USA 119 – (grapefruit × Poncirus) × orange

USA 119 came out of a United States Department of Agriculture programme aiming for citrus resistant to cold and viruses. With roughly half orange, a quarter grapefruit and a quarter Poncirus, it is one of the Poncirus hybrids closest to an eating orange.

• Parentage: ('Duncan' grapefruit × Poncirus) × 'Succory' sweet orange
• Breeder: United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)
• Hardiness: −13 to −15 °C
• Fruit: mandarin-sized, firm orange flesh, sweet juice with notes of banana, mango and redcurrant, slightly tangy
• Ripening: December
• Habit: very vigorous, productive

In the garden

Full sun and shelter from cold winds. Protect young trees during their first winters.

The plant you receive

You receive a young grafted tree about 40 cm tall above the pot, low-grafted onto a Poncirus trifoliata rootstock from our own production. Planted young, it roots straight into your garden soil and establishes better than a tree kept in a pot for years.

Because it is grafted low, the variety itself forms the trunk: the tree stands on its own without a stake and can regrow from above the graft after a severe frost. All our citrus trees are grown at 1,000 m altitude in the Livradois, never in a heated greenhouse, with organic fertiliser only.

Grafted trees are shipped from June; the rest of the year, you can pre-order them.