Amateur breeder from the Netherlands - just got into citrus

[solko]

Hello all,

I am an artist and amateur breeder from the Netherlands, USDA zone 8b. I have always been fascinated by the fact that we can create entirely new fruits and vegetables ourselves instead of waiting for nature to do that. That is because I am also fascinated by creating new and interesting paintings and art. But to work with living natural material just has something extra exciting to it. It feels like a very natural thing to try to create new fruits that somehow entice all our senses through intriguing looks, smell, flavor, aroma and texture.

So my own interest is not necessarily in creating the best new commercial cultivar, although I am sincerely surprised by the lack of individual breeding and crossing efforts in our current agricultural system and the challenges it faces. So if any result can help agriculture grow more adapted new fruits that would not need sprays or greenhouses, I would more than welcome it.

I have started sowing pips of apples, plums, peaches and many other fruits since 2012 and started doing controlled crosses with these and other fruits and vegetables since 2016. Somehow citrus always seemed way to complicated for me with their nucellar seeds and very long juvenile period, as well as the polite but not really enthusiastic description of the flavor of the cold-hardy citrus hybrids that I knew of at the time. That changed recently after having seen the videos and book (in French) of Olivier Biggio and Bertrand Londeix, where they seem to say that there are some really worthwhile cold hardy citrus that can be grown in my USDA zone 8. And now I do want to experiment crossing with these and to see if it is possible to make new locally adapted interesting citrus varieties.

I seem to recognize many names here from other fora that I have been reading and following the past decade and I hope that I can learn something from the very knowledgeable people here and participate with the discussions. I have some decent knowledge of crossing and pollinating techniques for other species, and hope to be able to pick up and share some tips and tricks here, especially for citrus.

I know from working with other species that the risk is high to somehow be ten to twenty years behind what already has been done and found out, so I am very thankful to have found this forum before I start by breeding experiments. Just in the first two days reading through here I think I may have saved myself ten years, haha. Finding good parents, getting heterozygous seeds from crosses, getting them through the juvenile period and fruiting in my climate is all going to be worth a good deal of thought and time, so I hope you will welcome me on board.

Hope to see you in the conversations here!

Solko

[ilya11]

Feb 18, 2024 8:57:06 GMT -5 solko said:

That changed recently after having seen the videos and book (in French) of Olivier Biggio and Bertrand Londeix, where they seem to say that there are some really worthwhile cold hardy citrus that can be grown in my USDA zone 8. And now I do want to experiment crossing with these and to see if it is possible to make new locally adapted interesting citrus varieties.

Hi Solko,

Welcome to the forum, sure you can grow many varieties in your climate, but mostly they will not ripe  under  these conditions, being  only  decorative.

There is a huge demand for early and resistant citrus.

[solko]

Hi Ilya,

Thank you, I have indeed started to select those varieties that have a chance of ripening in our short and cool summers. It will mostly be acidic citrus, I guess, but that is fine by me, I hope in time to find something new and interesting among some of the new hybrids.

[citrange]

Welcome Solko!
I notice you have chosen one of the Bartolomeo Bimbi citrus paintings as your profile avatar.
The paintings are in need of cleaning and many name labels are obscured, so you may be interested to see the results of my efforts to provide the correct names to each fruit in the paintings. See www.homecitrusgrowers.co.uk/citrusplaces/Bimbi_Citrus.html

[lia]

Feb 19, 2024 15:22:27 GMT -5 citrange said:

Welcome Solko!
I notice you have chosen one of the Bartolomeo Bimbi citrus paintings as your profile avatar.
The paintings are in need of cleaning and many name labels are obscured, so you may be interested to see the results of my efforts to provide the correct names to each fruit in the paintings. See www.homecitrusgrowers.co.uk/citrusplaces/Bimbi_Citrus.html

WOW!! That's awesome work, Citrange!   17 looks like a blood orange? 17 a cedro piretto?

[solko]

Feb 19, 2024 15:22:27 GMT -5 citrange said:

Welcome Solko!
I notice you have chosen one of the Bartolomeo Bimbi citrus paintings as your profile avatar.
The paintings are in need of cleaning and many name labels are obscured, so you may be interested to see the results of my efforts to provide the correct names to each fruit in the paintings. See www.homecitrusgrowers.co.uk/citrusplaces/Bimbi_Citrus.html

Hi Citrange,

Yes, the paintings of Bartolomeo Bimbi are in a class of their own, I love them. (The prints that Volkamer had made are also stunning, in a different way.) As both a painter and a breeder I find what you do extremely interesting, trying to identify all the citruses on there. I suppose you know all about the fact that these paintings also fulfilled a crucial function in rediscovering some famous and lost varieties, among which the Bizarria, in the gardens of Florence after the second world war. Many plants from the original de Medici collection could be identified and were rediscovered. It's a passionate story: www.atlasobscura.com/articles/where-is-the-largest-collection-of-rare-potted-citruses