Pummelo: Citrus maxima

(pummelo: citrus maxima)
top pic: 12-20-09, one of several seedlings
bottom pic: one week earlier, sprouts
carrboro, north carolina

I did some cooking for Thanksgiving: a cranberry-kumquat relish. While at the supermarket, I also spotted fresh pummelos, and decided that a small amount of shredded pummelo would be a perfect addition to the recipe. The remainder of the pummelo made a great snack later on.

For anyone who isn't familiar, pummelos are the largest citrus fruit - they can grow to the size of a small melon. They have an extremely thick, spongy rind, and are known for their variable (or unpredictable) flavor: sometimes tart, sometimes mildly bitter, sometimes powerfully sweet. The best pummelos have an intensely sweet grapefruit-meets-melon flavor, and flesh that is meatier and far less juicy than other citrus fruits. Pummelos are also a partial ancestor to oranges, tangelos and grapefruits, which are all citrus hybrids of variable complexity.

Of the many pummelos I've bought over the years, this was the first I think I've ever gotten with well-developed seeds, and this one was exceptionally seedy. I've been told that pummelos, when cross-pollinated with another citrus fruit, will bear seedless fruit, but when pollinated by another pummelo, will produce seedy fruit. I'd also heard that pummelos rarely grow true to seed. I decided to plant some of the seed to see what might happen.

As it turned out, the seed sprouted quickly, and the seedlings were quite distinct from other citrus in a number of ways. They developed deep, strong roots before breaking the surface, and the first shoots appeared in 2-3 weeks. When handled, the shoots are very fragrant, with a strong scent very similar to the flavor of the fruit. And they are very vigorous, with a muscular stem developing pretty much immediately.

Due to their size and vigor, I separated them into individual pots rather quickly - deep but narrow, to give them room to develop a root system. We shall see how they progress.