This might not be the most exciting picture ever, but it is of 2 citrus orange ippolito seedlings. This is a blood orange related to or a sub division of tarocco. Anyway I fancied an ippolito tree, none seemed to be available to the uk, so I bought several ippolito oranges and although they are categorised as seedless there were a few seeds and I've got these two plants.
I know I'm in for a long wait, but does anyone have any insight into my chances of having a plant that is close to an ippolito orange? Presumably they are from an ippolito plantation so were pollinated by another ippolito if not from the same tree. Unless the seeds are capable of developing without pollination?
Any insight welcome!
From pollinated seed you should get 'a' blood orange, possibly even one that is clearly a Tarocco type, but it won't be an Ippolito, which is a single clone. It is said that lemons from seed usually give a usable lemon, but the sweetness and aromatic, complex flavours of sweet oranges only occasionally get passed on to seedlings.
BUT, citrus are prone to poly-embryogenesis, where one seed gives rise to more than one seedling. One seedling will be from the fertilisation process, but the other(s) will be genetically identical to its fruit bearing parent.
So, if your two seedlings came from one seed, then one of them will be an Ippolito. You won't know which until it fruits though, so you have to grow them both to fruiting.
'Seedless' in oranges is defined as fewer than 7 seeds per fruit. Your best bet is to eat a lot of Ippolito oranges, and plant all the seeds, spaced far enough apart so you would recognise any twins. And then only grow on the twins.
I think the promise locked up in your seedlings makes them very exciting.
Thanks for that, I vaguely recalled something to do with having 2 seedlings from one seed. These are from 2 separate seeds, one seed was twice the size of the other so that gives me hope, but there's only one shoot from each at the moment.
I think the ippolito season is over now so that might be it until next winter/spring!
I guess there is always that small chance I might get something better than the original!
Chad wrote: ↑Thu May 22, 2025 11:35 am
But when the season is right you have an excellent excuse for eating them by the pannierful!
:D
Although they were a quid each so it could impact the household budget! They did taste really good though. Another one I've had an interest in is cara cara, but I've never seen a seed in those.
