I know citrus is not the focus of this group but grafting etc is very similar to apples/pears/cherries.
I got the shiranui/sumo mandarin bud wood legally thru the Texas Citrus Bud wood Bureau. The wood came from the Florida Bud wood Bureau. Cost $3 per bud plus $35 shipping and $150 handling. I have gotten a dozen or so newly released varieties of citrus but this year is the first year for the $150 handling fee. No more for me. One is legally not supposed to individually get citrus bud wood from another citrus state. I used to propagate and sell citrus trees and prior to this fall didn’t have to pay the $150 fee so the wood used to be expensive but not $20 a bud!
Here are others I got legally from California thru the Texas bud wood bureau. I would get them at least 5 years before they were available commercially at a nursery in Texas like valentine and new zealand lemonade. Most have never shown up in a nursery as they are rather obscure. Due to the threat of citrus greening and canker most likely the hobbyist won’t like be able to get any kind of bud wood shortly and propagation of citrus in the back yard will be banned in Texas like it already is in Florida and California. Already trees for sale are required to be grown in a screen house in Texas starting Jan 1 2018.
USDA 88-2 Lee x Nova seedless very good fruit
USDA 15-150 Lee x Orlando supposed to be as cold hardy as satsuma
USDA 88-3 Lee x Robinson we shall see
Turkish akai sekeri sugar orange Fruit Mentor likes this one
Nordman seedless nagami seedless for marmalade
Valentine pummelo hybrid, the one everyone is talking about
Bream tarroco blood orange haven’t seen the fruit yet
Giant key lime much bigger fruit than standard one
Sudachi japanese lemon
New Zealand lemonade sweet lemon
Smith Red blood orange
A ripe honeycrisp is sweet, a ripe pink lady is like a bag of sugar. Not sure youd get anything but sugar in the offspring.
I guess i don’t quite understand enthusiasm over crosses like that. Ho hum like cotton candy only its an apple. Im an apple guy big time, i get what @scottfsmith is saying and share the sentiment along with I have way less experience.
Shiranui mandarin can be grown from seed which I was doing until I got the bud wood. Seedling citrus can be nasty thorny(3-4 inch thorns), have weak roots, and take 5-20 years to fruit. I’m currently growing out sugar belle mandarin because it is patented and I can’t get bud wood. Seedlings can be grown out but can’t be called sugar belle. 99% of citrus come true from seed for those who don’t know. As the seedling matures the top of the tree will lose it’s thorns. I have grown out several seedling citrus and usually had fruit in 3-5 years for an in ground tree. Potted seedling trees may never get big enough to fruit. CitrusSeedlings - mrtexascitrus
Great info! I have seen the New Zeeland lemonade tree for sale here in Dallas but not any of the others. I’m with you, I doubt we will see them sold much more. What a shame. I hope we don’t loose the industry as a whole.
Raintree is offering a new multi-graft tree that includes a cherry and a prune grafts.
"For the first time, you can now grow cherries on a fruit cocktail combo tree. Enjoy at
least 4 of the following including a cherry: Frost Peach, Puget Gold Apricot, Hardired
Nectarine, Stella Cherry, Italian Prune and Lapins Cherry! It is on a prunica interstem
which makes it possible to have cherries on the same tree as the others.
It is self-fertile too!
The tree is on St Julian A rootstock and can be maintained at 15 feet in height."
Another new thing; there are some interesting hybrid chesnuts available at Nutcrackernursery this year: Badgersett Minnesota, Douglas, Szego, Sleeping giant and Damanio.
It is a mandarin type and peels off like a Satsuma, but because of it’s size, it should really be under the orange category. Smaller than a grapefruit and slightly bigger than an orange. Almost the same size as big Navels.
and the taste… bleayahhh… just like a Satsuma mandarin. There are far better tasting citruses than this in my collection. I was given the opportunity of obtaining budwoods for free, but I told them, not worth the space on my tree.
You may have better, but it is very good compared to what else is available in the store. It’s also easy to peel and has no/few seeds. Similar to Drew, I’m interested to hear what you are growing that is better. And most importantly, if it gets shipped to a store near me.
I love Big Ed, Patty’s Delight, Moro Blood, Bream Tarocco, California Rojo, Boukhobza, Miyagawa, Clemenules, Pixie, Summer Gold, Thong Dee, Valentine…, and for juicing: Vainiglia Sanguigno, Smith Red, they’re the best ones in my yard most years. I like the more complex flavors than just sweetness.