There are 3 citrus shows/tastings in the Houston area this week. Too bad some forum members couldn’t attend! Most are from in-ground trees. The rest are in pots due to not enough back yard room.
I have around 15 trees in the ground with about half xie shan satsuma. In the last 20 years of satsuma growing I’ve only had freeze damage one year with just a few branches with split bark.
Houston is 500 miles north of the Texas citrus growing Texas Valley but we haven’t had a citrus tree killing freeze since 1989 when it got to 10F for 4 days. After 1989 and two dead mature trees I didn’t replant until 2000. We usually have a citrus fruit freezing event however of 28F or so. Sometimes to 20F. When the trees get to some size in the ground most can survive a few hours at 20F.
Tonight December 5 the Galveston County Citrus show in Dickinson
Saturday December 7 Texas Rare Fruit Growers in Spring
Next Saturday December 14 John Panzarella citrus open house Lake Jackson
Here is my list of fruit to bring to the Saturday show, most grown by me or a friend nearby:
Lee x robinson
Lee x Orlando
Lee x nova
Nordman seedless nagami kumquat
Marumi kumquat
Moro blood orange
Bream tarocco blood orange
New Zealand lemonade sweet lemon
Brown select satsuma
Xie shan satsuma
Dancy mandarin
Fairchild mandarin
Nova mandarin
Atlas honey mandarin
Tango mandarin
Yuzu Japanese lemon
Sudachi Japanese lemon
Finger lime seedling
Tavares limequat
Xuegan sweet orange
hamlin sweet orange
cara cara red navel
Shiranui/sumo/dekopan mandarin hybrid(not ready yet display only)
Gold nugget mandarin(not ready yet display only)
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I brought home a 5 gallon bucket of Marsh seedless white grapefruit today(seedless citrus means 4 or fewer seeds per fruit). The discoloring is due to citrus rust mites. Doesn’t really hurt the tree or fruit much. The periodic dormant oil sprays keeps them in check. Citrus here near Houston needs a couple sprays of dormant oil a year to keep the pest level controlled. My friend who hosted the gathering has dozens of varieties of mature citrus trees and the Marsh is my favorite of them all. Those fruits are already super sweet today. Texas red grapefruit won’t be really sweet until January or February. Too bad white grapefruit is out of style. IMHO the flavor is better than any pink or red grapefruit. I ate at least a half of a fruit of Marsh at the tasting table. Another favorite was hirado buntan pummelo. It was very juicy and red and way better than the pink chandler pummelos at the tasting. Haven’t tasted a chandler that wasn’t very dry and tasteless. Must have been 50 varieties of citrus there today. I brought around 20-25 kinds I grew or a friend grew.
This is a seeding sumo/shiranui/dekopan tree. My friend who has an acre or more of land grew it out for me and took 6 years or so to fruit. I grew out the seedling and then grafted a bud to swingle rootstock to speed the growing up. I remember having to buy dozens of fruit to find a seed and sumo fruit was selling at $3/lb. Fruit is nice and very good quality for this time of year. Fruit will be at peak flavor and in the grocery stores at the end of January. I thought I also gave him a sugar belle seedling but we couldn’t find it in his back yard. Downside to a seedling is it is very thorny. However the thorns disappear on the top fruit bearing branches. Grow those seedlings out! I got bud wood for sumo 2 years ago and added a branch of it to 3 of my trees so I also have fruit. Several friends helped pay for the wood as it cost $250 for 20 buds!
This is me with the glasses. Saw lots of old friends and some new ones today. Many of the same people seem to come to our Texas Fruiting Plant Growers gathering and other area citrus shows/plant sales.
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How is the Xuegan orange compared to your other oranges? Is it special or just average.
I have a fruiting Jincheng orange, which has good flavor.