Hello Everyone,

I'm a new citrus collector and enthusiast and I'm attemping my first hybridization of citrus. I'm crossing pomelo with Royal Kumquat.

The type of pomelo is unknown, I bought the seed on ebay from Belize. The pomelo seedlings are only 1 year old and one of them produced a flower. I had to take advantage of this stroke of good luck to attempt a citrus hybrid. The only other citrus tree I had which was also in flower was a small Royal Kumquat tree (produced by Oscar Tintori). I waited for a kumquat flower to newly open then I removed the stamen before they could set any pollen and put the pomelo pollen onto the stigma. I then put some gauze over the flower to protect it from cross pollination.

The fruit has set and there is a fruitlet growing. Hopefully I might get more than 2 seeds from the fruit and with any luck some pomeloquat seedlings! In the many years to come I'll keep you informed of the possible pomeloquat's progress, I wish citrus grew faster lol.

Is there a good website or pdf that anyone knows of that covers citrus hybridization well?

Many thanks to the other forum members who have posted their hybrid attempts and hybridization advice, much appreciated.

Lemandarangequatelo

A single flower on one year old Pummelo and Grapefruit seedlings is infrequent but not exactly rare.
I have only once managed to grow a small fruit from such a seedling.
You will find that the fruit quickly grows too heavy for the plant, and it will need some kind of support to prevent breaking. Here was my arrangement:


By the way, I've never heard of Royal Kumquat. Can you describe it or post a picture?
Mike/Citrange

Hi Mike, thanks for the advice. That pic is great, very impressive. I hope I get a fruit from mine too but the flower and fruitlet are looking like they're drying up, I'll try and post a pic later. The Royal Kumquat I never heard of either. After having looked at it, tasted one, and read descriptions of kumquats, I'm pretty sure it's the Marumi Kumquat. Royal Kumquat pics below, the tree is about a foot high and the fruit is an inch across:

http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/3616/dscf0258oq.jpg
http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/4291/dscf0268i.jpg
http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/1456/dscf0270j.jpg
http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/9717/dscf0269j.jpg

The depressed apex of the fruit, and its size, suggests to me that this is a Fukushu Kumquat, Fortunella obovata.

Getting back to your attempt to hybridize, is royal kumquat a mono-embryonic variety--if not, most of the seedlings will be clones of the mother plant.

Polyembryonic seeds indicate that the mother plant is producing clones which are identical copies of the mother plant. That does not mean that an occasional zygotic embryo is not possible, but they will likely be few and far between--identifiable by the fact that they are different from most of the seedlings.

You can peel the seed and see if you see multiple embryos--if you are careful that can be used to speed up sprouting.

In the "catalogue de la pépinière St Georges" it is said to be a Fortunella Margarita but the fruit does'n look like one.

In Tintori's list the variety is noted with 'ISA'.
This is the Italian citrus research institute in Sicily previously called Instituto Sperimentale Agrumicoltura (ISA) but officially now Centro di Ricerca per l'Agrumicoltura (CRA).
They have distributed budwood to Italian citrus growers from varieties that they have researched and proved to have good results. However, they do not include a 'Kumquat Reale' in their current variety list.
They do list a 'Mandarino Reale' which happens to actually be a Fortunella hindsii hybrid, but I still think that Lemandarinoquats plant is Fortunella obovata.
See
http://www.agrumicoltura.it/public/Img/113_Kumquat%20a%20frutto%20grande%20e%20obovato.pdf and
http://www.agrumicoltura.it/public/Img/121_Mandarino%20Reale.pdf

Mike/Citrange

If it is mono-embryonic, your chances of getting a hybrid are good. Not to talk you out of your goal, but your next big hurdle is getting a useful and productive variety. Your chances are low and it will take years to even find out what you have, but I do wish you luck.

As for getting your seeds to sprout, I like to place them on a saucer with a moist paper towel and cover the saucer with plastic wrap. Place the saucer in a warm place (about 85 F or 30 C). As soon as you see a root--transfer to the potting media.