Honey Pomelo seedlings

[Florian]

These are usually seedless but this winter I had a fruit that was full of large, flat seeds. I sowed them and they took their time but many germinated.

Now, I am wondering what to do.. I know pomelos do not come true from seed and our climate is much too cold to plant them in the ground but I'd still like to give them a try for the sake of it.

How long would they take to flower anyway? Any suggestions are welcome.

[SoCal2warm]

I know pomelos do not come true from seed

That's true but most of them will probably grow "pretty much true to seed", not too different from the parents.

and our climate is much too cold to plant them in the ground but I'd still like to give them a try for the sake of it.

You could always try growing them inside (taking them in during the Winter) and then eventually trying to hybridize them with a really cold-hardy variety.

Pomelo is pretty vigorous growing. I would suggest putting them on a root stock though, maybe citrumelo (otherwise it could take a long time to fruit).

[brian]

From what I’ve read it should take many years to get fruit from a containerized citrus seedling in Switzerland, unfortunately

[Millet]

Pummelo, in Switzerland would take at a minimum of 10+ years.  Also pummelos require a year around climate with high heat and plenty of sunshine to develop good tasting fruit, which will be very difficult in your area.

[Laaz]

Pomelo do not come true from seed & also require a large node count before they will flower. In ground they will take 5+ years in perfect conditions. In a container they will never flower or produce fruit, that's just the nature of the variety.

[Florian]

That's about what I expected but you will have guessed that it won't stop me from trying. Thanks a lot anyway.

[Millet]

The best of luck with your pummelo seedling Florian.

[Laaz]

I will still make a nice house plant. Try crushing a leave, it should have a decent scent to it. Lemons are the best when you crush the leaves as far as scent goes.

[Florian]

Ooh, yes, I love the smell of crushed lemon leaves. This actually is what got me hooked on citrus. Combava leaves are great too.

[sc4001992]

Florian, I know its been 3 yrs now, just wondering how your seedling Honey Pomelo are doing ?

I'm planning to grow out some seeds myself.

[pagnr]

Pummelos are not nucellar clonal, but they don't throw highly variable seedling types either. The seedlings are most often Pummelo.
A seedless type on the other hand may have been cross pollinated, so seedlings could have shorter maturity than straight Pummelo.
You can probably compare the parent to the seedlings for some idea of their origins.

[Florian]

Florian, I know its been 3 yrs now, just wondering how your seedling Honey Pomelo are doing ?

I'm planning to grow out some seeds myself.

I left them in the community pot for quite a while and only separated them last year. Also, I just let them sit in the corner and leglected them. They have grown quite a bit anyway but could be bigger, of course. I will take a photo when I get around to it..

[Plantinyum]

Pomelo do not come true from seed & also require a large node count before they will flower. In ground they will take 5+ years in perfect conditions. In a container they will never flower or produce fruit, that's just the nature of the variety.

I have seen a number of containerized pomello that fruited in containers, in Bulgarian citrus and garden forums, people manage to pull it off. They are grafted on dwarfing rootstocks thought ,thats may be the reason why they manage to fruit them.

I also have one 3 year old seedling , a single seed in a store bought fruit, planning to graft it with my standart and red pomello this summer, will also let a original branch to grow probably. Its quite a besutifful plant, my healthiest citrus by far.

[Millet]

Plantinyum, pumelo seed certainly will germinate, and may produce good or bad tasting fruit.  However, they will not be true to the mother tree.

[1rainman]

If it's a seedless variety with seeds most likely it is cross pollinated with something.

[Plantinyum]

Yeah i am not fixed on the idea of fruiting the seedling, i will graft it with my other 2 pomello varieties, since i see its growing vigorously and seems like a good rootstock . I hate flying dragon rootstocks, stunts the plants really bad in my experience.
I suspect mine a hybrid since it pushed out several bilobed leaves, probably some trifoliata gene in there. 

[sc4001992]

I'm glad the seedling fruits are not exactly like the parent fruit. My pomelo seedling took 7 yrs to fruit and it is much better tasting than the sour fruits of the parent tree (which i got rid of). Now I have a very good fruiting seedling pomelo.

