Well I hope you like Wekiwa. It's one of the few citrus I'd say tastes disgusting -- much like chewing on grapefruit peels.

Oh, Dr. Manners, I just found your previous comments about the Wekiwa (as well as how to pronounce it :-) I'm going to cross my finger and see how it goes here in Vista, Calif. I'm trying to track down an Ugli Tangelo and see which ends up being the tastiest. Whichever wins, the other will get topworked. Ray has one growing over at his nursery and says they taste great, so I guess we'll have to see. I'd love to find a grapefruit/mandarin hybrid that is tasty and low on Naringin. Still hunting for that, but these are the best two options I've been able to find.

Patty S.

Patti:

Different people have very different taste preferences toward grapefruit and its hybrids. Some, like me, can't stand white G.F. and a many others which exhibit "delayed bitter after taste". We tyically love Golden G.F. and Wekiwa.

Actually, I usually juice Wekiwa since it is usually very sweet here. Then I use it to blend up on some variety that is not as sweet as it should be.

Tantanman, that would be me :-) When I had my first Melogold, I was sold. I have always liked the flavor of grapefruit, but I'm not a tart fruit lover, so I just dealt with that delayed bitterness to enjoy the flavor of grapefruit. Since then, I've had an Oro Blanco and a Cocktail as well, and just loved how they tasted. Sweet but like a grapefruit, with very little delayed bitterness. So, I have one of each in my yard, along with a more traditional (but still sweeter than WGF) Rio Red. I hope that my area is warm enough to sweeten up the Wekiwa. Guess I'll just have to wait and see. My little tree has the beginning of a flush, too, and it has blossoms starting to swell, so I'll have fruit this season (really next since it is the season right now, here :-)

Patty S.

I had a mature wekiwa tree in the ground. I liked it at first, like a sweet grapefruit without bitterness. But if you leave the fruit on too long or some years, the taste is pretty bad. I wouldn't recommend it. I topworked my tree to something really good. Wekiwa is at best average but not as good as really good tangelos like minneola or orlando or any good navel orange or mandarin.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://members.fortunecity.com/pjsauber/

Thanks, Tex. I guess I'll have to see how it does in S. California. I'm concerned it might not get enough heat - no real comments anywhere about the amount of heat needed to sweeten the fruit, so we'll see. We can get hot in the summer - 90's and even some 100's, but not for a prolonged time. And for me, minneola tastes like a tangy orange, and I can't taste any grapefruit in it at all. They're good, but they're not "grapefruity" at all to me. And, I've got 4 mandarins (Pixie, Algerian clementine, Gold Nugget and Page), and if I can get the budwood for Xie Shan, then a 5th (and that's based on how successfully I can execute bud grafting, this will be my first attempt.)

Patty S.

Patty:

I cannot eat even 10% of the fruit I grow. That is why I make a lot of juice. Wekiwa is a fantastic fruit for citrus juice blends. It also gets sweet before most other citrus in this area.

Blend #1, grapefruit juice of your choice + enough Wekiwa to make it sweet. Or use Minneola instead of G.F.

Blend #2 (juice about equal ammounts of each) Page + Clementine + Nova/Fairchild + Fortune + Wekiwa. This blend of flavors is like so; rich + aromatic + balanced-sweet + tart + Wekiwa (smoothing them togeather). Fortune is the wild card here. Some years it is tart like a Minneola, others it is more like Nova. For aromatic, substitute any Clemintine or Ponkan group. For balanced-sweet, use any other ClemxOrlando hybrid (Bower,Robinson,Lee,Etc.)except Bell (unless Bell is very ripe it is more tart). Another balanced-sweet group is the KingxMediterranian hybrids like Kinnow. If you don't have Wekiwa use Satsumas or round oranges. Be creative, blood oranges and red navels also work instead of adding the tart component, adding a new level of complexity (berry flavor instead of citric acid ).

Patty, it looks like you are almost there. Five years from now, when each tree is loaded with fruit, you will be so happy to make all the blends you can dream up.

Thanks, tantanman! I saved your juice blends in my Recipes folder. I have most of those, and will be adding a few more. Most sweet, as I love my fruit on the sweet side, but I do have a few that are more tart (my Rio Red grapefruit for example, and of course all my lemons). And I've already put my neighbors, gardener, housekeeper and family on notice that they can expect a LOT of fruit in the coming years!

Patty S.