Trying The Impossible

It's winter at my part of the world and this morning there was -20°C outside, which is a bit chilly and by no means time for gardening. Indoor gardening however is possible and I'm trying something new this year, even though I know it's impossible, or hopeless. Sounds crazy, so let me explain what I've been up to.

One of my favorite exotic fruit is sweetie, or oroblanco.

An oroblanco, oro blanco (white gold), Pomelit (Israel) or sweetie is a sweet seedless citrus hybrid fruit similar to grapefruit. It is often referred to as oroblanco grapefruit.

Oroblanco was developed as a cross between a diploid acidless pomelo and a seedy white tetraploid grapefruit, resulting in a triploid seedless fruit that is less acidic and less bitter than the grapefruit. source

The name of the fruit (sweetie) most likely has been chosen based on the sweet taste of the fruit, which is a bit surprising (I mean the taste, not the name), as citruses usually are more or less sour.

Unfortunately the weather conditions in my country are not favorable for growing sweetie, just as many other exotic fruits, therefore these are imported from warmer countries and sold at a higher price.

On the 15th of December last year I bought two and one had a big and healthy seed inside, which gave me the idea to sow it and try to grow something. Having a seed that is not dry is an advantage as germination is much more faster than with a dry seed. This is why I sow the seed the next day and was hoping to see the new creature very soon.

I couldn't have been more wrong on the germinating period as it took me one month to see some result and even then I had to dig a little bit to see if I'm waiting in vain or not. After a month there were no visible signs of the seedling, so I took a toothpick and very gently tried to get to the seed. Imagine my surprise when I saw one single root as long as 3cm and no upside growing. Please do as I say and not as I do, please never do what I did 😂 It's never good to disturb the roots! I was lucky as this plant has one thick root which is resistant but hairline roots can break easily.

Long story short, in ten days my sweetie is what you see on the photos above. First it looked like a snowdrop, bent halfway but growth at this phase is fast, so in one day it was straightened out and continuing its growth upward. It is still tiny, I tried to show you the height of it by placing my finger next to it. It's basically 2cm tall.

You may be wondering why the title is "Trying The Impossible", when I already got the seedling growing. You are right, this is half success already, but getting fruits is a totally different matter. Citruses are not like flowers, or other plants where pollination is done by bees in a natural way and you have your harvest when the time comes. These citrus trees need grafting or inoculation in order to give fruits, I don't know which is the correct term.

So far this project it is just for fun, a little bit of gardening, while it's Siberian cold outside, then we'll see what happens. I'd like to grow this tree as much as possible and do the things that needs to be done, in order to get some fruits. I know there are people growing lemons inside, maybe I can do it as well. Time will tell.

Unfortunately I did not take a photo of the fruit itself, so you need to google it in case you don't know how sweetie looks like. Yeah, shame on me 😂

For the best experience view this post on Liketu