How New Citrus Varieties are Made

This video shows how California scientists breed citrus and germinate the citrus seeds resulting from the crosses.
Scientists have discovered that some Australian native citrus relatives show natural resistance to the deadly huanglongbing (HLB) disease. Crossing these Australian citrus relatives with traditional citrus varieties has the potential to produce hybrid offspring with resistance to HLB.
This research is taking place at the University of California Riverside Citrus Variety Collection which is now threatened by HLB.
To make a donation to the Citrus Variety Collection HLB Prevention fund, please click “Citrus Variety Collection HLB Prevention Initiative Fund” at the following link:
myadv.ucr.edu/...
Things that you can do to slow the spread of HLB (playlist):
• How I Prune Citrus Tre...
Citrus breeders carefully perform controlled pollination by choosing both the male and the female parent varieties. Seeds are extracted from the resulting fruit and then treated to remove pathogens. They hybrid citrus seeds are germinated. The seedlings are cloned by grafting. Some are used for diagnostic testing and others are planted in the field.
The accompanying article can be found here:
fruitmentor.com...
In California, the collection of any citrus propagative materials, including budwood and seeds, from non-registered sources is illegal. Any citrus trees grown or grafted in California must come from source trees registered with either:
(1) The Citrus Nursery Stock Pest Cleanliness Program, administered by the California Department of Food and Agriculture, or
(2) The Citrus Clonal Protection Program, located at the University of California at Riverside.
CDFA program: www.cdfa.ca.go...
CCPP: ccpp.ucr.edu/

[@darklobo79]

Wow this is great news! I lost my job here in Florida as a Semi driver hauling citrus due to citrus greening. You just gave me hope for the citrus industry to come back to Florida in the future. Let's go Cali and Australia!

[@Fruitmentor]

I hope that some new technology will bring the Florida citrus industry back quickly!

[@FactStorm]

This is such an amazing video most people need to learn about this. This needs millions of views..most of us don't even think twice about the convenience of fruits on the market and their origins. A study into citruses along is remarkable..without science, we are nothing. Even watermelons, we made them what they are today.

[@Fruitmentor]

Thank you! I’m glad that you enjoyed the video. I was pretty excited to show that and I wish that it were viewed more. If you enjoyed this video, you would probably also enjoy my video on shoot tip grafting if you haven’t already watched it: kzbin.info/www/bejne/h2LHdnpplraUbac

[@RajeevKumar-lo1dd]

You are just awesome... Very great news for Citrus industry in California.. May, great breeders and scientists help in generating more resistant varieties in future,so that more spreading of this disease can be stopped. I'm from india we are thankful to GOD that these diseases have not reached in india yet.

[@Fruitmentor]

Thank you! I think it will be great news for India as well if this work results in resistant varieties. The disease exists in India, but is probably more commonly called another name. I think maybe either Citrus Greening or Citrus Dieback? Here are some good articles that I found on the disease in India: swfrec.ifas.ufl.edu/hlb/database/pdf/00002381.pdf www.plantmanagementnetwork.org/pub/php/review/2007/huanglongbing/

[@RajeevKumar-lo1dd]

fruitmentor firstly, thanku for sharing this article. Yes, die back or greening are common diseases in north west india in Mandarins. BUT by regular proper care and management, these diseases can be controlled.

[@kanger80]

Always great to see another video from you. Learned a lot today!

[@Fruitmentor]

Thank you!

[@naseralmaneih1446]

Thank YOU for the invitation.

[@rxheaven13b]

Keep us updated! This looks promising.

[@microsoft790]

Awesome video. Finally have a piece of land attached to the property I am renting and intend to grow some citrus. The Australian varieties interest me already because of their drought tolerance but I’ll need to find a pollen donor.

[@mahenmandal5442]

Finely you are back with an amazing video

[@Fruitmentor]

Thank you!

[@toxicjay8562]

Thank you for this valuable information I’m about to breed peppers next year And if I’m lucky enough I’m going to be breeding some citrus hybrids ( random seedling lemon to a random bred key lime ) and this information will help me keep track of lineage and parentage because I’m hoping to breed plants with lineage. ( for example I plan to cross enjoya peppers to a purple variety of Japanese pepper and then maybe take the enjoya/purple peppers and cross them to a aji Omni color or a chocolate pepper for enjoya/ purple/ chocolate hybrid peppers ) and I’ve even started purchasing supplies so that I can accurately cut away the anthers to prevent self pollination

[@arturotan3238]

This is great news! Thank you!

[@Fruitmentor]

You're welcome!