Florian, yes, please take a few photos of your seedling so I can compare how the leaves will look like when my seeds start to grow. I plan to let each of my seedlings grow until they fruit.

Plantinyum, can you take some photos of you 3yr old honey pomelo seedling and post it here, would like to have it for future reference.

[Plantinyum]

Sure here it is, i found just 1 of the bilobed leaves, the other ones must have fallen off. It is a seedling from a standart white fleshed pomello, the only pomello seed that i have ever found in store bought pomello.

[tedburn]

Interesting, seems to have some Poncirus and probably coldhardy genes. Interesting how hardy and how the fruit quality is ?

[Plantinyum]

Interesting, seems to have some Poncirus and probably coldhardy genes. Interesting how hardy and how the fruit quality is ?

It seems hardy enough to survive the winters in my basement, with close to freezing temps, and has froze in its pot several times.

[sc4001992]

Plantinyum, thank you for the pictures. Your tree looks very healthy. I like the interesting leaves on your tree.

I'm currently growing about a few hundred Reinking seeds and hope maybe the seedlings will have better fruit than the parent. I don't care for the thick/tough skin of the Reinking even though it is a very sweet pummelo (brix=17).

I did find about 15 seeds in the white flesh Honey pummelo so I'm growing those now. I bought another 4 pink flesh Honey pummelo fruits so I hope I find a few seeds from these fruits, the first two fruits had no seeds at all.

For all my pummelo seedlings, I need to determine which ones I should keep after 1 year since there will be to many to take care of.

[sc4001992]

Here's one of my seedling pummelo variety, these plants are about 6-8wks old. This is the seeds from my very good tasting seedling tree (Roy's pummelo). This fruit tastes better than most of the UCR pummelo (except for Thong Dee). Also has much more flavor and sweetness (very little tartness) than the white flesh Honey pummelo from the stores.

[sc4001992]

Some updates on the pomelo fruits I tasted this past week.

I have purchased many Honey pomelos now, trying to find some seeds in the fruits of the Red and White variety. I did find more seeds of the Red fruit and only a few of the White fruit that I'm planting now. After buying all these fruits (12), I did some taste comparisons to my other fruits that are large and here's where I would rate their flavor and taste. Best tasting =1.

1. My seedling Roy pomelo (brix =18)
2. Thong Dee
3. Locally grown Honey pomelo -white flesh (brix =18)
4. Reinking pomelo (brix =17)
5. Red Honey pomelo (from market) - (brix =12)
6. White Honey pomelo (from market) - (brix =10)

So far, the largest fruits have been the Thong Dee (5 lbs) and store-bought Honey pomelo (5 lbs).

[EricSC]

brix =18, wo! Will it damage kids' teeth?

[poncirsguy]

YES

[BorisR]

Interesting, seems to have some Poncirus and probably coldhardy genes. Interesting how hardy and how the fruit quality is ?

I found an old photo of my honey pomelo seedling, which had a triple leaf. Out of 100 seedlings, about 5 were with one double or triple leaf. Overwintering in the greenhouse showed that the frost resistance of these seedlings was approximately at the level of an orange or worse. I think that such leaves in pomelo seedlings are not the result of pollination with something trifoliate. Rather, it is a memory of ancient ancestors, which happens at an early juvenile stage.

[1rainman]

Those bilobed leaves look the same as the wild orange I found. It is not the best tasting but decent to eat with only a hint of poncirus in the fruit but the plant seems disease free and immune to greening. The pummello above could have cross pollinated with root stock. if it was something like swingle and only 1/4 poncirus it might be decent to eat but not great like the orange I found.

[sc4001992]

I wanted to show you my Chinese pomelo parent (Roy's) fruit leaves. It is not a Honey pomelo, but it is supposed to be a variety of pure pomelo from China. My tree is over 15yrs old now, and the leaves are the largest of all my pomelos/pummelos or any other citrus I grow. Also fruits tastes excellent.








Does anyone have any other citrus tree with a larger leaf? I would like to know since this one is the largest leaf I have seen on a tree. Must be a world's record.

[Plantinyum]

Never seen such big leaves on a citrus. Was the leaf on a young strong shoot, growing in the shade ?

