All Things Cold Hardy Citrus, news, thoughts and evaluations

Yuzu is delicious, and would still be grown even if not cold hardy.

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Poncirus trifoliata is equally as cold hardy as Flying dragon and makes an excellent root-stock for yuzu that grows 2 times faster than those on FD

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Itā€™s not cold hardy, but has anybody besides me been dumb enough to try Citrus hystrix, makrut lime, the one thatā€™s supposed to be for the leaves?

If trifoliate fruit is anything like that, I wouldnā€™t want to touch it to the tip of my tongue, let alone eat it.

makrut lime, formerly kifer limes. Juice and fruit also make it into thai food. I think the flavor profile is different. I wonder why Bifoliates like Makrut made it into the citrus genre but Trifoliates got booted to poncitrus. I know its just a name thing but it makes you humm.

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you could look into layering your yuzu for a bigger tree. I wonder what size it would be on its own roots? I wonder if thereā€™s a good own-root reference to find out before trying. My Meyer lemon and Persian lime both came as rooted cuttings, I think Meyer lemon is known to do well that way but the lime surprised me when I picked it up

My first clumsy attempts to air layer it failed. Iā€™m curious if others have had success doing so.

I also stabbed some cuttings in the ground. One remained with green leaves for 36 months or so, but when I went to transplant it, there were no roots. I was pretty surprised.

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wow, green for a while. I should have guessed youā€™d already tried since itā€™s such an obvious win

my potted yuzu on flying dragon (OGW) is going into year 3 and is 3ft tall, so itā€™s growing about 1ft a year. no blooms yet

Youā€™ve probably been more consistent at supplying water and nitrogen and excluding weeds.

Since I hadnā€™t seen this posted yet on this thread, here it isā€¦

1 in 250 for a start isnā€™t bad in my opinion trying to select for cold hardiness in seedling citrus in Z6. Taking those seedlings and crossing to further sweeten the fruit in a second round seems like the way to go.

Iā€™ll buy a good one, but Iā€™ll leave the citrus breeding to the folks already working on it. Until then my trifoliate seedling is waiting for a graft in the front yard planting bed.

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If thatā€™s the seller I think it is I bought 7 of them a few years back. They were pretty tiny, but have grown a lot and are all doing well. They have slightly narrower leaves than my pure trifoliates and the thorns also look different. I corresponded with the seller a bit to find out more info and apparently the original tree was grown by her father from seeds brought back from a market in China. It clearly is a trifoliate hybrid, and I donā€™t believe the seller is lying about them because the price was pretty reasonable. If they wanted to sensationalize and exaggerate the variety I think theyā€™d be pairing that with higher prices.

I canā€™t see who the seller was from your link because itā€™s outdated, but was it emilypostal2112? The following is a quote from what she wrote to me:

"According to my father, about 25 yrs. or so ago, during a trip to the backwoods of China. For the record, Iā€™m not too sure what he meant by ā€œbackwoodsā€. The way my father spoke, that could have meant so many things. In any case, he claims heā€™s just hanging around by some seaside market, watching the fishermen return with their catches. All of a sudden a fight breaks out between a few people who were bringing fruit down the mountainside in Ox carts, to sell at the market. Next thing you know, fruit is rolling along on the ground. Feet, hooves and wheels turn the fruit to a mushy pulp. So dad being the ā€œplant manā€ that he is, starts scooping up seeds and sticking them in his pocket. That night, he tosses his dirty clothes in a laundry bagā€¦ without checking his pockets.

He returns home, puts his stinky laundry bag out by the barn, to be dealt with at a later time. That night it rains, laundry bag now left to dry out for a few daysā€¦ rains again, few more days go by. Life happens, bag forgotten. According to the story, about 2 months go byā€¦ when he finally remembers his dirty laundry, he finds the bag lifted off the ground about 3", supported by about 20 very healthy lilā€™ seedlings! He of course realized it was the seeds he had pocketed that had sprung to life. The tap roots so strong that they drilled right through the cloth material of the laundry bag. He dug up all the lilā€™ fellas and planted them in various places throughout the yard, about 1/2 of them passedā€¦ but the ones that survived, thrived.

