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dave_in_nova

Citrandarin getting big

6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago

This is its second summer in the ground. This thing grows fast. It stayed evergreen for the most part last (mild) winter.



Some spines are at least 3 to 4 inches long. These are short ones!


A few fruit developing. They probably will not ripen before hard frost, unless I cover them somehow.


Most trifoliate leaves, except toward the tips where they become unifoliate, especially on fruiting tips.

Comments (9)

  • 6 years ago
    last modified: 6 years ago

    I’ve seen that video. No way would I eat them like that! Maybe really ripe, squeezed with water and sugar it might make an ok ade drink.

  • 6 years ago

    I assume you grew that from seed. That guy was sucking them down....

  • 6 years ago
    last modified: 6 years ago

    This was grown from a cutting of a mature, bearing plant.

    I had this plant in a pot for many years. It would bear and I would have to move it to the garage. I would let the fruit ripen in the garage until they fell from the tree. Only then were they palatable, in my opinion. Still have an ever so slight skunky, trifoliate oil taste.

  • 6 years ago

    So its on its own roots. How tall did it get before it flowered or did it flower small?

  • 6 years ago
    last modified: 6 years ago

    OK, so here's the history. Original plant came from McKenzie farms. I gave it to a guy in Sterling VA who planted it in the ground. It grew in a sheltered spot for a number of years and it eventually fruited. I don't know whether the original plant was a seedling or rooted cutting. I rooted some cuttings of his mature plant and started them in pots. I ended up with two plants which grew large and fruited. Then I planted one in the ground last summer...the one you see here. Yes, it's a rooted cutting on its own roots. It might be hardier on a high graft of trifoliata.


  • 6 years ago
    last modified: 6 years ago

    Dave, do you have any idea what the parentage is? The spines are quite impressive. I'm not certain whether long, slender, or shorter, stout spines are more intimidating. I suppose long, slender, pliable spines might be less treacherous.

    This trees vigor is remarkable. Mixed foliage types I'm familiar with also tend towards stem growth sections that alternate between monofoliate and trifoliate leaves. None of my plants have consistent bifoliate leaves, they usually appear sporadically, or trasitionally between mono - and trifoliate sections.

    It appears to be climatically rather well adapted.

  • 6 years ago
    last modified: 6 years ago

    herman zimmerman, unfortunately my friend's tree died after the vortex years, maybe a year after fruiting for the first time. So I can't really say they are well adapted long-term here. Now it may do well for another 5 years or so! Then die. Who knows? Maybe we'll get in a mild streak again.

    If you look up Citrandarin US-852 you can probably find info on it. It was released by the US Dept of Agriculture as a root stock for sweet oranges. It is a cross of Changsha mandarin x English-Large-Flowered Trifoliate Orange (P. trifoliata 'English Large') . The cross was made in Indio, California in 1965. It was later discontinued as a rootstock because, supposedly the seeds resulting were not 100% nucellar and so one could not be assured of uniformity in the seedlings (for the purpose of uniform rootstock). It was never grown for edible fruit that I know of. Some seem to think it approaches edibility.

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