yuzu and other hardy citrus
shane11
15 years ago
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birdsnblooms
15 years agoshane11
15 years agoRelated Discussions
Yuzu Ichandrin (Citrus junos) Hardy Orange?
Comments (7)Yuzu is very hardy as citrus goes. My friend grows it in Ibaraki prefecture, north of Tokyo. Not sure what zone it is, but definitely freezes and snow. But Yuzu is not an orange by any stretch of the imagination. The zest and the juice are used as flavoring, the fruit isn't really eaten whole. In Japanese cooking it is used in sauces such as Ponzu, as a flavoring in soups, as well as in drinks and various sweets. The taste and fragrance is unique and delightful... it is vaguely similar to lemon or lime, but clearly it's own fruit. If you have a Japanese population in your area, you will have a market for it. It's one of their beloved flavors....See MoreThe truth about cold hardy citrus taste?
Comments (25)Although I really don't have great credentials or special taste buds, consider this for your citrus craving/growing............Thomasville Citrangequat- I have 2 trees that are 10+ years old. I don't use the green fruit, but the mature yellow/orange fruit are pleasant to eat freah. They are a lot milder than grapefuit, not leaving the sour aftertaste. They are mildly sweet with enough acid. I think of them like eating a semi-sweet, orange-flavored lemon. Nothing like clarity. The trees are productive ,grow in clay, are nourished by mulch only, and have stiff 2" thorns that are a terror. I clip them off. The mature fruit will eventually become dehydrated if they hang around too many weeks. If you eat grapefruit, these won't be a challenge to eat. There is no funky component to the flavor.Because they produce a lot of fruit that don't get eaten, I grafted Brown Select satsuma and Hamlin orange buds/scions to several of the branches at a height of about 7 feet in 2009. I heard a local speaker declare that there is a theory that grafting high on a citrus trunk can provide a greater cold tolerance to the grafted branches. Well, these 8 month old new shoots were exposed to a January 2010 short-lived low temp of 14 degrees....and neither tree had any windbreak, plastic, mulch/dirt mound, gloves, or long johns. Results? One of 5 Brown Select branches died, and both Hamlin branches survived. That is plenty cold hardy enough for me to believe the 'theory'.(Side note: I also topworked 2 old sour orange tree branches at about 7 ft with BC2 satsuma and Brown Select satsuma in 2009.....all 10 Brown s. survived and 7 of 10 BC2 survived.)I imagine that with your protection strategy that the T.C. could be a survivor/producer. Maybe it would serve as a r/s also......If you enjoy lemons, then maybe a Sunquat could be considered. My 4 year old Sunquat has lemon-like fruit that average 2" to 2-1/2" diameter, and mulch is the only source of nutrients. It is in a mound of sandy soil and got no protection in that 14 degree thing. It defoliated about 15% of the leaves, and several thin newer twigs died, but that was all. Importantly, it produced a full load of fruit following the freeze. It is mild enough to eat as a lemon, and it doesn't have a funky taste component. The peel is edible, but not as tasty as kumquat peel to me. It is about 6 ft tall and wide. I saw one that was about 12 feet tall and full of fruit, but this one tends to do more branch-flopping than growing upright. There are 3 Meiwa kumquats here that are 10 years old, and they had 10% defoliation only.They produced a lot after. There is a 10+ year old Calamondin also, and it dropped 30%.It produced a lot after. The 10+ year old Armstrong satsuma lost 10%, as well as a few twigs.It had 60% fewer fruit after. The 3- 10+ year old Bloomsweet grapefruit lost 20% to 40% of the leaves, depending on which tree, and still fruited big time.If you have not eaten a Sunquat before, I would mail a couple to you. It tastes a lot like the Meyer 50% parent, but slightly better..........For those with the climate, etc. to grow the superior fruit, these may not be praiseworthy, but...they do have their place.Although not to be confused with ribeye steak,....they are a LOT better than canned Vienna sausage...See Moreanybody growing hardy citrus in abq or nm?
Comments (10)Fabaceae: I have the trifoliate-orange cultivar 'Flying Dragon'--about 4 ft high so smaller than the regular plant, columnar habit, with very contorted and twisted stems and branches. And savage thorns (citrumelo has inherited those.) The fruit is less than golf-ball size with a thick, hard rind and almost no pulp, just seeds. I'm not into sugary foods so haven't made marmelade, but have grated rinds for zest which is very bitter. Flowers typical for Citrus, highly scented. Ripe fruits are fuzzy yellow, not orange. In my book very worth growing. It flowers fairly late in spring so avoids heavy frosts (so far). For fresh eating I have two Meyer lemon trees and some kumquats. These are outdoors in summer and in the house in winter. Very reliable. I've tried many other citrus with less than satisfactory results. The citrumelos are in very large containers and have not flowered. Hopefully they will if they can get established in the ground. It'll be a learning experience. What citrumelo might do here is one thing--after 22 years here I have learned not to rely on horticultural information from "authorities" who have never gardened in the middle Rio Grande valley. This place lends new meaning to the whole shtick. By the way, I see that the new Flora of China has transferred the trifoliate-orange to the genus Citrus, making Poncirus trifoliata a synonym of Citrus trifoliata....See Moresome citrus trees, a pomelo, oroblanco grapefruit, and a yuzu
Comments (1)Pomelo (Chandler) Oroblanco grapefruit Yuzu These aren't really doing as well as I had thought they would, probably because it's been so hot and they probably struggled through the heat wave in the Summer. I would think that after two years the pomelo and grapefruit would have put on more growth, but it might have something to do with the fact they are both on semi-dwarf rootstock (might not have the best compatibility). They are planted near each other so I'm eventually hoping for some pollination from the yuzu onto the pomelo (or oroblanco) to get a new hybrid. From my research, the seeds that form inside Chandler should all by zygotic, and I am led to believe the seeds that do fully form in Oroblanco (which is a triploid grapefruit-pumelo cross) should be half zygotic, so I have good chances of obtaining a hybrid seed (i.e. they won't all just grow true to seed in these varieties). (Oh, another little bit of meaningless trivia, both Chandler pomelo and Oroblanco grapefruit happen to be half-siblings, sharing the pomelo variety 'Siamese Sweet' in common as one of their parents, supposedly a sweet but not very flavorful variety) zone 10...See Morebirdsnblooms
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