My father would tell this story of how his Fruit of the Looms helped to grow strong and tall, by keeping the tree warm throughout the coldest nights. Heā€™d point out the fabric, still entwined with the grapefruit tree, the tree that had been left in
itā€™s original place next to where the barn once stood. This of course, was my fathers taleā€¦ what seems more likely however, was that he mailed the seeds back home to him-self, he did that kinda thing quite often.

Well thatā€™s the story, I realize it doesnā€™t help much in understanding the exact origin of the plant, but perhaps all my family is supposed to know is that my dad grew some real fruit out of his looms! Actually, out of those seeds grewā€¦ the grapefruit type tree, a lemon/lime type, and what I think is the coolestā€¦ a lilā€™ orange tree! "

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It was from emilypostal2112

Honestly my fruiting trifoliate produces from that are smaller than a golf ball. If this survives here and produces a larger fruit Iā€™d be happy.

I got 3 of them and they are all growing quite well (in a pot in my basement currently).

Scott

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Hi,

I am trying Ichandrin and Sudachi here in VA not far from you. I got the trees from OGW.I placed them inground last summer. I wanted to see if they would grow here unprotected.

Dave

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Let us know how they do. Rabbits decapitated my Sudachi, set it way back :frowning:

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The sudachi is excellent and grows in very cold locations. You can grow them unprotected in zone 8, but it gets iffy in zone 7. I like sudachi so much I chose to grow it even in an area where you can grow the more sensitive lemons. They are rather small but taste as good as a lime. The reason they have no off taste is itā€™s a hybrid of a mandarin and an yuzu. Thereā€™s no off taste become it doesnā€™t have trifolata in its parentage. Itā€™s often grafted to a trifolata rootstock, but this doesnā€™t negatively impact the taste of the sudachi. There are quite a few fairly hardy citrus that grow in chilly winter locations of Japan and South Korea, particularly Jeju Island. The hardy citrus that donā€™t taste so good typically are trifolata hybrids. Thereā€™s also something called a kabosu that shows great promise in zone 8.

Have you ever tried a carrizo citrange? I have a really big specimen in a pot about ready to fruit probably next year. Iā€™m trying to decide if itā€™s worth planting it in the ground or giving it to a friend. I would probably keep it if someone tells me itā€™s good for making a ā€˜lemonadeā€™ drink. Iā€™ve heard the Morton citrange is excellent for this kind of application. Iā€™m just wary of the ā€˜offā€™ bitter taste so many trifolate hybrids are known to have.

Sorry I have not perhaps someone else has

Best description of eating corrizo/phelps citrange fruit is The fruit should carry a warning label: Caution you are not really being poisoned - it just tastes that way.

I would agree with that. I once licked a citrange fruit and could not wash the terrible taste out of my mouth no matter how hard I tried.

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What about the Morton? I tasted one of those that was growing near Hemet. There was nothing ā€˜offā€™ about the flavor from the fruit on that tree. Just tasted like a very sour lemon. I definitely could have used it for culinary applications, making salad dressings, lemonade, marmalade. So the carrizo has that trifolate taste?

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Iā€™m glad to hear you liked the ā€˜Mortonā€™. Your experience matches what Iā€™ve read elsewhere. I have two of them, but still waiting to taste them for the first time as they have not yet bloomed. They are doing well though (in ground). Theyā€™re so hardy Iā€™d like to try crossing them to the reputedly sweet but bland ā€˜Changshaā€™. I think that cross would be a win since the ā€˜Changshaā€™ is one of the hardiest non-trifoliate based Citrus and could actually benefit from being more acidic as the resulting hybrids would inevitably be.

Sounds like a good idea worth trying. Iā€™m currently germinating 100 ichandrin to trial around Oregon and Washington. I want to get data back on how seedlings fare up here. Iā€™m also germinating 50 flying dragon to do some grafting next spring. My idea is to give them to people and have them report back. I think the yuzu should probably do 2 winters in a greenhouse before attempting a winter outside. Or maybe not. I donā€™t know yet. Donā€™t you have a botanical garden thatā€™s sometimes open to the public? If so, Iā€™d be interested in seeing what you have growing.

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