Re: Grapefruit in NZ
- Subject: Re: Grapefruit in NZ
- From: T* &* M* R*
- Date: Mon, 08 Oct 2001 16:37:22 +1300
Richard Starkeson wrote:
>
> A request fro New Zealand members:
> While visiting on the North Island in October two years ago, I stayed on
> a farm in Coromandel where the owner had some grapefruit trees that had
> very sweet fruit. I was wondering what variety of grapefruit that was
> likely to be. It would be nice to be able to grow it here in rather
> coolish-summered Bay Area Califorania. Most grapefruit require lots of
> heat to produce sweet fruit. I understand that northern New Zealand
> only gets about 700 heat units per year (as opposed to around 1700 in
> southern California, or 3700 in Florida). HEre in northern California
> is grown a grapefruit variety, Oro Blanco (which is supposed to be a
> cross between a grapefruit and Pumello) which is sweet, but very thick
> skinned. Perhaps it was my faulty memory, but the New Zealand
> grapefruit I tasted was very sweet, but also having a very "grapefruity"
> taste (enough acid?). A U.C. Davis webpage referred to "the New
> Zealand grapefruit ( a pummelo mandarin hybrid)", as if there were only
> one variety. When a Kiwi says "grapefruit", is he refering to this
> tangello, or to what we americans call grapefruit? On a New Zealand
> homestore website I saw reference to Wheeny and Golden Special
> varieties, the latter being better for "cooler" climates. I don't know
> in New Zealand terms, which areas would be "cooler climates." Is the
> Coromandel climate quite warm, perhaps?
Hi Richard
I will try to sort this out for you.
Firstly the Tangelo and the local Grapefruit are quite distinct, though
they do ripen about the same time of year. The Tangleo is a hybrid of a
mandarine and either a grapefruit or a shaddock (close to a pommelo).
They have a pecular way of ripening, being deep gold at firat but going
steadily yellower as they become riper and sweeter. When first
introduced here this not surprisingly gained them the reputation of
being sour, as everyone natually went for the darker ones, but when
fully ripe and more or less yellow all over they can actually be quite
as sweet as an orange.
The grapefruit grown here are of two kinds. The true American grapefruit
cannot be effectively ripened here, but the similar-looking Wheeny
grapfruit from Australia is sometimes successful in the warmer parts of
the country. They are rather flat and have thin pale skins more like
what you are probaby used to at home.
Coromandel might perhaps be a bit cool for them, though very successful
crops of several citrus fruits do grow along the adjacent Bay of Plenty
coast around Tauranga.
I am not familiar with the heat units you mention. More commonly
measured in NZ are sunshine hours, which are much higher in parts of the
South islsnd (particularly Blenheim) than anywhere in the north, which
is more notorious for summer humidity and damp cloudiness.
Much more common than the Wheeny here are strains of the NZ Grapfruit
(also called Goldfruit). The original plant, thought to be a hybrid
between a pommelo and a sour orange, was introduced in 1855 and
initially known as the Poor Man's Orange. Today selected strains are
grown under the general name of Citrus paradisi. An old but good one is
Morrison's Seedless which produces heavy crops of orange-yellow juicy
fruit, but may have a rather thick skin. From May to August this is
picked for marmalade making and from then on is sweet enough for table
use. The thickness of the skin seems to be related both to warmth and
moisture levels during growth.
This is the strain we grow ourselves and it succeeds even though
borderline for hardiness. We have it in a very sunny sheltered site
where we also can manage to crop a Meyer lemon, but other more tender
citrus even Tangleos are just not worth the effort, as they don't ripen.
With exceptionally heavy frosts last winter the tree itself did not
sustain damage, but we are finding any fruits which did not have some
shelter from the foliage, though they look OK externally, are brown and
rotten inside.
If we were planting nowadays we would probably choose in preference a
newer but equally tough strain known as Golden Special, which was
introduced in 1970. I think this is probably even a bit hardier than the
Morrison's and will also grow in warmer parts of South Island.
When properly ripened these fruits are pleasently sweet, but do, as you
suggest, retain a slight grapefruit tang. I am pretty sure sure it must
have been a form from this stable that you tried.
Moira
--
Tony & Moira Ryan <theryans@xtra.co.nz>
Wainuiomata, New Zealand, SW Pacific. 12 hours ahead of Greenwich Time
