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Post by alexintx on Jan 2, 2021 14:05:38 GMT -5
Hi everyone! I mentioned that I’m growing some babies off of a big seedgrown mandarin, and I’d thought I’d share some photos of the parent tree. It’s between 20 and 30 years old and it supposedly grew from a seed spat out by somebody at my workplace. It gets neglected: it’s not on irrigation (it only gets hand watering) and it doesn’t get fertilizer. But it still sets a decent crop of tasty fruits. It tends towards alternate bearing — last year it was loaded and this year it has a light crop. The fruits are a bit higher in acid than most store bought mandarins are, but they’re still really sweet and have a lovely, rich flavor. They’re a bit seedy, but they’re delicious fruits. Here’s some photos of the tree in mid-November before the fruit were ripe plus a photo of a fruit I had off of it the week before Christmas. The whole tree:  Some fruit, unripe in November:  Peeled:  |
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Post by Laaz on Jan 2, 2021 14:12:02 GMT -5
Probably a seed grown Ponkan. Is the flesh firm & the center open if cut sideways? Do they have a slight neck? It could also be a changsha.
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Post by alexintx on Jan 2, 2021 14:26:00 GMT -5
Probably a seed grown Ponkan. Is the flesh firm & the center open if cut sideways? Do they have a slight neck? It could also be a changsha. I was figuring it was something along the lines of Ponkan or something else commercially grown. The flesh doesn’t seem super firm, but it’s certainly not soft. Ifs pretty standard in firmness for a mandarin. Maybe a tad less than the store bought Sunburst I just had. The middle is quite hollow, as you can see below. It’s also got a very slight neck. I realize this isn’t a horizontal section, but you can see how hollow the middle is:  And the unpeeled fruit:  Regardless, it’s a tasty fruit that I’m glad to have in my collection. The fruit is very aromatic and it must be picked in late December or January, otherwise it puffs up and isn’t as good. |
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Post by Laaz on Jan 2, 2021 14:32:03 GMT -5
Yes, looks like a Ponkan.
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Post by alexintx on Jan 2, 2021 14:43:11 GMT -5
Yes, looks like a Ponkan. Thank you! I’m glad to know what it is because it’s always struck me as huge for a mandarin tree in this area. |
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Post by MarcV on Jan 3, 2021 6:38:46 GMT -5
Whatever variety it is, it is certainly a beautiful tree!
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Post by dontfearthecarolina on Jan 3, 2021 22:24:33 GMT -5
What direction is that building?
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Post by alexintx on Jan 9, 2021 14:57:18 GMT -5
What direction is that building? The building is almost due north of the tree, which does cut back in some of the worst of the wind in the winter. There’s also a bougainvillea in the ground next to it which is a bit more unusual for this area than a big mandarin, so it’s certainly in a nice microclimate. |
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Post by alexintx on Jan 10, 2021 15:42:02 GMT -5
I thought I’d share this photo. We’re in the midst of a huge snowstorm (for Austin) and I got a good photo of this tree covered in snow. I thought it looked pretty and it’s certainly not something you see every day!  |
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Post by Laaz on Jan 10, 2021 16:27:13 GMT -5
Keep that crap down there!  |
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Post by alexintx on Jan 10, 2021 17:14:40 GMT -5
Keep that crap down there! I’ll take it for now Biggest official storm at our main climate site since Valentine’s Day, 2004 at 1.5" with more still falling. In some parts of town, it’s the biggest snow since 1985! Because we’ve been above freezing all day, not much accumulation. It’ll be all gone soon. It’s not gonna be super cold. We did lose power though, which is not fun :/ |
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Post by alexintx on Feb 12, 2021 18:11:42 GMT -5
Well, I guess given the extreme cold in the forecast for Austin, that this tree and all other citrus in-ground are toast. Worst freeze since 1989 is coming and there’s going to be loooooong duration below freezing and, to make matters worse, the previous few weeks were in the 70s and 80s, so things are waking up for spring.
This tree had a good 30 year or so run. I think it may resprout from the roots given that it’s a seedling, but I kind of doubt it as the forecast keeps trending down and down.
It’s a shame — there’s a surprising number of big, beautiful citrus all over town that I didn’t notice until I really started getting into growing them. Fortunately, my collection is currently potted and is safely inside.
Before this freeze, the coldest it’s been in my life here is 17°, and now we’re forecast to get well into the single digits. At this rate, I’m starting to worry about native stuff, not just fun exotics.
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Post by sanguinho on Feb 13, 2021 10:26:38 GMT -5
Well, I guess given the extreme cold in the forecast for Austin, that this tree and all other citrus in-ground are toast. Worst freeze since 1989 is coming and there’s going to be loooooong duration below freezing and, to make matters worse, the previous few weeks were in the 70s and 80s, so things are waking up for spring. This tree had a good 30 year or so run. I think it may resprout from the roots given that it’s a seedling, but I kind of doubt it as the forecast keeps trending down and down. It’s a shame — there’s a surprising number of big, beautiful citrus all over town that I didn’t notice until I really started getting into growing them. Fortunately, my collection is currently potted and is safely inside. Before this freeze, the coldest it’s been in my life here is 17°, and now we’re forecast to get well into the single digits. At this rate, I’m starting to worry about native stuff, not just fun exotics. Can you post photo of the tree current state? I used to see frozen little trees, but not big trees. |
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Post by alexintx on Feb 13, 2021 18:06:52 GMT -5
Can you post photo of the tree current state? I used to see frozen little trees, but not big trees. It hasn’t been extremely cold yet. That’s coming Sunday/Monday/Tuesday. At this point, we haven’t been any colder than 27°F, which isn’t atypical for this area (though it has been below freezing since 11:30PM on Thursday, so about 41 hours as of the time of this post, which would be the longest spell below freezing since 68 hours January 2018). I will be sure to share photos of the damage — there’s enough citrus of varying sizes and varieties to have a good representation. Just in my neighborhood, there’s this tree, a grapefruit about the same size, some decent sized (but fairly small) mandarins, kumquats, and Meyer lemons, and some good sized citrange bushes. |
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Post by alexintx on Feb 21, 2021 21:46:41 GMT -5
This is looking really rough. I don’t have much hope it’s lived, but it certainly had a good 20-30 year run. There is still some green left under the bark low down on the trunk, so it may resprout from down low at some point. It may also pop back from the roots, given that it’s a seedling and I don’t think our soil actually froze very deep.  |
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