[sc4001992]

Nop, the leaves are from the large tree you see above with the green fruits hanging. I just picked the largest one I saw and took some photos.

This year the tree is completely covered over by a passion fruit vine so I need to cut out the vine so my pomelo can get some sun light.

[Plantinyum]

Nop, the leaves are from the large tree you see above with the green fruits hanging. I just picked the largest one I saw and took some photos.

This year the tree is completely covered over by a passion fruit vine so I need to cut out the vine so my pomelo can get some sun light.

Yeah, i ment if the leaf was from the tree, but from a water sucker, which is a strong vegetative shoot. Usually those bear bigger leaves, compared to the rest of the plant.
I think i know the answer to why you have such huge leaves , your passion fruit vine is making your tree defficient in light, thats why it make big leaves, bigger leaf area harvests more sunlight energy.

[sc4001992]

Plantinyum, yes it could be due to shade from the vine and other trees. My large in ground loquat trees are 20 ft tall and I have many of them growing next to this pomelo tree and other citrus trees.

[Till]

Regarding the trifoliate leaves: I have somewhere picked up in literature that crosses between C. hystrix and C. maxima are also trifoliate. Trifoliate or even pinnate leaves seem to be the original constitution of all citrus plants and the expression of the respective genes is in citrus perhaps only suppressed by other genes but never totally absent. So I would also conclude that the Honey Pumelo was cross pollinated by a Poncirus hybrid but it is not the only explanation. Perhaps the taste of the leaves gives you a further hint what you have before you. If C. hystrix was involved in the cross the taste of the leaves should reflect that. If Poncirus was involved the taste may or may not reflect it.

[Florian]

I'm glad the seedling fruits are not exactly like the parent fruit. My pomelo seedling took 7 yrs to fruit and it is much better tasting than the sour fruits of the parent tree (which i got rid of). Now I have a very good fruiting seedling pomelo.

Florian, yes, please take a few photos of your seedling so I can compare how the leaves will look like when my seeds start to grow. I plan to let each of my seedlings grow until they fruit.

Plantinyum, can you take some photos of you 3yr old honey pomelo seedling and post it here, would like to have it for future reference.

Here you go. One of my seedlings.

[sc4001992]

Florian, thanks for the photos, now I can monitor my new seedling Honey pomelo and compare leafs with your older seedling.

I just checked my new seeds I got from eating 8 store purchased Honey pomelo. The Red flesh Honey pomelo had some seeds so I'm trying to germinate them. I see a few seeds already starting to open and grow a root.

Later tonight, I wanted to show you how different my Chinese pomelo tree grew from seeds alomost 10yrs ago when I planted them. This is my Roy pomelo which has the excellent tasting fruits. In my opinion my Roy fruit tastes better than either the White or Red Honey pomelos that I have purchased from the store. What is strange is that after I planted about 50 seeds in a planter, I just forgot about the seedlings and after years, I noticed only 1 large/vigorous seedling growing and a few smaller plants.

So now after 10+yrs, I will show you the funny photo of this seedling tree which is still in the same pot but roots have already grown into the ground. Since the smaller plant never grew much, I just grafted some Sumo/Shiranui on them but you can still see how small this rootstock is growing.

[sc4001992]

Here's the Roy seedling pomelo tree in the pot with 2 other smaller trees from the same fruit.

[sc4001992]

Florian, looks like my Roy tree has similar leaves but just larger. I grafted the Roy seedling budwood on my variegated Valencia tree in 2019, now that grafted branch is over 7 ft long from graft union. This pomelo seems to grow very fast. Here's a few photos of the leaves on the grafted branches.

[sc4001992]

The grafted branch split into 3 long branches which are about 6-8 ft long. Here's one that I could reach and pull down for the photo, it grows out from the rest of the Valencia orange tree which is about 16 ft tall.

[Plantinyum]

Here's the Roy seedling pomelo tree in the pot with 2 other smaller trees from the same fruit.

This has tapped into the ground right? The pot seems way to small to sustain such a vigor.

[sc4001992]

Yes, long time ago. I can't move it. Tree is over 20ft tall, I try to cut it back to 12 ft each year.