Best seedling citrus for Wet Lowland Tropical areas?

[cassowary]

Please any recommendations for citrus species and citrus cultivars that have stood the test of time in Wet Lowland tropical areas. Or Citrus for equatorial areas.

With wet I am suggesting more then 3000mm annually.
I am not into grafting yet so personally I am looking at something that does it from a seed. I am ok with seedling variability as I just select myself and have space enough.

I know white grapefruit, red grapefruit, kaffir lime, West Indian lime and Tahitian limes are going well here. Also Rangpur lime, Bush lemon (Citrus limon jambhiri) and Pomelo.

Our Mandarins (C. reticulata) are very prone to leaf miner and so are our mandarin oranges (C. reticulata x C x sinensis). The others mentioned above don't have issue or little issue).
The bush lemon and the pomelo is the most vigorous.
I have sown seeds from Ellendale, Hickson, Imperial, Emperor, Afourer and Muscott but can't see much difference in vigor and leaf miner occurrence.
The best one is a seedling Siam star (Thailand). Idk the parenthood of that one but it's the best so far here.

Only have small C x sinensis seedlings (Sweet orange) and they ore ok. Unfortunately I had an issue with labeling so can't compare navels with Valencia's and blood orange grown from seeds.

I have tried some poncirus dragons and they are going ok event though I neglected them a bit. Also growing some cox citrus seedlings but they are still small atleast no leaf miners.
Just planted a casturi lime so can't tell but they should be good I guess since they grow them in Indonesia.

Haven't tried any spray to reduce leaf miners, only tried with different nutrition approaches. No luck so far.

Peace!

[bussone]

Have you looked into the Papuan species?

[cassowary]

Hey bussone,
No I do not know any of them.
Who are they?
Are they more for flavouring food or used as oranges as a treat by thelmseves?

[bussone]

Hey bussone,
No I do not know any of them.
Who are they?
Are they more for flavouring food or used as oranges as a treat by thelmseves?

Some of these are not in commercial cultivation, but you live as close to their native range as anyone, so...

http://www.homecitrusgrowers.co.uk/australianpngnativecitrus/citruswakonai.html
(Micro)citrus wakonai, warburgiana (new Guinea Wild Lime), and papuana (IBrown River Lime). Also Citrus gracilis. Papuana and Gracilis come from the Port Moresby area. Warburgiana from the southern coast, and Wakonia on the eastern islands.
There's citrus garrawayae (Garraway's/Mount White Lime), which is also found in Australia.
Citrus inodora (Russell River Lime)

You could also try Citropsis articulata or Clymenia. These are citrus-adjacent and will hybridize with some members of the citrus family -- Clymenia substantially more easily than citropsis.
(A few sources are of the opinion that clymenia belongs in citrus.)
Kumquats don't seem to mind the tropics.

Wakonai may be worth pursuing -- it matures the fastest of all citrus, has a short ripening time, flowers continuously, and has a high seed count. It turns over generations faster than anything else.
https://journals.ashs.org/jashs/view/journals/jashs/138/1/article-p57.xml
(They apparently also had some success crossing poncirus and wakonai, although it's a hybrid with issues)

For some of these, whether or not they will hybridize is somewhat unknown. They aren't worked with much.

[Millet]

Page mandarin does not require cross pollicization to produce fruit.  Not only Page, but almost every mandarin  variety will produce fruit without cross pollicization.  One last comment,  Xie Shan ripens in mid September to October 1.

[1rainman]

We get massive rain in south Florida. Citrus grows fine. Juicier oranges but ugly due to fungus. Though if the water stands you may need to raise them on higher ground. If you are tropical you can grow sweeter varieties like Valencia or pineapple orange. They are very cold sensitive and hard to grow most places. Key lime too.

Grapefruit and pomelo are the hardiest citrus that is edible. Oranges or tangerines crossed with grapefruit are always good choices tangelos and such.

Massive rain doesn't bother them but you'll have black fungus and stuff on leaves which won't kill the plant but it should be removed it blocks light and such. But citrus don't grow well in standing water. They need good drainage and high ground in places with a lot of rain. Those some citrus can get much wetter than others. Poncirus, sour orange, stuff typically used for root stock.

