Out of curiosity, I have been hoodwinked and found myself carrying a 5 gallon container of "Chinese Grapefruit" from Home Depot today. Oh man, I could kill myself as the wife scolded me of buying another citrus.

But anyway, the citrus is for a friend. It is from Four Winds Citrus Nursery, and costs $22. It states "It is actually a Pummelo, this tree bears large fragrant blooms, followed by yellow pear-shaped fruit which is low in acidity. Height: 8'-12' at maturity. True Dwarf CITRUS"

Chinese Grapefruit.


Any idea what kind of Pummelo is this aside from the misleading name "Chinese Grapefruit" ?

Joe, it should be a Chandler, a hybrid of Siamese Sweet pummelo
and Siamese Pink pummelo.

Jim

Thanks Jim. But I am certain that it is not Chandler. I have Chandler and the shape of the fruits in the picture that goes with the label is not the same as that of Chandler. Four Winds also sells Chandler, but I could be wrong if they did this for a marketing gimmickry or strategy. I already emailed them about my inquiry. But you could be right, unless Four Winds Clears this up with me.

If you search the net, the term "Chinese Grapefruit" is synonymous with Pummelo or Shaddock. Thus the Chinese Grapefruit is not really a grapefruit but a Pummelo. If a Pummelo, then what exact cultivar. For sure it is not chandler which tends to be rounder. This one is shaped like my chironja grapefruit hybrid with almost the same color.

If its a "True Dwarf" than it is probably on Cuban understock. - Millet

Obviously I should have looked at the Four Winds
order form to see that they do include the Chinese
Grapefruit.

Four Winds Growers - Online Order Form

Jim

The Four Winds web site does not give any
more information on what they are selling
as the Chinese Grapefruit. Not all of the
Citrus that they are offering to retail outlets
are listed in their online order form I might
add. I will have to make it a point to look at
the photo on the label when I see one to have
a better idea which plant they are calling their
Chinese Grapefruit. I have not paid too much
attention to their Grapefruit and their Pummelo
type trees.

Come down to the Fresno Fair in October and
look at the city of Orange Cove's booth at the
fair and you will see the old Shaddock Pomelo
is still around. A quick notation, I learned the
Pomelo to be different than a Pummelo. It was
suspected that the Pomelo was a hybrid, whereas
the Pummelos generally are a hybrid, depending
on where they all came from or due in part to their
subsequent breeding..

We only have brought in one "Grapefruit type"
tree into the misses mini Citrus collection and
that was this year in March with a five gallon
Willits & Newcomb Cocktail GPFT (this is the
name as is on the backside of the label).

I guess I''ll have to get up to speed and find
out what this Chinese Grapefruit is that Four
Winds is selling. I know the old Pomelo was
considered by some people to be the Chinese
Grapefruit but I am not so sure that Four Winds
plant is the same.

Jim

As far as I know, the Pummelos are one of the three most fundamental citrus species from which most of citrus cultivars of today have been derived, so that implies Pummelo is a pure species and not hybrid unless the supposedly "pummelo" or pomelo cultivars are mislabeled by some of the early generations and passed on today and sold off as such, hybrids or not.

The old plant to come into Lindcove was the
Pomelo. The newer group of plants in more
recent years since the 40's have been called
Pummelo, pretty much universal ever since
the Chandler was developed. Now, we think
in terms of the Pomelo and the Pummelo
names as being synonymous or just yield to
Pummelo but to some of us oldtimers they
stand for slightly different yet similarly
related Citrus.

Below is an article that gives some insight
from a different perspective.

Your Produce Man-Produce News

Jim

Pomello, pomelo pumello et al. Are they not just common names for citrus grandis?
Here in Vancouver in early January we see the california red pomelos
and a bit later the chinese pomellos arrive. The chinese pomellos are less sweet, drier and more of a white colour flesh. Also they are very seedy and are more of a tear drop shape. The pomellos from California are marketed by Sunkist and are refered to a red pomelos...any idea what variety they would be? I think they taste great. (I wouldnt mind a cutting...
In lets say the SF Bay Area how long would a pomelo take to ripen from polination?

Jim, nice to hear from you again!

Greg

Hi Greg:

For what it is worth, I learned it years ago that
Citrus maxima is the Pomelo and Citrus grandis
is the Pummelo. The main difference aside from
flesh color, one being white to slightly pink and
the others can be white, pink and rose pink to
rose red in flesh, is one fruit can be larger in size
than the other, how the segments peel as the old
Shaddock will have its segments separate easier
than trimming off so much of the albedo to get
to the flesh of the Pummelo and the number of
distinctly shaped segments.

Below is a link to a document file that has their
own distinction to some degree between Citrus
maxima and Citrus grandis.

Genetics and Breeding - Pummelo

http://www.icuc-iwmi.org/files/Publications/pummelo_genetics.doc

I prefer to see a photo of the fruit cut in half before
committing as to what it might be. If we look at the
photos from the Sunkist chart and specialties pages
we see the flesh color being very similar to a Chandler.

Seasonal Fruits Chart - Oranges & Tangerines - Sunkist

http://www.sunkist.com/products/varietal_chart.asp


Seasonal Fruits - Oranges & Tangerines - Sunkist

http://www.sunkist.com/products/seasonal_specialties.asp

We look on the box to learn the variety as opposed
to the supermarket name it is sold as being. An example
of such is that I recently saw a Topaz Mandarin as the
sales name for the fruit. I looked on the box and it had
Ortanique Mandarin as the variety of the fruit.

Continued success with the in ground and container Citrus.

Jim