In my 'figs breaking dormancy post", I mentioned my friend who has a lot of citrus trees. Well, I went by there today and we talked about Limequats. He said he never heard of them. I told him I saw one last week in his GH.. He said, "no, that's a Meyer Lime tree". I when over and looked at the tag and guess what it said? LIMEQUAT. He said, 'So, that's why the fruit is small!" I said, yes. A Limequat is a cross between a Key Lime and a Kumquat. He said huh, I learned something today!

Today, he let pick some fruit from just one tree. The limequats in this photo came from one tree. And that same tree has twice more fruit on it!!!!! I also picked one navel orange and one kumquat and one verigated kumquat showing in the picture. All this citrus has my kitchen smelling amazing! Time for some Limequat marmalade!

Very nice. I have a limequat in ground, the fruit are green have yet to try them....looking forward to it.

I was told they are too sour to eat out of hand. I think kumquats are one of the best citrus, so I would like to see some other hybrids that might be more edible by themselves. I had a kumquat, it was the most healthy of my 4 citrus trees. It's flowers were also the most fragrent. Unfortunatly, it was in a dry spot and didn't get rain like the other trees, but the time I realized it, the graft was dead.

Mike in Hanover, VA

I have a lakeland limequat and a Ustis limequat I love the juice in my water.  

To me they taste like a super juicy lemon with a sweet skin. I eat 4 or 5 a day....skin and all! If you ever want to flush your liver or clean out your gut, take 4 or 5 of these bad boys, 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 1.5 cups of apple juice. Liquiefy that using a Nutri-Nija or Vitamix for about 20 or 30 secs and drink.
This drink will clean you out! Give it a try!

I dont like them but will try this mixture kumquat to me are not bad but not good either but i need a good cleaning out. Lol.

Does your friend grow any outside in the ground? I have a kumquat grown from seed outside without protection but in a sheltered spot.

nope. All are in containers.

I had a Eustis limequat and hated it.  It tasted like shaving cream.  My most productive citrus is an indio mandarinquat.  It's loaded with fruit and has edible skin.

 

Yeah I love citrus too. Currently my house has a nice sweet citrus flower smell. the fruit is Meyers lemon, the flowers are Meyers, buds are Kishu Mandarin and Owari Satsuma

Bob, man you crack me up!  About 3 months ago, I did a full body cleanse.  Since that cleanse, I smell and name a ripe fruit 3 to 4 rooms away!  Anyway, I can eat an entire lemon raw!  And these limequats are tart but hey....I like them!   I got my recipe for limequat marmalade!  Tonight I will be making about a case of marmalade!!

Oh yeah and I ordered one of those Indio Mandarinquat.  It should be here in a few days.  Now, I got go work on my green house ---this will be a new one!

Bob, how are the gustatory qualities of the Indio Mandarinquat?

What kind of soil do you guys use for your citrus? What kind of pH or do you even worry about it? What and how often do you feed them? Do you let them dry out good between waterings, or do you treat them like any other plant and they just grow for you? I know I've said this a million times on the this forum and I'm going to keep saying it until it dies or grows better, but my Improved Meyer hates our dry air(or me, not sure). That's why I started a bananna plant late last fall, so far so good, we'll see how summer goes.

Indio Mandarinquats aren't considered that great--They get considered because they are the among the hardiest of the real citrus (including Fortunella), and are meant for fairly cold yards near 8A zones.  In a pot, you can just as easily consider a Sunquat (which sort of the same, FortunellaXMeyer [lemon, mandarin]), which should be a better fruit, if edibility is what you're after.  All the same, though, if you're growing in pots, it's better to have real Fortunella, a Nagami or Meiwa.  Most of these guys don't offer all that much of an advantage other than being more cold hardy than preferable alternative, specifically limes.  Should be understood that Tavarres limequat is probably a lemonquat in actuality.  Calamondins are pretty good, though.

