The Tropical Fruit Forum

Probably not much, but not nothing either, I think it's difficult to know.

If you have an Android phone, you could use an app to measure that, as most phones have a light sensor (to adjust screen brightness) and there are some apps (meant for photographers) that use it to measure the light in lux. The one I sometimes use is just called "lightmeter" (and it's free). There might be similar apps on iPhone.

Other than measuring with a tool like this I don't think we can really know, the human eye is especially bad at estimating illumination. But in any case... removing them won't do harm, so go for it, I guess?

Well, the seeds I received are turning out to be "just" C. australasica seeds. I contacted them and they're "looking into it" or something like that. I can't really blame them as they certainly don't cultivate it themselves and the problem likely comes from wherever they're getting them, but we'll see what they tell me.

So basically, don't order from boutique-vegetale.com because they're claiming that it's "not obvious" and "too early" to tell that the plants are C. australasica and not C. glauca.

A ce stade de développement, il nous parait difficile de confirmer ou non l'identification de ces espèces.

Nous vous prions alors de patienter quelques mois afin de permettre aux plantes d'exprimer leurs caractéristiques botaniques et de revenir vers nous avec des photos plus évoluées.

Left, what grew from their seeds and right, a real C. glauca seedling. The difference is absolutely obvious and if they keep saying it isn't I will ask my bank to revert the payment.



Herbalistics.com.au on the other hand was expensive but sent me what I ordered.

It's often much better to post seeds in a letter rather than in a package. Depending on the country, what is considered a "letter" might be quite big (up to 5mm thick in Belgium which is often enough, but up to 3cm thick in France) and regulation is completely different with usually total privacy regarding the contents of an envelope, compared to a package where contents must be declared.

So for seeds, in Belgium or France I will use an envelope with some padding inside, buy the stamps separately and post the envelope in a mailbox. No questions asked this way, and it's also much less likely to be opened by the customs in the destination country. And usually much cheaper as well.

I already have a sudachi, but I would love to get some budwood 

Send me a PM whenever you like then, just be prepared to tell me what to do

I used to have a kabosu plant from a seed that came from a fruit bought in France, but it died while I was on vacation a few years ago.

I still have a sudachi, also grown from seed at the same time, in 2015.



It has never fruited yet but it stays outside all winter here in Antwerp (in a rather sheltered location though). If you're interested I can send you cuttings (tell me how to do it thought because I've never sent live plants through the post) or you can drop by if you're ever close to Antwerp.

An old topic but I was looking for the same thing a while ago and didn't find much info apart from this topic.

So apart from Herbalistics I found another website selling Citrus glauca seeds: https://www.boutique-vegetale.com/p/citrus-glauca-desert-lime

It's French (which is perfect for me since I'm in Belgium), a bit pricey for just 5 seeds, and the "20210331" written on the packet I received made me fear I was sent old seeds that wouldn't germinate, but against all expectations all of them germinated.



Now I'm hoping they are indeed Citrus glauca, but at least that's a start.

Much more beautiful than regular passiflora. How does the fruit taste?

It's supposed to taste good, but obviously since mine doesn't set fruit I can't really tell. The flowers are nice, but since they are hanging down they're much less conspicuous than P. cerulea or the other more common species unless you're looking up.

As far as I remember, it started flowering when it was three years old, the two first years were spent without a support though (hanging down from a ledge) and I've noticed that a support is a strong signal to induce flowering. Flowers seem to almost only develop on nodes where tendrils have started wrapping around something, and almost immediately do.

The leaves it makes have always been rather large, about 10 centimeters long and wide. The seedlings make tiny leaves at first, but they soon become larger.

About rooting, as I said I have no problem rooting the other species I have, but this one doesn't root in any condition that I've tried. With hormone or not (although I've only tried IBA yet), in hot, warm or cool conditions, sun or shade, water, sand or dirt. Two stems of the plant have been buried under dirt for six months now in an attempt at layering and although they grow vigorously, they have not rooted either.

I've also found this paper https://www.researchgate.net/publication/347766110_Rooting_Response_of_Seven_Passion_Fruit_Species_to_Basal_Application_of_Auxin that says:

No roots formed in the cuttings of banana passion fruit for any treatment. Therefore, no data were collected for percent rooting, root number, average root length, and root dry weight. Although some cuttings were completely dead, others had callused, which could have led to the possible formation of roots, had the cuttings been left longer than 30 d.

Which matches my experience: I've had cuttings heal nicely and stay alive for months without developing roots, until they eventually die of course.

This is a seedling that was labeled "Passiflora tripartita":

And these are seedlings that were labeled "Passiflora tripartita var. molissima", the germination rate was quite good with them:

I recall some Citrus relative, when used as a rootstock, does indeed induce precocity.

That's Limonia acidissima I think, of which I currently have a dozen seedlings or so (as well as a nearly ten year old plant that doesn't grow much). But those might need to reach maturity first!
I'll still try some grafting with them one of these days.

There's also a variety of precocious poncirus that flowers at one or two years old, but I'm not sure if it also reduced the juvenility period of scions when used as rootstock. I also have a dozen seedlings of that, only a few months old yet.

Interesting that your hystrix and other non cold resitant varieties have no problem, have you had cold winters since you moved here? For the past winter it's not so surprising, but eventually there will be a winter with some colder temperatures, even if it's just for a few days.

My balcony faces north-west actually, but there is probably some warmth coming from the windows that brings the temperature up a few more degrees.

I've been here since 2018 and there have definitely been subzero temperatures more than a few times, including a few days at -5°C last year around January but I don't have anything less on record at my place. In the first years, I used to bring my plants inside and keep just one specimen of each (among those that I thought might be at least somewhat cold hardy) outside to test it. I did lose a C. australasica and a C. glauca like this. It's no citrus but I also have a Passiflora tripartita (also rated to around -5°C, but likely more fragile than the citruses) growing on my house, and I tend to think of it as an indicator that would die sooner than them.

The estimations on the cold hardiness of C. hystrix on the Internet are all over the place, from -8°C to +2°C, while C. limon and C. bergamia are supposed to be able to withstand -5°C or so. In any case I now consider these plants to be mostly fine down to -5°C. If it was any colder I would take some measures for protecting them.

And thanks for the offer but my wife wouldn't be pleased if I asked for yet more space for plants I'm going to wait for the bigger house first!

I doubt that even exists, but if anyone has information on this I'm curious.