Oranges: The Sweet and Blood Oranges are my favorite of all Citrus for fresh eating, for juicing, for canning (marmalades), for confections (candied Orange wedges) for cooking (Blood Orange viniagrette) and for desserts (Orange sherbet, Blood Orange gelato and sorbet). Jim
Blood oranges all the way - I anticipate the flavour surprise, from traditional orange to blackberry.
I love anything with lemon flavour. I drink lemonade almost every day. And the clear tart flavour can enhance so many other foods.
CaraCara Navel Orange. Because of the balance between the soluble solids and the T. acids it has an awesome taste. Also good pulp color. Page Mandarin, believed by many of the citrus experts to be the finest tasting citrus variety of all. - Millet
I should mention that if I could vote for a second favourite, it'd be limes. I always eat the pulp after adding lime juice to salads (PS lime juice, feta cheese and cracked black pepper is all one needs for a great salad along with some leafy greens)
It is hard to pick one Citrus over the other as we all have our favorites for different things such as fresh eating and for a variety of uses for the juice. I think it is better to compare one type of fruit such as a Page Mandarin with a mixed heritage from a cross of Clementine (Algerian Tangerine) with a Minneola Tangelo and have it match up to a Fairchild that is a cross from a Clementine and an Orlando Tangelo. The current trend is to like the sweet-tart taste as in some cases these two "Mandarins" can be a lot sweeter than a Dancy or even a Satsuma can be grown in the ground. From my own experience I like the Page Mandarin better from container grown plants but I prefer the Fairchild when grown in the ground. I prefer the Orlando Tangelo over the Minneola Tangelo for the same reason as both the Orlando and the Fairchild will sugar up better for us here than the Page and the Minneola will. That may not be the case grown in Riverside, Santa Cruz or in a greenhouse. A lot depends on what we want and who grew the fruit, where the trees are grown, were the trees grown indoors or outdoors and what particular uses do we have for them. Let our old form of Meyer Lemon get ripe, ripe right on the tree and you can fresh eat it without your mouth puckering. There is enough sweetness to overcome the acidity but people may not be able to witness such an event with trees grown in a container or grown indoors in a home or from a greenhouse. Millet, I have a suggestion for you why not start a thread with a little background of your greenhouse growing operation. I'd like to know what 52 types and varieties of Citrus you are growing also (just like I'd like to know which Citrus the UBC Botanical Garden has). You have a lot to offer people for information on indoor growing that the people in Ontario kept mum about to the rest of Canada until recently with the advent of the internet. You can help some of the people that essentially got this Citrus forum to come about in the first place. Without their interest in Citrus there would not have been a forum for you to come in from elsewhere and start posting some very good and informative posts. You and I are coming from two different worlds as I am a container grower as well as a production grower. I grow these things outdoors, so we may have a few areas in which we may not totally agree on but I have also grown some Citrus in containers in a greenhouse but that was for selling purposes in a nursery, not for production purposes though.. Jim
Too bad we don't have citrus festivals in these parts that would allow us to taste the many varieties - we have apple festivals instead (not that there's anything wrong with that). ;)
Jim - we don't have any that would be a fruit crop (at least not yet). We've about 6-7 ornamental genera of Rutaceae, but these are genera like Zanthoxylum, Skimmia, Tetradium and Choisya.
Ouch, I was way overzealous then for thinking the Botanical Garden may have a few forms of Citrus growing. Sorry about that. Jim
Gregn (Greg) is advocating that we try some hardy varieties, which I've duly passed along to the horticulturist in charge of the Food Garden, Tony. Tony's a bit of an experimenter, so I imagine we'll be planting some in the next few years.
I like it - The Citrus Corner at the Garden. Tours in 2007? Reserve a spot for Trifoliate Orange and its display of fruit in winter.
