Can someone give a good guess on what I bought at a grocery store in Kansas? Unlabeled, medium sized grapefruit appearance. Pale yellow, thin skin with kid-glove texture. Almost non-existent pores, very thin pith, weighty for it’s size. Flesh was graygreen tinted pale yellow, firm, almost all juice and very thin membranes. About 8 small seeds per fruit. Not very sweet, resembled watered down lemonade with a touch of non-bitter grapefruit flavor.
Doesn’t sound appetizing but as I ate it I thought it would be great as a mixed drink base. I planted 20 seeds, about 12 grew, what are the chances of non-hybrids? Melogold or something newer?
Since they are from an orchard, the seedlings are likely self x self; i.e. the seeds are not likely self x something else.
Without a photo I hesitate to guess the fruit.
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Wish I had the forethought to screenshot them, assumed I was getting just another grapefruit.
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How did the clerk identify it and is there any info on the receipt?
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They were just in a bin labeled “2 for $1.00”, clerk punched something into the register without hesitation. I threw away slip and junk mail immediately, didn’t eat them for several days. Looked for them 2 weeks later at same store, section had been revamped. Hence, my mystery…
If the store is large enough to have a produce manager, he may recall the fruit. Or it may be part of his recent produce order history.
Of course, I can only guess among the citrus I know of (there are many that I don’t). I wouldn’t use “medium sized” for Melogold. Based on your description, I’d say Cocktail grapefruit. It is super juicy, seeded, no bitterness and with storage will have thin skin. One characteristic that’s not a match is your description of “small” seeds - it does have medium-large seeds.
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Those were the two that both fit some of the profile, neither matched all. I finally ruled out ‘Cocktail’ because most descriptions say it is really sweet. Pics on the web of both were passable for my fruit.
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