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"On Thursday, March 11, we were
visiting some orchards at the Center when one of us (EL) noticed some bright
red fruit on a Rio Red tree. On closer inspection we found three such fruit,
all with good shape and firm to the touch, on the branch which was about 2
ft long. The fruit had a peel color similar to that of a ripe tomato. We
picked one fruit, and brought it back to the lab where it was cut in half.
The flesh had the same intense red color and was uniform. The taste was also
excellent. At the TCM Mid-Year meeting two weeks later, we
displayed the second fruit, and showed the third fruit to the Center’s
Advisory Committee when it met one week later. On both occasions samples
were offered for tasting.
Twenty sour
orange seedlings have been budded with tissue from this branch, and some
material has also been topworked to orchard trees. The few seed in the
fruit, as well as aborted seed, have also been collected for propagation.
It is far too early to predict whether this will turn
out to be the next Texas red variety to hit the grapefruit world, but it is
certainly the reddest we have seen so far; its lycopene content is now being
determined. We will have to wait and see what the trees that are being
propagated now will produce; hopefully good, consistent yields of marketable
size."
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