 Conestoga blooms on overwintering flower buds and has at least a month lead over Bishop in regards to time of ripening.
Blooming on the previous seasons growth may be a factor in having the fruit partially hidden by Summer foliage enveloping the early fruit set.

[kumin]

https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jjshs1925/68/6/68_6_1104/_pdf/-char/en
A pdf relating to Thornlessness in Poncirus trifoliata. Of particular interest is the presence of zygotic seedlings in multiple selections of thornless trifoliate orange. The nearly thornless Conestoga 121 selection, while being a Segentrange rather than a pure Poncirus, might potentially also be zygotic?
121 has neither flowered, nor fruited to this point. Hopefully, it will do so within the next 2 years.

[kumin]

Conestoga 062 is a selection with reduced thorniness in the upper ends of flushes.

 

[bussone]

Conestoga 062 is a selection with reduced thorniness in the upper ends of flushes.

 

Isn't there a general tendency in citrus for reduced thorniness in the taller parts of the tree?

[kumin]

There is indeed a general decrease. Vigorous shoots tend to be slower to exhibit the decrease. Poncirus also has fewer thorns on the higher fruiting branches, but the transition is not as well defined.
This selection, being in a group of Segentranges, has far fewer and shorter spines than the majority of its siblings do.
Not having fruited to this point, it reminds to be seen if the selection has any additional characteristics of significance to offer.