Very nice tree and harvest. What variety is it?

Evan

Nice! Enjoy them!!

Thank you,sadly I have no idea ,but it definitely isn't a classic grapefruit since I never protect it during the winter and it survived 19 degrees with no visible damage.

Thank you Laura,I will definitely enjoy them.

What do the fruit taste like?

The fruit is tart but it gets a bit sweeter if I leave it on the tree until february.

Congratulation on your great looking tree and it's harvest. Don't be to surprised at how well some citrus trees stand up top cold. My seed grown tangerine tree at 3 years old survived 4 nights at 7F with a high of 15F between the lows. It survived with heavy damage and is doing well now. Citrus can be very cold tolerant at times.

6b Steve

Wow that is amazing it looks very healthy,I had no idea tangerines were that hardy. When will it start fruiting?

It will never fruit. It will have to grow at least 15 feet tall to reach the leaf node count. I can't protect a tree that size rhis far north last winter was a once every 100 years warm. The tree is not in my way so I'll let it grow till it is, then it goes.I have 3 kumquat trees of my main interest. I can buy tangerines to $0.69 per pound. Kumquats $6.99 a pound.

Kos, that is a lovely grapefruit tree, and the fruit are gorgeous ! I love grapefruit, you are so lucky! If the grapefruit are a bit tart for your taste bud's, just add a bit of honey to sweeten it up a bit..mmmm..

Steve, I love your tangerine tree. :) I have left one of my Meyer Lemons outside. It is against a wall and protected on the east side of the house. The temperature has dropped into the low twenties a few times and we even had a few inches of snow recently. So far, outside of dropping some leaves, it is doing well. I will bring it in if the temperature forcast drops down below twenty..

Oh,I get it well it is a very ornamental tree.

Good luck with the kumquats.

Jinnylea thank you,I usually put them in the juicer and then I add a bit of agave nectar or honey they make a lovely "lemonade"

Kos_toni, I hate to be the downer of this celebration and don't take this the wrong way, it is a lovely looking tree, but I'm not 100% sure what you have is a grapefruit tree. Your leaves are narrower and lack the winged petiole commonly seen with grapefruit trees. I think you might have a rootstock tree that took over your grapefruit tree, I have also never heard of a grapefruit tree withstanding temps down to 19 degrees without any damage at all. You might have a Yuma ponderosa tree that still bares edible and usable fruit, especially if you're using it for lemonade. Take a look at this link and compare to your tree.

http://www.citrusvariety.ucr.edu/citrus/yuma_ponderosa.html

Evan

Yeah I was going to ask if it had thorns or not? Awesome nonetheless!

Evan I know it is not a grapefruit,I already posted about identifying the tree that I have but nobody gave a solid answer.So in reality I dont know what I have but I am happy with it and everybody refers to it as a grapefruit so I started to do the same .Anyways here is a picture of the fruit cut open.

Hobbyartisan It doesn't have any thorns and the fruit is seedless.

Oh and it is definitely not a rootstock tree because you can see the graft line.

I remember that rootstock graft picture from an earlier post. Enjoy what you have. Could it be a bloomsweet.

6b Steve

I indeed will,not a bloomsweet my fruits are way too small to be a bloomsweet.

That is a nice tree and hopefully a great / continuing harvest! If the 27F did not have too long a dwell time, the relatively large fruit could endure it without damage.

BTW: All my grapefruits (except the "cocktail") have thicker rind and will make it through the winter if we don't dip to low for too long. The cocktails are ready to enjoy now as they just start to turn color. The others don't sweeten until May / June in the east SF Bay.

Molewacker the freeze lasted for 4 hours,and from what I saw the fruits almost never get damaged.

Evan yeah I prefer seedles varieties too,the only problem is that it is too sour/tart to eat out of hand but some of my family members still enjoy it.

I think - I saw - here on the forum an algorithm for temperature / dwell time vs fruit type / weight. I have not searched for it. It makes sense to me that a relatively quick dip to 27F or even lower would not damage the fruit or the tree. The fresh growth - yes.

Its the long nights below freezing that make me tense.

Has anyone tried using an infrared camera to measure the actual temperature?

- George

George,27 degrees Fahrenheit is nothing that worries me the problem is when we hit the lower 20's for 4-6 hours that is brutal.

yes, agreed! At this point most of my trees are too large for cloth protection so it is what it is...

