Hi All,
"In Hardy Citrus for the Southwest" there's the enticing statement: "One cultivar worth seeking out is CiTemple Edible, a cross with a Temple orange that reportedly has almost no trifoliate off flavors. To our knowledge it is not currently being grown anywhere in the Southeast."

Does anyone have any information on this selection? Where/who bred it? Is the taste description accurate? Does anyone know of a plant and where one could get a cutting or perhaps buy a tree?

Eyeckr, in your collection list you mention MIC (Minneola x Ichangensis x CiTemple Edible). Do you know who bred this one? Presumably they have one

Thanks,
Greg

Try G or Terry, they both do quite a bit of the hardy stuff.

I almost forgot about the CiTemple Edible. It was actually one I had been searching for quite some time ago. I do have a source for it but we are trying to correctly identify it because Dr Brown had began to mix up his plants and apparently had some labeling issues. In any case a buddy of mine who actually had tasted the fruit stated it really wasn't as good as it was touted to be. I believe 'edible' is the key word here.

It was Dr Brown who indeed created the MIC cross as well. By comparison this one is a much better selection than CiTemple anyway. This one along with, 15-150, SanCitchang, 80-2, Kishu, LG Sweet and Nuclem would likely be superior varieties to look out for if you wanted to add to your frost hardy citrus trials.

Every now and then over the years one hears about this trifoliate cross, or that trifoliate cross as being eatable. Until now there are no trifoliate crosses that makes the mark for being really eatable. The "eatable" in trifoliate crosses is more wish and hope than reality. - Millet (190- BO-)

Well... They won't kill you.

No doubt Millet. I do suspect that all hybrids that are 50% Poncirus will be off tasting at best. (unless the Poncirus is an unlikely mutant with genes for poncirin knocked out) But when crossed with another 50% Poncirus hybrid, 1 in 4 should lack poncirin. For me the big experiment is whether or not any of the 1 in 4 that doesn't taste bad is also cold hardy enough or not.
G, that's why I'm hunting for the original half P.t. CiTemple Edible. The next generation crosses that don't taste bad are interesting to me, but mainly only to cross back to Poncirus, then cross that result with a 50% Poncirus hybrid...could get some nice results. If you guys can work out which one is CiTemple Edible that would be fantastic!

Actually, the MIC is a seedling citrus given to me by a friend (don't remember who). I grew the seedling to maturity, and was surprised at how tasty the little fruit turned out. Keith and several others got clones of my tree. When the tree came to me it was labeled "Honeybell (CiTemple x C. Ichang)". Keith suggested naming it MIC, which sounded fine to me.

It sounds reasonable that this is likely one of Dr. Brown's creations, because another friend often got fruit from Dr. Brown, and passed on seedlings from the fruit he received. When I asked him later if he gave me the seedling, he didn't seem to remember doing so, but I think it might have came from him when he gave it to someone else, and they passed it on to me. The name on the label would certainly make one think that it was Dr. Brown's creation. If this is Dr. Brown's, it is by far the best one I have tasted. Small, and fairly seedy, but with excellent mandarin flavor.

Ned, why is the tree called MIC? Does MIC have anything to do with (Citrange X temple) x Ichange? - Millet

The M.I.C. name comes from a very complex hybrid of Minneola(aka Honeybell) x C. Ichangensis x CiTemple Edible

Eyechecker is correct. Keith took the letters from the name I found on the seedlings tag.

G, looks like Ned's tag answered the question of crossing order:
(Minneola) x (C. Ichangensis x CiTemple Edible)

So if that's correct this plant is 1/4 grapefruit, 1/4 tangerine, 1/4 Ichangensis, 1/8 Temple orange (sweet orange x mandarin), and 1/8 Poncirus. Half it's chromosomes are a cross-over blend of grapefruit and tangerine, the other half are a cross-over blend containing chunks of Ichangensis/sweet orange/mandarin/Poncirus. Fun stuff!

Is there anyone doing controlled cold room hardiness experiments on some of these complex crosses that have so much hardy stock in their ancestory?

Here is another one.

link

MIC sounds GREAT !!!

It has quite the WHOLE genpool of citrus !!!

I make hardy tests in europe outside.

Would be great, if I could get some seeds.