[@siggyincr7447]

Good news to hear that there are existing citrus species that are naturally resistant. Seems to me that research needs to be done that identifies the specific characteristics/genes that give them the resistance. Maybe that way resistance can be given to existing citrus varieties without changing much of their overall character by direct genetic manipulation. Trying to get something that resembles a sweet orange while still maintaining the disease resistance could easily take dozens of generations of crosses. With each generation taking nearly a decade, that hardly seems feasible. Is there any idea if it would be possible to develop rootstocks that give the whole tree resistance?

[@Fruitmentor]

Research like this will help scientists to understand the genetics of resistance. One of the goals is to develop rootstocks. If rootstocks could be discovered that would give resistance to various scions, that would be a great solution.

[@couplestherapyforsingles6120]

I would love to get ahold of pollin from one of these varieties to attempt crosses with Trifoliate oranges. Cold resistant hlb resistant citruses would be amazing 👏

[@phuocvu1214]

I really want to watch videos about cross breeding citrus. I think creating a new fruit tree is a good and interesting idea

[@Fruitmentor]

Thank you for the feedback and encouragement! I may make more videos on citrus breeding in the future.

[@matthewkheyfets1309]

It would be nice to see if you could make a video about trying to crossbreed citrus varieties at home. I wanted to try and see what a cross between a meyer lemon and persian Lime would look like. But I don't know when the pollen opens and see if it contaminated the desired cross :/

[@Fruitmentor]

Thank you for the suggestion! I understand that the chromosome count for Persian Lime is 3N, so I suspect that it would not be a viable parent.

[@showandshare2825]

Good tip

[@BryceGarling]

How long can the pollen stay viable? Wanted to hybridize for my personal food forest with pomelo, citron, and myer lemon. Would love to try using the finger lime now.

[@Fruitmentor]

Pollen can be frozen and stay viable for a long time. The breeders at UC Riverside freeze it over the winter.

[@robertocesar7630]

Excelente!!! Please teach us How to prune a citrus tree!

[@Fruitmentor]

Thank you! And thank you for the suggestion!!

[@luislorence9557]

Congratulations!!! ... Is there a Mexican student in this program?

[@tonyferrari3754]

great news and good video, cheers.

[@Fruitmentor]

Thank you!

[@Jahmastasunherbalist]

Thank you for this

[@Fruitmentor]

You're welcome!

[@Eye_see_all83]

I fear for my 30+ year old Washington Navel in my front yard. I hope that bug isn’t in my hometown of Paramount.

[@Fruitmentor]

Unfortunately the insect has spread all over Southern California and over much of Northern California. The disease has been found in much of Los Angeles. You can see how far they have been detected here: ucanr.edu/sites/ACP/Distribution_of_ACP_in_California/ There is now a tent covering the historic 145 year old parent Washington navel tree in Riverside, California to protect it from the Asian citrus psyllid: www.pe.com/2018/04/26/why-is-a-tent-covering-riversides-parent-navel-orange-tree/

[@tf-in1vg]

Do you know where we can buy rootstock seeds?

[@itsasickness4939]

I get that the only way to be sure a seed grown citrus is true to its mother is a genetic test but for us home citrus enthusiasts that’s not feasible. And online information on this topic is scarce and conflicting. So I’ve been experimenting and researching and this is my understanding. A, Most commercially grown citrus is protected during flower so low likelihood of cross pollination. B, looking at the makeup of a poly embryonic seed the Zygotic is larger and the nucellar is smaller and by my observation the nucellar seedling usually emerges later and grows slower. C, the mono embryonic and Zygotic seedlings usually exhibit non maternal traits after about 45 to 60 days (thorns). Im not looking for 100% confirmation, Im just trying to improve the odds. Am I on the right track or am I off in the weeds?

[@Fruitmentor]

What are you trying to do? Breed citrus or grow a nucellar seedling?

[@itsasickness4939]

@@Fruitmentor good question. Haha. Nucellar. I’m trying to grow a few varieties like Tango and Pixie (Or as close as possible) from seed to extend my mandarin season. Living in Louisiana (A citrus producing state) I can’t get some of them shipped in from out of state nurseries. So I’m just experimenting and seeking advice / knowledge, it’s not like I really need anymore citrus trees! 10. We polished off our last W. Murcott last month and I’m going through withdrawals.

[@ছায়াপথেসবুজদিগন্ত]

Is it possible to get citrus variety from you? I am from Bangladesh.

[@Fruitmentor]

You can contact the CCPP and ask them if it is possible. I think they would be happy to send them, but the Bangladesh government may restrict it. You can find out from the CCPP.

[@gustavomalock]

Hi, I live in Brazil. I'm interested in buying the seeds of the Australian desert lime. What site can I buy?

[@Fruitmentor]

I met a scientist from Fundecitrus yesterday and he said that they do not have Australian desert lime trees. He suggested contacting Eduardo Giravdi from Embrapa. They would be more likely to have a tree. Keep in mind that seedlings may be hybrids.

[@NotoriousPepe]

Are there any concerted efforts to breed true breeding citrus varieties?