What you have looks like a cocktail grapefruit, and is actually a grapefruit hybrid with mandarin, which explains its cold hardiness.

Oh good call parker25mv, I didn't think about cocktail because all of the fruit that I've eaten has seeds. But I think that's due to the fact it was grown in proximity to other citrus. Now that I look at the fruit it does look just like a cocktail pomelo.

Evan

Whoa major score if it's one of those!!

Huge score and it's seedless too!! Double score!

Evan

it does have the color and look of a Cocktail. Does anyone know what conditions/environment would be needed to make it seedless? I have three cocktail trees and all of the fruit is seedy - delicious - but seedy.

If there are no other citrus trees (of a different variety) nearby blossoming at the same time, the fruit will be seedless.

If you did truly have a seedless Cocktail variety on your hands, that would be remarkable. If you were absolutely sure it wasn't just do to lack of pollination, I would try to contact a citrus expert and get someone to come out there and have a look, it might be of great interest to commercial growers.

Wow,thank you for all the replies,but I sadly doubt it is a cocktail pummelo since it is very tart with just a hint of sweetness.

Oh,and there is 3-4 satsuma mandarine trees in my street so I am pretty sure they should be able to pollinate my tree.

That's the point kos, you may have a bud sport of the original cocktail tree that carries a recessive gene that makes the fruit seedless. Many great varieties have been discovered in back yard orchards and yours may be one of those.

Evan

Woah,that is very interesting how do I check if it really is a new variety is there someone who can be called.

I don't know who you can call, but someone here will - and you should! The fruit looks lovely!

Kos, I am a bit confused, I thought I read in a previous thread that the same fruit had seeds, and in this post this fruit is seedless. Maybe you can clarify for us. Regardless, it is a beautiful tree with beautiful fruit. I hope you find out what variety it is. Very excited for you.

Does anyone know what type of citrus tree this is?

It has been growing in my garden for the past 15+years here in zone 8b/9a.

The ripe fruit is yellow it has a thin peel and it is almost impossible to peel it.

The pulp is tart slightly bitter and very juicy.

It contains a few seeds usually 3-8 seeds per fruit.

Oh and it survived snow 14 years ago.

Here are some pics.

Klos, here is the thread from October. Is this the same tree and fruit that you are referring to? If so, then I belive you can still call a fruit seedless even if it has up to six or eight seeds right?

Jinnylea,

I was talking about the same tree but I forgot a few details about the fruit it is actually completely seedless and it peels easily,I am sorry if this confused you.

Toni.

Thank you for the clarification, Toni.

That description will help make it much easier to identify. :) I thought it looked a lot and sounded like a cocktail grapefruit, but I was confused by the various descriptions that you stated..Much appreciated!

Oh,and if this helps it doesn't smell very potent or fragrant atleast not when compared to other citrus fruits.

What state are you in Toni? That will help us determine who you should contact, in California it would be the citrus clonal protection program at UCR and in Texas it would probably be Texas A&M or another nearby university if they have a citrus research center.

Evan

That is the problem I'm not in the US.

I live in a small country east of Italy,it is called Croatia.

I don't even know if such things exist here.

Wow, wouldn't have guessed that you were in Croatia. I'm not sure you will have a research program in your country. Either way, you have a beautiful tree with fruit you enjoy so that's all that matters.

Evan

Yeah,I agree atleast I have a big,healthy and vigorous citrus tree that produces fruits I use,in case I find out what this exact variety is I will post it here.

You may be missing a citrus research area but at least you din't have the Trump or Clinton choice problem we had.

Haha,I try not to talk about politics but I felt ur pain.I wouldn't even consider voting.

Anyways I sent an email with photos of the tree I own to a botanical garden in Zagreb (the capital of Croatia)hopefully they'll know what it is.

Just as I suspected... I found this:

" Chandler fruits are seedy when cross-pollinated by citrus fruits with viable pollen and seedless when grown in a solid block or in proximity to citrus fruits that are pollen sterile, such as navel oranges and Satsuma mandarin. "

http://www.citrusvariety.ucr.edu/citrus/chandler.html

It appears that Satsuma mandarin trees are very poor pollinizers, which explains why your grapefruit has not been developing any seeds. (You said there were 3-4 Satsuma mandarin trees on your street)

Parker

The fruit I have looks nothing like that plus there is no way for me to grow a pomelo in this climate.

But thank you for the reply.