Any of our board members going to this?

http://galvestondailynews.com/story.lasso?ewcd=ff94615e731e9364

Citrus show to display locally grown harvest

By Dr. William Johnson - Contributor
Published December 2, 2009

Area gardeners grow a remarkably wide variety of citrus, ranging from grapefruits to kumquats to lemons to oranges. The other good news is that this year’s citrus crop has been very productive.

A greater diversity of citrus types can be grown here than is available on the commercial market. Not surprisingly, homegrown citrus is of superior quality to supermarket fruits.

Many residents grow citrus not only for the fruit but also for the ornamental value that trees provide to the landscape. Lastly, many types of citrus are easier to grow than many “traditional” fruit trees, such as peaches.

Now visualize one of several types of citrus trees that you can grow in your yard to produce homegrown fruit to give as a distinctive and personal gift to family, neighbors and other friends. Sound too good to be true? Are you interested in viewing an array of locally grown citrus fruit? Are you interested in learning about the basics of growing your own citrus?

Whether you are an enthusiastic citrus grower or just interested in viewing an array of locally grown citrus fruit, plan to attend the 2009 Upper Gulf Coast Citrus Show at 7 p.m. Dec. 10. The Citrus Show will be conducted at the Walter Hall Park Pavilion, 807 state Highway 3, in League City.

Area residents may enter any type of citrus fruit in the show for judging. Each entry must be grown by the exhibitor and should consist of three fruits that are as uniform as possible. Each entry must be bagged and clearly tagged with your name, address and telephone number.

Also, indicate the type of fruit and variety. If the variety or even type of fruit is not known, it may be entered and will be identified.

Entries will be accepted at the Galveston County Extension Office, 5115 state Highway 3, in Dickinson from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday and Tuesday. Rosettes and ribbons will be awarded to the best quality entries.

A PowerPoint presentation titled “Growing Citrus on the Gulf Coast” will be provided by Monte Nesbitt, Texas A&M Extension specialist in the Department of Horticultural Sciences at College Station. The Citrus Show is open to the general public. Monte spoke at the 2008 expo in Tifton - Alan

For information, contact the Galveston County Extension Office, 281-534-3413, Ext. 1-2, or visit my Web site provided at the end of this column.

i may try to make it.

I will have a dozen or so varieties entered.

Selkirk

How about some photos from the show then? I'm sure many of us would love to see them. Especially if we have variety names to go with the photos of the fruit.

.....Alan.

I would love to attend, but there is really no way I could make it on a Thursday night. Too bad it's not on a Saturday.

I know we had some board members go to the show. Anyone got photos to share? How about it Selkirk? What did you think of the show?


http://galvestondailynews.com/story.lasso?ewcd=66ab7e54d7551305


Ray Michalik, of Brazoria, was awarded the Best of Show rosette for his “Rio Red”
Grapefruit and the Reserve Champion rosette for his “Meyer” lemon at the
2009 Upper Gulf Coast Citrus Show.
Photo by William M. Johnson

Gardeners enter record number of citrus at show

By Dr. William Johnson - Contributor
Published December 16, 2009

Area citrus growers submitted a record-setting 194 entries at the 2009 Upper Gulf Coast Citrus Show on Dec. 10 at the Walter Hall Park Pavilion in League City.

The entries reflected the remarkable range of citrus that is grown in the area, including oranges, grapefruits, lemons, tangerines and tangelos.

If you would like to know what types of citrus can be grown here, look at the following list of ribbon and rosette winners:

• Eddie Anderson, Friendswood, second place, “Meyer” lemon cluster.

• Bill Arendt, Houston; first place, “Chandler” Pummelo; second place, “Tarocco” blood orange; second place “Eustis” limequat; second place, “Sunburst” mandarin; third place “Dobashi beni” satsuma; third place, “Bloomsweet” grapefruit; third place “Vainiglia Sanguino” blood orange.

• A.J. Bourgeois, Texas City, second place, satsuma cluster; second place, satsuma.