[@Fruitmentor]

Yes. There are many breeding activities going on to develop new varieties of citrus by crossing citrus with citrus.

[@simmonds6063]

Where can I access papers on citrus breeding as an amateur enthusiast?

[@Fruitmentor]

Google scholar might be a good place to start: scholar.google.com/

[@TR.Pixels]

Any updates?

[@Fruitmentor]

I think it will take a pretty long time to get results. I understand that some of the trees have fruited and the hybrid fruits are a step in the right direction, but I have not heard of anything ready to be commercialized yet. I think it takes many crosses to get those genes into more conventional citrus.

[@TR.Pixels]

@@Fruitmentor We already have some Australian hybrids here ready made by CSIRO. Finger Lime X Mandarin, Finger Lime X Calamondin etc. I wonder how resistant they would be to the disease as they are kinda commercial (you have to call or go to a specific place to purchase them). Link: csiropedia.csiro.au/limes/

[@Fruitmentor]

It would be interesting to see how those do. As far as I know those varieties are not in the U.S. And I don't expect that anyone would want to bring psyllids or HLB to Australia to challenge them. HLB is so such a big threat that they built a BSL-3 lab in Riverside so that they could perform experiments such as challenging the plants: insideucr.ucr.edu/stories/2019/10/02/new-lab-californias-best-defense-against-deadly-citrus-disease

[@patbingsoo5219]

@@Fruitmentor Seems like we may have found the cure: news.ucr.edu/articles/2020/07/07/uc-riverside-discovers-first-effective-treatment-citrus-destroying-disease

[@expatprepper8804]

what is that that's being painted on the bottom of the trunk of the tree at 559 in the time line of the video ?? is it something like axle grease to keep the Ants off the tree???i'm curious because i had the same idea a few weeks ago to keep ants out of my mallberry trees can you explain what is going on here and what substance is being used. thank you

[@Fruitmentor]

I made a video about it here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bGrMoWClhL2Xisk It is stickier than grease and I expect that it would work better. I have links here: www.fruitmentor.com/ant-control

[@bianconero7687]

Che varietà di agrume è alemow?

[@Fruitmentor]

C'est un hybride complexe provenant des Philippines. Le fruit d'Alemow n'a pas bon goût et est généralement utilisé comme porte-greffe. Il y a un bon article là-dessus ici : idtools-org.translate.goog/citrus_id/index.cfm?packageID=1179&entityID=8284&_x_tr_sl=en&_x_tr_tl=fr&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp

[@brahmakumar5000]

How shall I get seeds in India ?

[@Fruitmentor]

I'm not sure about a local source, but I expect that you could order rootstock seeds from Auscitrus and have them shipped to India.

[@pn3940]

How come these grow from seeds seem to only have ONE plant germinating out from one seed? From my experience, all citrus seeds I've germinated, each has two young plants come up.

[@pn3940]

ah, I see. Pomelo seeds.

[@Fruitmentor]

Yes. That’s why. They are always zygotic.

[@nosimpathy2716]

Is it safe to grow citrus with seeds from store bought fruit and graft with CCPP budwood ?

[@Fruitmentor]

Georgios Vidalakis, director of the CCPP explains the disease risk from seeds in this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gHKklmuKo7VmnLM It is possible to buy an inexpensive tree from a reputable nursery and graft to it instead. If you are going to the time and expense of making your own tree, I do not think it would make sense to use a seed from a grocery store fruit even without the disease risk.

[@daanishaseels7606]

Where will I be able buy to these plants

[@Fruitmentor]

There is nothing available at this point. Optimistically something could be available in 10 years, but it may be longer.

[@urbancitrus6869]

how would you identify the nucellar offspring?

[@Fruitmentor]

A genetic test is a sure way to know if the offspring is nuclear. In some cases zygotic offspring could be determined by differently shaped leaves.

[@urbancitrus6869]

@@Fruitmentor so it isn't the biggest one is the nucellar while the smaller one is the hybrid?

[@Fruitmentor]

That is a special case where you get zygotic and nucellar offspring from the same seed. That might work for such a special case, but for many female parents it would not work.

[@urbancitrus6869]

@@Fruitmentor I see multiple shoots from orange / tangerine seeds all the time and usually there's a big one followed by 1 or more smaller embryos.

[@vaibhavbiotech1365]

I need seed

[@Fruitmentor]

You could try Lyn seed or Auscitrus.

[@jpsamy_inthezone]

🤞

[@sharifmalaysia7636]

😊😀💚💛💜💓💕💖💗👍👍

[@quetebaby8481]

Plese tak hindi

[@deadacc3901]

Hewo

[@Fruitmentor]

Hi!

[@kaltlaws]

No doesn't work good try though!

[@Fruitmentor]

Could you elaborate?