Hi Folks,

It's almost Thanksgiving and my citrumelo tree is loaded with large ripe fruits but there will be no harvest because it's fruits are inedible However, they do make very impressive color show!


Below is a picture of my 'Changsha' citrandarin loaded with it's best crop ever. The fruits are more edible than citrumelo but still far from being truly edible.


Below is a interesting f1 Citrumquat I breed several years ago. This cross of an unknown kumquat with poncirus has proven itself very cold hardy and now has produced a fruit. Flowering was late so this first fruit will not develop into it's full size but does seem to be ripening. I will harvest the fruit and report it's edibility.


Happy Thanksgiving!

Great looking trees Don! Do you have pics of your citsumaquat, citemple and sancitchang fruits?

Don nice hearing from you again. I can tell that the trees you pictured were all started as seedling trees, because of the fruit production being at the top of the tree, above where the tree grew enough to became mature. You have done a nice job, as usual. - Millet (1,149-)

Don, that citrumquat looks almost like a Thomasville citrangequat. Please let us know how the fruit taste.

Hi Matt,

The Citsumaquat looks very promising for both hardiness and taste! It's proven cold hardy down to 6*f. and the few taste tests have been great. All taste tests (so far) have been from green fruit broken off due to wind. The flavor was very good being sourish kumquat/mandarin with a sweet after flavor and the peel was edible too. Absolutely no poncirus taste, flavor, smell, sticky gum or after taste! I have an almost ripe fruit that will be taste tested soon. All doings for Citsumaquat can be found on it's new website citsumaquat.com

Far as CiTemple nothing yet. That Flying Dragon citrandarin which is likely a CiTemple having the Temple as a pollen donor has been producing fruit. The fruit dropped before ripening so I can't tell if it's any good. The fruit's build is very mandarin like being puffy. My seedling SanCitChang has one fruit that will not fully ripen. This hybrid seems to be slow to ripen which will be bad for my region.

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Hi Millet,

Yes indeed it was grown from seed! It's been a 10 year wait for this fruit. Citrumelos have been the slowest to fruit from a seedling for myself.

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Hi Stan,

I can't wait to test the citrumquat fruit! It's not built like the typical 50/50 citrus/poncirus mix. Like you say it's more like a citrangequat, most noticeable is the lack of pubescence. I hope hard freezes will hold off for a few more weeks so the fruit can vine ripen much as possible. Another interesting note about the citrumquat is it's leaf hardiness. The plant holds evergreen near zero where other hybrids defoliate.

Hi Again Stan,

I harvested the citrumquat fruit and gave it an taste test. It's not very edible having poncirus off-flavors but on the postive side that sticky poncirus gumminess found with most 50/50 citrus/poncirus hybrids was absent.

Below is a picture of the very interesting citrumquat fruit. It's lone seed has been planted and we'll see how the f2 offspring look's.

Thanks for the pictures of your citrumquat, I've been looking for information on them for quite a while, but for some reason I've been unable to find much information about them on the web. In fact, your picture is the first time I've actually seen a citrumquat fruit.

It's too bad about it having off flavors though, I was hoping that since most citrange-kumquat crosses were edible a citrumquat might be too.

Hi Sludge,

It might be more edible with subsequent generations of fruit. Being the seedling's very first fruit and not fully formed or ripened, it wasn't all that bad. Next season will give a better idea of this citrumquat's fruit characteristics.

This link is the only citrumquat info I have found:
http://lib.ucr.edu/agnic/webber/Vol1/Chapter3.html
lib.ucr.edu/agnic/webber/Vol1/Chapter3.html
You'll need to scroll down about 5/8 of the page to view the citrumquat info.

Hi Don,

I hope your new Citrumaquat will as soon as possible find its way to good old Europe. I live in Vienna (zone 7b). Think thia would do for your new treasure.
/Roberto

so not to hijack the cool thread

but I just ate of of Stans Citraquats... (Thom type) and it was orange and tasted good. Unlike when they are green the peal is at least so so.

Frank

Hellow, who can sand some fruits of citrumello to Kazakhstan? I need a seeds... Can you help me?

The demand from Askhat ( actually he has not yet contacted me) prompted me to consider what I shall do with my Citrumelo harvest:


Usually I am leaving the fruits on the tree, they look very exotic at Christmas time. I juiced some of them this time and tested on my family.
My wife opinion on diluted juice is that it has unpleasant aftertaste but could be drinken. My daughter likes it and even demanded another glass.

I decided finally extract seeds from all of them , germinate and keep only monozygotic like (usually there are ~10% of singly germinated seeds).
I hope to discovery what sort of variation they will show.

Is this swingle citrumelo you keep in your garden? What is the lowest temperature you get? I suppose Paris is at least zone 8a? I saw a lot of palmtrees and there is Choysia ternate in nearly every park. Are there citruholics you know in Paris? I did not see any Citrus in ground (but of course did not see all of Paris).
Salut
Robert