I have tried to eat the flesh of my Bergamot fruits and found it virtually inedible. I did use the zest from a single Bergamot fruit in a batch of limoncello I made from variegated Eureka lemon zest. It turned out amazing (everyone that tasted it raved about the flavor)! This year the zest from all my Bergamots will be ear-marked for enhancing limoncello.
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Not sure where you live, but Salustiana will likely be very difficult/impossible to find. Fortunately, the Texas State Citrus Budwood Program still carries it and we finally convinced one of the 3 certified Texas wholesale citrus growers (Brazos Citrus Nursery) to bud some trees for sale last year. They will sell quickly!
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Roughly how many years from Meiwa seed to first flower/fruit? I assume your container-grown Meiwa tree has out-performed your in-ground one? You must need substantial freeze protection for in-ground kumquats there.
Yes, in-ground citrus in zone 8a will require supplemental heat most/all winters. Stick with the hardiest varieties (satsuma and kumquats) to reduce the likelihood of substantial freeze damage. Freezes that cause twig die-back are very bad, but even freezes that âjustâ defoliate citrus are a huge setback for fruiting.
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So I hear, but what Iâd like to know is what makes it bad. Is it really sour or bitter, or a combination?
I would say both sour and bitter. Not âgood tastingâ sour like a lemon or Seville orange, and not acrid bitter like trifoliate or citrange. Just bad. It is rare that I taste a fruit I donât like, at least somewhat, but Bergamot fits that bill.
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Ed Self (founder of the Texas Rare Fruit Growers group and current organizer of the Austin Area Chapter of TXRFG) asked me for a bunch of Thomasville citrangequat seeds to give away at the annual Austin area fruit plant and scion exchange next Saturday. I picked a batch this morning from our in-ground tree (these were under a big tarp for our recent low20s F freezes and did not get frozen):
Note the highly variable sizes and ripeness. Also note the unique (for citrus) fleshy peduncle! This tree flushes several rounds of flowers during the year, so the fruits are variably mature now, from very green to perfect, to âpithyâ over-ripe. Here are a few that are eating quality ripe now:
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1 out of 9 seedlings set flowers in 11 months and ripened by18 months age. The same 1 and another set 30 and 2 fruit that ripened at 3 years age. I know all the trees had fruited by 4 years that I still had. I had given 5 trees away. 2 of 4 of my now inground Meiwa trees have died and 1 potted Meiwa came back to me. I now have 2 in ground Meiwa and 1 potted Meiwa tree
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Thanks. It is good to know that Meiwa can be that precocious from seed. I have had Golden Bean kumquat seedlings flower just 6 months after sowing the seeds (plants at only 4-6â height), but Meiwa runs a close second for rapid fruiting.
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@Johnsgard Fortunately I am in California and we do have a UC budwood program here too. I actually hadnât thought of that before and did not realize you can order buds from them each month. And it looks like they do have Salustiana - and nice little profile of the fruit with pictures!
Salustiana sweet orange | Givaudan Citrus Variety Collection at UCR
I am in Zone 9b and get brutal summer sun that I am worried about. Does your tree handle the Texas heat well?
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The Kishus look great. Iâve had some before and theyâre almost like little sweet candies. What is the habit of the tree?
Itâs quite compact. In 7 years, itâs just 6-7 feet tall.
If you are handy with budding/grafting, you should consider getting some budwood. Our Salustiana tree tolerates the Texas heat very well as long as it gets sufficient water during our inevitable summer droughts. I have installed drip irrigation in our orchard. We are in zone 9B technically, but our winter lows have dropped as low as 9F (in 2021). Our Salustiana tree, along with most of our other citrus trees, have gotten covered with tarps and moving blankets for our low-20s F and lower freezes. I am going to pick a few more Salustiana fruits today for a friend thatâs swapping pawpaw scions for some pawpaw rootstock. They hold very well on the tree.
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I would say yes, but it isnât in wildly different times, more like short cycle successive blooms. If it starts blooming in May, youâll get a second set of flowers in June or something like that. It wonât be like blooms in March and then blooms in October. Just staggers your ripe fruit kind of nicely
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I agree with @gkight. Meiwa Kumquats have more of an extended flowering period with blooms opening in about 3 âwavesâ over 2-3 months. In the end the fruits all ripen about December-January, with the later bloom fruits being smaller, more elongated (pear-shaped, rather than pure oval), and distinctly tarter. I prefer the later ones, but most folks seem to like the larger early ones. My other âquats will also bloom more than once (especially Indio mandarinquat), but the later-set fruits have delayed ripening. I am still picking these later ripening fruits now (early March) from our in-ground tree.
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Last night I brought in the last 50 New Zealand Lemonade lemons that I had been storing in the garage after picking them just prior to our first hard freezes in late January (our day time highs have now climbed into the 80s F and the garage was no longer serving as a huge fridge). As an experiment I ran 3 through our citrus juicer and made lemonade without any sweetener. Excellent taste, if somewhat wasteful of the fruit. I think weâll simply peel and eat the remaining ones over the coming weeks. Although not suitable as a lemon in cooking, these make great fruits for eating out of hand. Do consider growing New Zealand Lemonade!
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Oh man, yet another citrus variety that I need to add to my list to source. 
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Lemonade with no sugar added sounds great.
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