Citrus > Cold Hardy Citrus

Bitter orange Chinotto for hybrids that bloom in 4 years 👍

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Lauta_hibrid:
After 6 years of this hybridization project, I am already getting results with the first blooms. I already have 6 "varieties" created by me:
 C. maxima (flowered in 5 years)
Rampurg x lemon genoa (flowering in 2 years)
Chinotto puro (flowering in 4 years)
Chinotto x lemon (flowering in 4 years)
Chinotto x Willow left mandarin (flowering in 4 years)

Here is the importance of Chinotto as a parent species!! According to my experiences it is capable of flowering in 4 years, pure or hybridized. It is a bitter orange tree, but from the "bittersweet" group.
You can drink its squeezed juice alone without sweetening.
Its hybrids are quickly detected because they would mostly be the ones that grow normally, while if they are zygotic they would grow with dwarfism, although they rarely inherit this genetics (it seems not very heritable).
 Taitri is one of the most resistant hybrids with Poncirus, surpassing Citranges, and since Taiwan is a bitter orange, crossing it with Chinotto might do something similar in resistance but with less acidity. I would like to share this and my hypothesis with you, but also see if you have more information.

For now I am about to harvest my first fruits pollinated with Poncirus (with large flowers).
hypothesis in my practices: Chinotto is a bitter orange tree with a dwarfing mutation, short internodes, no thorns, many flowers and bittersweet. Before it was separated as a separate species Citrus myrtifolia, which seems absurd to me since it is only a mutation, for me the correct name is Citrus x aurantium var. myrtifolia. since if it self-pollinates it usually gives normal growth plants identical to the bitter orange tree (that was my first experience).







These photos are images of leaves of Chinotto that grew from seeds (without dwarfing), hybrid and Willow left mandarin on the right. Also a photo of this hybrid with white buds and a photo of Chinotto x lemon Genoa with dwarfing anthocyanin shoots and red buds. If there is luck, maybe I can show the fruit later 🤗

SoCal2warm:
I also want to point out that Chinotto sour orange is mildly cold hardy. It should do fine in zone 9. It might even be able to survive in zone 8b.

I have tasted Chinotto sour orange fresh off the tree. It does have a strong nice fragrance. But the fruits are small, completely full of seeds, a little bit low quality.
Still, I would not completely rule out snacking on a Chinotto orange, if I were foraging in the wild and that were the only thing that were available. It's like only one notch below the level of edibility that people would choose to pick one and eat it if they were foraging in the wild. (The main reason I might avoid eating it is it is simply messy and the juice gets on your fingers trying to eat around the seeds, and the juice is somewhat acidic, a little comparable to a lemon)
I think it could also be good for flavoring alcohol, though it is probably not the best in the category of "sour oranges" for this purpose.

The Chinotto sour orange trees are very vigorous growing and low maintenance, growing like bushes. They do not need so much attention or special care like other citrus varieties.

mikkel:
This is an interesting observation! So far I have found chinotto rather uninteresting, but with this information it might be worth using it to create early flowering hybrids. a cross of rangpur and chinotto could be very early flowering. also crosses with papuana/wintersii (whether the hybrid or the true species)

Is the 5-year-maxima a pure maxima or also a hybrid?

bussone:

--- Quote from: SoCal2warm on October 03, 2024, 01:57:53 AM ---I also want to point out that Chinotto sour orange is mildly cold hardy. It should do fine in zone 9. It might even be able to survive in zone 8b.

I have tasted Chinotto sour orange fresh off the tree. It does have a strong nice fragrance. But the fruits are small, completely full of seeds, a little bit low quality.

--- End quote ---

Sounds like a good marmalade orange.

Lauta_hibrid:

--- Quote from: mikkel on October 03, 2024, 03:47:58 AM ---This is an interesting observation! So far I have found chinotto rather uninteresting, but with this information it might be worth using it to create early flowering hybrids. a cross of rangpur and chinotto could be very early flowering. also crosses with papuana/wintersii (whether the hybrid or the true species)

Is the 5-year-maxima a pure maxima or also a hybrid?

--- End quote ---

Yes, the C. maxima was pure, it gave a small fruit and the technique I used was to make it grow vertically until it reached 3.5m in height. Once I let it expand its canopy and without seeing the flowers a fruit appeared. It may have been an exceptional case. Also keep in mind that I have a very warm climate compared to others in this section.

The good things about Chinotto are: 1- sweet juice (when fully ripe), 2- compact shape (and it is heritable, but unlikely), 3- its seeds produce seedlings as dwarf clones, if it is not fertilized, or tall, normal for any citrus if it is hybridized. In this way you detect hybrids quickly. You could cross Chinotto with any bitter orange and you would identify the cross if it grows without dwarfing. For example, imagine crossing it with Taiwanica. You would detect its hybrid as soon as it germinates without any genetic analysis. 4- the compactness may protect the stem from frost or snow burn. 5- it is partially zygotic. 6- many crosses flowered in 4 years. 7- it makes an excellent jam. 8- it is more resistant to cold than other accessible parents.  I take Taitri and Morton as an example... Taitri is more resistant than Morton, because Taitri is Pt x Taiwanese and Morton = Pt. x sweet orange. Maybe this cross is between -17°C and -15°C.

By the way, I have a surprise for you... ,☺️ It seems that my first hybrid is already germinating and it also appears to have inherited the "rare gene" of dwarfism 😯🤯🥰

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