Mr. Shep: For some years I have been collecting and growing containerized citrus trees in a greenhouse located in Colorado USA. The greenhouse is located at 5440-feet (1813-Meters). Colorado winters are much colder than the Vancouver area, however, because of the altitude the sun light is very strong. All of the citrus trees are planted in a custom growing medium,which is a blend of: 4-parts Coconut Husk Chips (CHC) and 1-part Peat Moss. I have receintly been experimenting with 4-parts CHC and 1 part Coir. I blend into this medium, STEM (Souble Trace Element Mix), Dolomite and a 23-4-8 slow release fertilizer. I also fertilize all the trees with every watering at 100-PPM-N. I am currently growing the following varieties: Bearss Lime Bouquet de Flores Orange (gift-Joe Lohnes) Buddah Hand Citron (gift Joe Lohnes) BC-2 Satsuma Mandarin (Developed by the GREAT Mr. Bonnie Childers of Texas.) Cara Cara Red Navel Chandler Pummelo Ghang Shou Kumquat (gift Neal Rahn) Clementine Hybrid Dancy Tangerine Ellendale Mandarin Etrog Citron Fallglo Mandarin V1-498 Fina Sodea Clementine Mandarin Flying Dragon - (Gift from Mr. Bonnie Childers of Texas) Fremont Mandarin (Clementine X Ponkan) Hamilin Dwarf Harvey Lemon Honey Murcott Ichang Lemon (Stan McKenzie) Key Lime Kimbrough Satsuma Lakeland Limequat (Key Lime X Kumquat) - Kinkoji Rootstock Lane Late Navel Orange (Summer Navel) Marisol Clementine Minneloa Tangelo Moro Blood Orange Myrtle Leaf Sour Orange (gift Joe Lohnes) Meiwa Kumquat (gift Joe Lohnes) Nagami Kumquat Orlando Tangelo Oroblanco Pummelo (Swingle Rootstock) Ortanique - Swingle Rootstock Owari Satsuma Page Mandarin (Minneola Tangelo X Clementine) Ponderosa Lemon Ponkan Mandarin Pong Koa Mandarin Red Navel Orange Rio Red Grapefruit Ruby Sweet Blood Orange Sanbokan Mandarin - Swingle Rootstock Satsuma Mandarin Seedless Kishu Mandarin Star Ruby Grapefruit Sunquat (Lemon X Kumquat hybrid) - Kinkoji Rootstock Taichang Lemon (Stan McKenzie) Temple Orange Thomasville Citrangequat (gift Neal Rahn) Valencia Variegated Calamondin Variegated Meyer Lemon Washington Navel Yuzu
Millet, my goodness, an impressive list of Citrus indeed. Thank you for listing them. I will have to read up on a few of them that I do not know or do not know much about. I have a ton of questions to ask such as how one Mandarin or a Tangelo compares to another for you but I'll do that at another time when it is more timely. As more people in Canada and cooler parts of the US and elsewhere want to try their hand to grow Citrus, I think they will want to know more about your greenhouse operation. I already sensed with your elevation and coolness you will be a ton of help for a lot of people, much more help to most people in this forum than I probably will be. Continued success, Jim
Kishu Mandarin. Cause it's the only citrus tree I have...for now. I was on the hunt for a mandarin/tangerine to add to my balcony and came across this one. The nurseryman recommended this one over another mandarin I was considering. Possibly the cutest mandarin/tangerine. Easy to peel bite sized fruit. Still, I savor it by seperating the tiny tiny segments. :-) *sigh* I can't wait till winter.... Layne
I'd have to say the lemon. I've yet to try a lot of varieties than the typical grocery store varieties. basic navelorange, sunkist lemon ad a few grapefruits. Though, in the past few months, I have tried others... kumquats, clemintines, blood oranges.. etc. But... it'll always be the lemon for me. I can eat themlike an orange, love em in my water, in cooking.... so many ways. I could easily eat 5-10 a day (well, w/ juicing them too)
I love eating Mandarins.. But I love cooking with Lemons and Limes.. Gina *BabyBlue* WOW you have an great collection Millet!!!!
I would say mandarins, pummelo & lemonade for fresh eating.Limes & lemons for cooking & mix w/ drinks. Oranges & grapefruits for juicing.Sorry have so many favs...
The citron as the progenitor of lemon, lime and some others.Let honor the elders. And it's nice to munch on citron sticks sprinkled with Chartreuse or Benedictine (peel the flavodo first...) The sudachy is a funny one and very practical, come in different color, taste, brix and that all from the same tree, depending the location of the fruit on the tree and the picking time.
red pumelo is my favorite right behind that is alemoen its a tangelo variety that looks simlar to ugly fruit but to me taste way better.there is another tangelo that is small round and sorta pink in the middle called wikiwa that is a good one mine has yet to produce fruit it is about 9 or so feet tall. than any tangelo and ruby red grapefruit. hard to pick just one
I like all citrus fruits, but the most is meiwa kumquat, small enough for just eat the whole fruit...
