Growing citrus in coastal California

I will start with my Meyer Lemon. I am disappointed, not because we can’t grow it here. Lemons are the ones that are best suited for our area. I don’t like the fruit - not for cooking and surprisingly not for lemonades either. I prefer the Eureka lemon but I get tons of them whenever I want - from neighbors, friends, almost every backyard has way too many fruits and most are left to rot. Recently, I have started to become curious about kumquats, so I top-worked the tree with a few kumquat varieties.

Nordmann seedless - This is the only variety I wanted to graft and save my money on the rest, but got sucked into ordering others after reading about those varieties :slight_smile: I tried Nagami from the farmers market and they were good enough for a snack, but with pesky seeds. Hoping this seedless version can’t be too bad.

Meiwa - supposed to be the sweetest of them all. I saw two accessions in CCPP. Not sure whats the difference between these two, but I got the CRC 3833. This is supposedly tricky to graft but it was straightforward on Meyer Lemon (actually I didn’t have a problem with any variety so far). Need to wait and see if there are signs of delayed incompatibility

Centennial variegated - variegation in leaves and fruits. Supposedly a budsport of Nagami seedling.

Indio Mandarinquat - This one I am not too sure about. Many say this is way too sour. Given that I was ordering others anyway, I said why not :slight_smile: Again, vigorous graft

Fukushu/Changshou - Larger than Nagami, but its not clear if it tastes better. I’ll have to see. Graft is a slow grower so far. I only see spec of growth on 3 grafts.

Kaffir Lime - Not a kumquat, but I like this one. Leaves are fragrant and can be used in cooking. I don’t need a big tree, just a small graft at the bottom should do for my consumption. Even these first leaves are very aromatic.

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