The Tropical Fruit Forum

Variation in cold sensitivity among Bishop Citrandarin seedlings



Grafted Conestoga 011, 010, 006 and 001 Segentranges have built up some caliper. A number of these flowered late in the Summer and should fruit next year.


US 1279 Fruits struggle to attain size and color this late in the season.
 

Does anyone have a few ripe C-35 fruits to send for comparative purposes? I have a tree with uncertain parentage I'd like to determine whether it's actually a C-35 tree or not.

Fruit of the unidentified tree that's either a Nucellar C-35 seedling, or an F² seedling of C-35. These are the largest fruits of any of my selections. Approximately 30% were seedless, with an average of 6 seeds per fruit. The Brix reading was only 9.5. However, the fruits are very juicy, yielding 24 oz of juice per 12 fruits. There was practically no wax inside, unlike 5* Citrumelo.5* Citrumelo had noticeable wax, but was sweeter than these fruits.

These are the first fruits on a 5 year old seedling. I'll be propagating some of these in the Spring and will also do a test for Zygotic embryony in early Spring.






 5* rinds have slightly lower juice content due to thicker rinds and internal membranes.

s.



The spent Citrange rinds are empty with no wax accumulation on the juicer cone.

F³ seedlings from C-35 Citrange. These are self-pollinated Conestoga 010 seedlings showing mixed leaf types, including trifoliate, bifoliate and monofoliate.  It appears that unlike Conestoga 026, Conestoga 010 may have a percentage of zygotic seedlings.

I don't think I've got any grafted Poncirus+ left, but I have seedlings as well as seeds. I also have Meyer X Conestoga segentrange hybrids, but the latter won't be available until they've been tested for cold hardiness.

If you're interested, you can send me a pm.

Getting a good grasp on the phenomenon of Nucellar vs Zygotic embryony is nearly a requisite for the selection of prospective breeding stock. There may also be a considerable advantage to beginning with the hardiest edible parents. Satsuma are a quite hardy group of cultivars. Low seed production coupled with considerable nucellar embryony are downsides to Satsumas as seed parents. Meyer lemon is hardier than Ponderosa lemon. Meyer produces 100% zygotic seedlings as a seed parent.

I've found Poncirus+ seedlings to begin fruiting at 3 and 4 years of age.

Excellent, Ilya clear difference in appearance, are you going to test for Zygotic embryony?

Gordon, the largest fruited selections aren't fully ripened. Most of the smaller ones are ripe. These will be allowed to further ripen for 2-3 weeks before testing. This being the first year some of them are fruiting means I'll be testing their seedlings for Zygotic percentages. Following this year there should be a few available for tasting by other interested individuals.

Thank you very much Kumin. That's awesome

May I add a few questions?

 you just let the seeds germinate and grow and then they flowered after 3 years ?
Or did you try to accelerate the process by grafting the seedlings to a stronger plant or by using another special method ?

Are the seeds speciale? I mean were they selected for being specially fast flowering or for being a good rootstock or something like this you think? (Citrange and citrumelo are mainly use for rootstock right?)

Does someone have images from a seed from an eating fruit from the shops or from your garden (orange lemons pomelos pompelmo mandarine etc) that have flowered ?

Best regards

There was no special precocious breeding stock involved. The seedlings were planted rather closely together, which resulted in upright, tall growth. In most cases, the tallest trees fruited first.
Not all of the seedlings fruited this early. The shorter, more dwarfish trees haven't fruited yet. The trees in the unheated cold frame are fruiting about a year sooner than the same clones out of doors. Many of the first fruits appear following late season blooms.
As far as additional cultural practices, I never prune the trees until they set their first fruits.

It hasn't been determined whether the most vigorous of the C-35 seedlings is a nucellar C-35 or a Zygotic seedling of the same. One earlier ripening fruit had 6 seeds. It made an acceptable drink when sweetened. But, I've also developed a strong tolerance for Poncirus flavors over the years.
The largest fruit measures 2.91 inches in diameter. I've counted 35 fruits on this 5 year old seedling. The fruits are partially hidden and the previous counts were lower.

Both are grafted, as is all my stock except for seedlings. However, these aren't high grafted.

I would suspect the monofoliate survivors to have a greater likelihood of being palatable. The leaves of at least one of them has a more fragrant scent than most of the other selections.
On another note, the 5 Star Citrumelo seedlings show considerable variation in fruit size as well as productivity. I was impressed with the precocity of several of them.

5 Star Citrumelo fruits

There are 2 selections that are predominantly monofoliate 058 and 067. 067 survived the past winter out of doors, with modest damage.