• Suzanne Bryan, La Marque, first place, unknown tangerine

• Jack Cross, Texas City, first place, seedling tangerine; second place satsuma cluster.

• Nancy Ferverda, Dickinson, second place, “Meyer” lemon; third place “Cara Cara” navel orange.

• Gene Flores, Texas City, first place, “Mexian Thornless” lime; third place, “Meiwa” kumquat.

• Joseph Giamfortone, Santa Fe, third place, “Meyer” lemon.

• Larry Johnston, Pearland, second place, “Owari” satsuma cluster; second place, “Mexican Thornless” lime; second place, satsuma cluster.

• Charlie Keleman, Santa Fe, third place, unknown satsuma.

• Terry Matherne, Matagorda, first place, “Changsha” mandarin; second place “Changshou” kumquat cluster; second place, “Tavares” limequat; second place, “Indio Mandarinquat” kumquat; second place “Meyer” lemon; second place, “Kishu” mandarin; second place, “Okitsu wase” satsuma; second place, “Vermillion” satsuma; third place, “Golden” grapefruit; third place, “Changshou” kumquat.

• Ray Michalik, Brazoria, Best of Show, “Rio Red” grapefruit; Reserve Champion, “Meyer” lemon; second place, satsuma; third place, “Kinnow” mandarin.

• Gordon Morgan, Friendswood, second place, “Mexican Thornless” lime.

• John E. Panzarella, Lake Jackson, first place, “Calamondin” variegated orange; second place, “Chandler” pummelo; third place, “Mary Ellen Sweet” lime; third place, “Louisiana Sweet” orange.

• Bernard M. Patten, Seabrook, third place, “Amer” orange cluster; third place, “Meyer” lemon.

• Butch Roden, Clute, first place, unknown orange; first place, unknown satsuma; third place, “Rio Red” grapefruit; third place, unknown grapefruit; third place, “Minneola” tangelo; third place, “Orlando” tangelo; third place, unknown tangerine; third place, “Fairchild” mandarin.

• Dan Sebesta, Bellaire, second place, “Owari” satsuma cluster; third place, “Republic of Texas” orange cluster; third place, “Fairchild” mandarin.

• Luke Stripling, Dickinson, first place, satsuma cluster; first place, “Rio Red” grapefruit; second place, “Honey” tangerine.

• Bill Verm, Santa Fe, first place, “BC 2” satsuma; second place, “Ambersweet” orange; third place, “Seto” satsuma.

• Jim Wade, League City, first place, “Changshou” kumquat; first place, “Indio Mandarinquat”; first place, “Ambersweet” orange; second place, “Star Ruby” grapefruit; second place, unknown yangerine; third place, “Marrs Early” orange.

For some plant growing endeavors, my philosophy is “If you can’t pronounce it, don’t grow it!” However, on most occasions with citrus, not being able to pronounce it will not reduce your chances of growing some wonderful and delicious fruit.

Dr. William Johnson is a horticulturist with the Galveston County Office of Texas AgriLife Extension Service, The Texas A&M System. Visit his Web site at http://aggiehorticulture.tamu.edu/galveston.

Unfortunately I was unable to attend

Micah Meyer and myself were the judges. There was a lot of really nice citrus. This is the first time that the same person won the two top awards.

Here's some pictures from the show.
Most of the first place winner are pictured.

Here's some of the tables of fruit.

This is some of my citrus I picked for the show. At this point I have not cleaned or picked the best three for a entry.

Terry

Well done, Selkirk! Great photos!

In the last picture that shows all of your fruit are those Tavares limequats about midway down on the left side?

.....Alan.

Nice pictures, thanks for posting. I notice that the Upper Gulf Coast Citrus Show, does not require the entries to include attached leaves. Many shows require leaves to be attached on all entries so that someone cannot display fruit that was purchase at a store. - Millet (1,126-)

The leaves are supposed to be clipped off with a very short stem left attached to the fruit