you must of hit the space bar so your link did not work. click the link below. It works

Here is a link that might be useful: http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-09-25/lifestyle/42380222_1_rootstock-orange-tree-eucalyptus

That's Dave in nova and bocajoes friend. John, Joe and Dave are gonna rule the cold hardy edible market soon!

Mike

Thanks, I did not know how to 'activate' a link, usually it does it automatically, but I figured people could very easily copy and past the URL anyway?

Mr texas we need your opinion STAT

Hi all,

After much corespondence with different people, we now believe this Citrandarin is a tissue-cultured clone of US-852. It took a while to investigate all this. US-852 was apparently developed at the Univ. of Cal - Riverside.

Budwood was sent to Florida to a Tissue-culture lab. It was hoped this would be a good rootstock for the Florida citrus industry.

For numerous reasons, they decided against it -- one being that its seeds are highly zygotic and produced maybe only 50% true clones. Tissue culture was apparently not cost-effective.

So, the tissue-lab unloaded its plants and several retailers bought them up to sell as a hardy citrus novelty.

I purchased the plant from Stan McKenzie (McKenzie Farms). Panama John has been growing it. Last year it had 3 fruits. This year around 15.

I have not actually tasted a ripened fruit from this yet so I can't really comment on the taste of it, but my sense is it's much better than most citranges with very little trifoliate off-flavor.

Even though the plant itself is quite hardy, it does take at least until the end of November to mid-December for fruits to fully ripen. By that time frost threatens.

So it's beneficial to have it in a microclimate. Amazingly though, fruit seems to be able to take at least mid-20s without damage. I suppose one could maybe throw a blanket over the fruit on especially cold nights.

However we will also be experimenting with Thomasville Citrangequat. I have tasted many of those and love them! Sweeter than lemon and with edible skin.

We already know what Mr. Texas will say -- 'anything with trifoliate in it is not worth growing.'

Thanks dave, for the background info that was not in the article.

November/December is pretty late for a zone 7 climate, so is this citrandarin edible and/or useful before it is fully ripe?
In your experience, what is the earliest ripening cold hardy citrus? Also, when do most flower? Do citrus trees grown in colder climates flower later and ripen fruit faster than those grown in warmer climates, like some other fruit trees do?

I have no problem trying to gain a zone or two (I'm in zone 6b) by protecting a citrus plant during the coldest weather, but having to protect blossoms for an extended period in the spring and then protect ripening fruit for another extended period in the fall would add a lot of trouble to the equation.

fabaceae_native

I have come to the same conclusion about late ripening fruit. It is much easier to protect in spring when days are long than in the fall when daylight is almost nonexistent. Might as well go with early satsuma or a greenhouse. otherwise its the container Plant of something that is easy to grow.

Fab:

Not sure I can answer all your questions:

November/December is pretty late for a zone 7 climate, so is this citrandarin edible and/or useful before it is fully ripe?

Sure, maybe in marinades or in ade drinks with sugar (Sweet/Lo) provided you have enough to squeeze.

In your experience, what is the earliest ripening cold hardy citrus?

Probably Poncirus trifoliata. But you'll have to be more specific about hardy to which zone. My Satsumas (in pot) like Armstrong ripen in November. If you're talking zone 7b citrus -- likely Thomasville or Changsha. Ventura Lemandarin (still somewhat sour) colors up in November. But that's likely a zone 7B also.

Also, when do most flower? Do citrus trees grown in colder climates flower later and ripen fruit faster than those grown in warmer climates, like some other fruit trees do?

I don't have a lot of experience with different varieties. Citrandarin flowers in May but still has some blooms into June I think. I have no idea about ripening.

OK, for anyone who cares:

We had Stan McKenzie send up some fruit from his US-852 trees that he has growing at his farm in SC. These were extra trees that he did not sell from the batch from the tissue lab in Florida.

Apparently the one fruit sampled had a VERY prominant trifoliate smell upon cutting into it. The rind had strong trifoliate taste and smell. Stan says he never eats them. Now we can see why.

Our local Mystery Citrandarin had NO trifoliate taste or smell to the rind. So could the bad taste of Stan's fruit be due to the time of picking? Temperature? Possible frost damage? Soil conditions? Or do we actually have a different variety up here? We'll sample some more fruit from Stan in a few days.

If there is that much difference in fruit taste and quality, then it doesn't seem to be nearly as likely that what we have is a US-852 clone.

Perhaps what Stan received was a batch of seedlings, including off-types.

The mystery continues.

poncirus guy:

We are not wasting time and money. This citrandarin grows in the ground here (outdoors). It is hardy in our area without any protection. We are starting extra plants from cuttings. We're not growing these from seeds because they send off too many off-types and take too long to bear fruit.

I would never recommend anyone growing this citrandarin indoors. Not worth the time. I have a (tender) grafted Armstrong Satsuma in a pot which goes into my garage over winter. This one produces exquisite fruit. I also buy fruit from the market.

This citrandarin is merely an interesting novelty hardy citrus -- but only for folks in zones 7 and warmer. Once you get into zone 8 there are better varieties to play around with.

Dave

I still have my citrus trees and enjoy them. I have also designated a 17 ft by 23 ft room for them to winter under 100+ daylight output CFL's. This will,replace my aging furnace. to heat my house with a by-product of fresh citrus fruit.

I wish you all the luck on your citrus project. Seriously look into the fruits I mentioned above. I have everyone of those mentioned and they and the squirrels are doing very well.

Steve

Poncirusguy: I get where your coming from about about certain things not being worth the trouble...

But I think the monetary angle is not a good one to take, because many of us are doing this for the fun of it. It's a hobby, and being able to grow a novelty cannot be measured in terms of the market cost of it's fruit.

Growing citrus indoors is definitely NOT worth my effort anymore (sick of dealing with unhappy pot-bound, scale-infested plants), but if I could grow one outside, throw some covering over it each winter, and get even a few perfumed flowers and/or fruit every few years it WOULD be worth it to me. I don't consider any of the fruit trees I now grow in the ground to be much work at all.

Yea its a hobby for me to. My real interest was in meiwa kumquats. Its not because I like kumquats as much as other citrus but that being able to store fresh fruit on the tree and pick and eat as i please as well as pick my own and take a bunch to my church Christmas potluck to share would be fun..Same as my figs. I will however see great success with the figs. If I had planted a millsweet lemon, it would be much bigger and my spirit would be much high. I chose a meiwa knowing it had weaker roots and I would have to be much more careful on watering it. I did't know that weak ment roots barely grow. well, we will have to live and learn. I am very flexible and roll very well with the punches and will do well with my citrus. I have redesigned my greenhouse to contain a taller tree. If it were about money, I would go out and get a volunteer job with a food pantry and with the 0 pay I would still come out better than if I grew my own.

These trees are obviously hobbies, but my suggestion of other plants still hold a metric ton of water

Steve