Home Citrus Breeding Program
Okitsu Wase Satsuma
I don't know anything about breeding fruit. I've never done it before, and I'm not sure if I can even do it once. It all started when John Panzarella told me about his attempt to breed a pink lemonade fruit by crossing an Ujukitsu with a Ruby Red grapefruit. It didn't work out for him, but it got me thinking. I wondered if I could breed a red kumquat by crossing a Changshou kumquat with a Moro blood orange. It turns out that's not possible either, but I still think I want to breed my own variety. So what I think I'm going to do is attempt one cross every year, and see if I can breed something really interesting. I'm not sure what my first attempt will be, but being married to a geneticist, I'm sure we can figure out something cool. Email me if you have an idea for an interesting cross. For my first attempt, I think I will try to pick up where John left off.
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Monoembryonic vs Polyembryonic
Most citrus is polyembryonic and produces nucellar seed, which essentially means most of the time the seeds come true, and you get a clone of the fruit you ate. This is the exact opposite of what you want when trying to hybridize two varieties. You want the mother plant to be monoembryonic and produce zygotic seeds, which means the seed will be a sexually produced hybrid of the two parent plants. I did a little research, and came up with a short list of which varieties could be used as seed parents:
Monoembryonic
Meyer Lemon Nagami Kumquat Marumi Kumquat Pummelos Temple Tangor Clementine Mandarin Poncirus Trifoliata |
Polyembryonic
Most Oranges Changshou Kumquat Meiwa Kumquat (mostly polyembryonic) Most Satsumas and Tangerines Most Limes Grapefruits Tangelos |
Common & Uncommon Citrus Terms
Cicitrange = Trifoliate x Citrange
Citemple = Trifoliate x Temple Tangor Citradia = Trifoliate x Sour Orange Citrandarin = Trifoliate x Mandarin Citrange = Trifoliate x Orange Citrangedin = Citrange x Calamondin Citrangequat = Citrange x Kumquat Citrangeremo = Citrange x Australian Finger Lime Citrangor = Trifoliate x Orange Citremon = Trifoliate x Lemon Citrumelo = Trifoliate x Grapefruit Citrumquat = Trifoliate x Kumquat Eremorandia = Desert Lime x Sour Orange Eremorange = Desert Lime x Orange Eremolemon = Desert x Lemon Faustrimedin = Australian Finger Lime x Calamondin Ichandarin = Ichang Papeda x Mandarin or Satsuma |
Limequat = Lime x Kumquat
Lemonange = Lemon x Orange Lemonime = Lemon x Lime Lemonquat = Lemon x Kumquat Limandarin = Lemon x Mandarin Mandalo = Mandarin x Pummelo Mandaquat = Mandarin x Kumquat Orangelo = Orange x Grapefruit Orangequat = Satsuma x Meiwa Kumquat Procimequat = Hong Kong Kumquat x Limequat Satsumaquat = Satsuma x Kumquat Satsumelo = Satsuma x Grapefruit Segentrange = 2nd Generation Citrange Tangelo = Mandarin x Grapefruit/Pummelo Tangelolo = Tangelo x Grapefruit Tangor = Mandarin x Orange |
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