I am considering what to do with a number of young ugli fruit seedlings and would like your feedback. The trees will not be true to type since the seed is monoembryonic. According to this write-up by Julia Morton,

Quote:

Dr. Webber...planted the seeds and reported that, of 13 seedlings, 6 had strongly mandarin-scented leaves, 3 had weak-mandarin scent, and 4 had leaf-scent reminiscent of grapefruit or sweet orange leaves.

The result demonstrated much variability in the seedlings. The experiment also showed the seedlings will mature in approximately five years.

I'd hate to throw out what I have but given the space limitation indoors and the fact they will not be true to type it doesn't seem practical to grow them on. On the other hand, a seed grown tree is about my only option if I want to have something even close to the cultivar.

Questions which may help me in my decision:

1. What size of tree can be expected?
2. As this cultivar is grown in Jamaica, is it safe to assume fruit development requires a high number of heat units similar to that for grapefruit?
3. If you had to select one seedling from a batch, which leaf scent (as per above) would you choose and why? (Using leaf scent as a proxy for fruit desirability is dubious but nevertheless...)
4. How would you describe the difference between the scent of mandarin, grapefruit, and sweet orange leaves?

Please share your thoughts on the matter, in particular if you have grown an ugli seedling to maturity.

It is generally held that the Ugli is a tangelo, a cross between an orange and a grapefruit. Some, including Dr. Webber, think it might be a cross between a mandarin and a grapefruit. It is not known for sure. As you will be growing the tree as a containerized tree, the size of the tree will be greatly restricted, so should not be much trouble. As far as selecting, which seedling to grow on, I would chose the seedling on the basis of strength of growth, and general all around vigor. Who knows, you might just come up with the next world class "chance seedling".

I was wondering if ugli's budwoods were availlable in the U.S. ?

JK, you could graft a known variety on the tree while keeping part of the seedling to grow out, then if the fruit is not good you will still have a useful tree.

Thank you laaz, I can't find any ugli tree in France, and I don't know if the variety is availlable in Europe.
I planted some seeds in the hope a miracle

Have you tried Voss in Germany. They had them listed a while back. http://members.aol.com/agrumivos2/agrksuee.htm

Thank you Laaz, I will send a message

Thanks for your input.

Millet, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for 'Jungle' fruit. :)

Skeeter, Good idea but budwood is scarce around these parts. I suppose some time down the road I could graft a mature section of the tree to itself and thus eventually replace the juvenile portion of the tree.

jjp, What are you going to do with your ugli seedlings?

My seedlings are 2 years old, and I will probably wait them fruiting. But I know they will probably do nothing interesting.

Just because a variety of citrus does not produce a plant and fruit true to the mother tree, does not mean that the new tree's fruit will not be good tasting. For example, Clementines do not produce true from seed, but the resulting fruit will be a mandarin type of fruit, that might be better, equal to or inferior than the fruit produced by the mother tree. I don't bother planting seed from citrus varieties that come true from seed, because I do not want to wait years for production. I can buy those trees for a few dollars and have production now. However, growing a seedling tree that is known not to produce true from seed provides the mystery of what might just be the next new variety.

I just hope I would have enough space for the next years. I have got a lot of other zygotic plants and I can keep only the most beautiful.
I've planted some seed from chimeric fruits, and I wonder what they will do in a few years...

Junglekeeper, if this picture of a mature tree can help you to chose your seedlings :

JK, are you familiar with Joe Real's bark grafting technique? It works well with very small twigs from the tip of limbs. If you have any other trees that you would like to increase production of, you can use the bark grafting technique to increase your production-- you could even use the ugli seedlings to produce larger budwood of your favorite varieties.