Calvin, most everything subtropical hates dry air.  It's been theorized that the reason many ultratropicals die in Florida is really because of *dry* and cold air, and not just cold.  Citrus are relatively tolerant, so you probably have some *very* dry conditions.  Humidifier?

Here in Atlanta, I've kept alive one Meyer lemon for four years now, and I think that with some forward thinking and a prep (making a frame and wrapping frost blankets around, with a small heater) will allow people here to grow true citrus without that much trouble.  We stay nice and cold, unlike certain Gulf Coast climes with long warm winter spells, so that extra-sensitive citrus do not come out of dormancy (especially on trifoliate stock), and most of the time, shocks of truly cold weather is very short.  So it amounts to keeping track of the weather, easy to do with a custom app, and walking out and slapping your stuff (and plug it in for cold under 20 degrees) over it for a few days.  Don't get anything too sensitive to cold, but plenty of citrus do have 9a hardiness, and an early enough season to give fruit, that it's possible to be reasonably successful.  And of course, satsumas with age and size to them probably will be hardy with relatively little attention and need no heating at all except on the very coldest of days.

Of course, you can forget all that care and go for the most edible of the trifoliate stuff, Dunstan, Thomasville, maybe some citranges.  I know I *like* the taste of citrange-ade made with Troyer citranges.  That citrange tastes like a very sour Ugly fruit, along with its dose of citrange caustic oil.  Suitably diluted, the burn is minimized (and for me, deepens the taste), and the drink quite refreshing.

The fruit of the Indio mandarinquat is 4x or more the size of a kumquat. It tastes of sulfur without citrus fertilizer but is good with proper fertilization. I'm using promix for the IM because it's what I had at the time but the rest are in pine bark because that's what I had available then. I find they do better if not allowed to get very dry.

I love limequat, i had some great ones off the tree in Iran not sure what variety.

Bob your tree looks great! Are they only indoors during cold months? Any tips in fertilizer or the transition to indoors? Those look great given the amount of energy theyre putting into all that fruit!

I use either a citrus or an azalea/rhododendron fertilizer.  You are right that they're outside from last to first frost.  I'm still in process of figuring out optimal timing but they don't get less fertilizer inside.  If you cut back the fruit starts tasting bad. 

It's under a 1000 W HPS light plus right next to a West facing window.

As far as transition to indoors goes, I use a hand truck.  I used to carry it but I'm older now.  :)
Other than that I don't do anything special.

If you can buy plants from California, this is a great place to get citrus from

https://www.fourwindsgrowers.com/store.html

One more thing.  A lot of people pick calamondins and 'quats too early.  They taste much better if you leave them on past when they turn fully orange and wait until the orange turns to reddish orange before picking.  That's when they're fully ripe.

I have to water and fertilize these plants much more frequently than I thought I would.  Watering every 2-3 days seems optimal.

Bob, I've been looking for a Indio mandarinquat and found one.  I potted it up a few hours ago.   I visited my friend's place again.  Why?  Well the last time I was there, his helper was filling up my back with limequats and some other kumquats.  When I got home, I took a close look at my fruit and noticed one kumquat was long much larger than other kumquats and was striped.  It was soft and smelled amazing!   I sliced it open and tasted it.  Boy ole boy was that dude sweet!  I could not believe it!  So, I asked my friend Mike what variety of kumquat was it.  He said it was a variegated kumquat, called Centennial.  YEAH, I BOUGHT ONE OF THOSE TOO!  

Bob, all 4 Kumquat trees are now in my office and my office smells like a French perfume parlor!

Sounds great!  The Centenials are a great 'quat.  Several of mine are in bloom and it is heavenly.  Have you thought about a variegated pink lemon?  They look, smell and taste great.  Coloring of the leaves is similar to Centenial, coloring of the fruit is similar to Panache.  The inside is pink.  Plus you need cottage mangoes, sunbelles and several colors of Australian Fingerlimes.    :)

Just remember that Citrus does not need pollination to set fruit.  Pollination produces more seeds but not more fruit so it's not helping you at all.  Resist the urge to do it!   :)