Tropical Fruit Forum - International Tropical Fruit Growers

Thanks Lebmung, for adding your experience, yes I think this are very true points. In my case, I know that my plants all have been risky ( young and small) but regarding the last warmer winters and using winter protection I decided the risk to be not so high. So hope for a good recovery this summer 😅.

In summer 2020 I planted a lot of assumed frosthardy citrus varieties in my garden in ground. Due to the plants have been not so big I hoped to get a mild winter, but counted with the worst. And the winter got worse, we got 4 days and nights enduring frost down to 3,2 F ( - 16 C) and during the days frost with 100% full sunlight.
Heavy test for my citrus. Then from 20.2. it got warmer, but always change a few days warm, followed by colder days with night frost. So I show you the result after the severe winter. Hope it can help you to get more information of cold hardiness of citrus varieties 😋.
Regards Frank

very interesting Socal, thank you. Could you still tell us what have been the lowest temps and how long have been the time of consecutive frost days to get a better imagination of what the plants had to take - thanks Frank

Thank you now it also works again on my smartphone 

Hello, I tried this about two weks ago, so I can' t tell you a final result, but up to now the grafts are green.
I grafted Chandler and Satsuma on an elder well growing lemon. Best regards Frank

Hello Ilya,
how do you go on with your 3 very frost hardy hybrids, do you graft them on a mature plant to get early fruits ?
Have you already done this ?
Sorry for the curiousity, but this is a very interesting project ?
Best regards Frank

50% success, after 10 days the Dunstan/FD graft is growing, as expected the Star ruby/FD graft failed.
But very early grafting is possible though difficult. As it seems there is nearly no lack of growing as if grafting older plants. Regards Frank

very nice and interesting 

Yes Millet I' ve seen on you tube, but this is still more complicated and needs special technics and tools.

I have a lot of different 4-6 week old citrus seedlings and they are growing nice. So I thought if in this age grafting heals faster. The more difficult handling due to the only 8 to 10 cm high seedlings would be the price. If my theory of faster healing is true.
I will try it the next days. But if everyone has experience, it would be interesting to hear about ?
Best regards Frank

I read a few articles about some advantages of tetraploid citrus, but I couldn' t find out yet, how I can recognize if a seedling or a plant has tetraploid genetic.
Are there citrus species which are as default tetraploid or are there exterial signs e.g. as leaveshape, smell or other exterial attributes ?
Very interested to learn more about .

Hello from Germany, I' m just storing and eating a few star ruby grapefruits from Florida. They are quite good and I enjoy them. Due to loving citrus plants I also germinated some seeds of them and have a few nice sprouts. But I also asked me the question if I could get HLB over the fruits or over the seeds. I treated the seeds a while in Chinosol and peeled them before planting them, but I don' t know if this would help if there would be a potential risk of infection with HLB or would it either be a too cold climate in Germany for HLB in zone 7 ( 8 in few regions) ? Does everyone know ?
best regards Frank

Hello Kumin,
nice post which expresses a lot of the difficult but interesting and complex sides of hybridization work. I'm in regard to citrus cultivation at beginner stage but enjoy it very much, so next spring/ summer I expect some more of my citrus varieties flowering and I will also try some small hybridizations with the plants in my citrus yard. What I don' t really know is which citrus varieties are mono-/ polyembryonic, nucellar or zygotic or steril/pollensteril.
All attributes one should know before thinking of doing hybridization. Could you or other experts in the forum show me a link, where the citrus varieties are described concerning their relevant attributes concerning hybridazation ?
This would be very interesting and helpful if such a description exists.
Thanks and best regards Frank