Other than hlb there's not many fungus or disease issues. Citrus grows in wet and dry areas. Cold sensitivity is the only big issue I have seen. They are relatively easy to grow from seed. I mean they will typically grow wild in most places if it's warm enough but they are much stronger from seed than grafted. But usually the sweeter the orange the more cold sensitive so in the tropics you can grow better quality citrus not available in most places.

[cassowary]

Wow that’s a lot of info, will take a while to process

Here i only get soothy mould when the green tree anta farm aphids on the tree.
So easy to control.

Haven’t tried tangelos yet, might give it a try!

I only have Citrus glauca, but will make an effort to try and get some of the papuan species mentioned, shouldn’t be very hard to find where I live.

The Continuous flowering of wakoni sounds great!

Millet, was that comment meant for another thread?

[pagnr]

Other PNG Citrus are the Papuan Citron and Citrus macroptera ( related to kaffir lime / makrut ).

Ugli, Temple and Ortanique are Jamaican in origin. Ortanique is also known as Topaz here.

King ( King of Siam ) mandarin is from Thailand, and other related types from Vietnam.
Many of the original parents of modern Mandarins and Tangelos are from S E Asia.

[cassowary]

Some more, great!

Thanks for the addition of the Jamaican cultivars. Can see if I can find some.

[pagnr]

Some more, great!

Thanks for the addition of the Jamaican cultivars. Can see if I can find some.

Those 3 are in the " Rare Fruit " circles in Au.
Topaz ( Ortanique ) is a commercial variety, fruit sometimes in the supermarket.

[Mike T]

Just locally available commercial stuff.
Mandarins are worthwhile if you try emperor, hickson, ellendale which is really a tangor and even honey murcott which will throw to its orange parentage. Valencia orange goes ok, all pomeloes but K13 and K15 are best and grapefruit do ok. Red Champagne is a good fingerlime up here if its well drained.

[Mike T]

Sorry missed the seedling bit of that

[cassowary]

Just locally available commercial stuff.
Mandarins are worthwhile if you try emperor, hickson, ellendale which is really a tangor and even honey murcott which will throw to its orange parentage. Valencia orange goes ok, all pomeloes but K13 and K15 are best and grapefruit do ok. Red Champagne is a good fingerlime up here if its well drained.

I bought a few grafted "Page" and "Sicilian blood orange" from a fruit tree nursey in Mareeba. First grafted citrus for me, wish me well. And I have no idea if the blood ones will ever come out red. But in Julatten they get the red color.
Couldn't find any of the PNG stuff mentioned above
H murcott, they are great atleast the lot I have been getting over the years from Johnsons!

Emperor is crap in my opinion, to dry and loose, needs a name change! Ellendale from Donny have been great so have sown some seeds of those.
I saw a citrus orchard in Ecuador doing well with valencia but they were not as sweet as a navel IMO.

[Mike T]

Navel cant grow well here and are never right. Emperor can be alright. Pomeloes are well suited and worthwhile I reckon.

[cassowary]

Pomelo have been the fastest growing here so far and healthier leafs then the others.

[pagnr]

I am not into grafting yet so personally I am looking at something that does it from a seed.

You are best to keep an eye out for fruiting trees around Cairns and the wider area.
If you can recognise the main types, you can recognise any odd type, likely to be seedlings.
Rough Lemons and West Indian Limes are commonly found in the Rainforest.
Citrus inodora is found locally in Cape Trib, Daintree town, Mossman gorge.
I have not been to FNQ for many years, but there were quite a few unusual Citrus around back then, many seedlings.
The PNG types are probably unknown here, but only a boat ride away ?

[cassowary]

Will keep my eye out for inodora.
Yeah it's not too far from here to PNG, but my lady thinks PNG seams to dangerous. Idk haven't been there but I am sure it wouldn't be to bad if I keep low profile and dress in rags.

I haven't seen any wild citrus yet in the rainforest, but there is a lot of forest to explore!!