Best Citrus Tree For Northern/ Container

I have 3 different citrus trees, a Meyer lemon, Lime and a Calamondin. The Meyers produces the best tasting fruit of the 3,but can be a fussy tree. The Calamondin is so much more forgiving, It flowers and fruits all year, slow growing and does well in containers. It does have to be brought inside during winter. Right now my under 3 foot tree as about a couple hundred flowers. The tree ripen fruit is very sour and small, it is used in a lot of Philippine cooking.

I do not have any actual citrus trees at the moment, but am starting some kabosu (Japanese citrus) seeds when I get back this afternoon)

I have heard that citruses like the kabosu, the yuzu, the Ichang, the sudachi and other ones that have an Asian citrus called the papeda in their ancestry are all extremely cold hardy, to the point where, theoretically, they could be planted OUTSIDE up here and make it through the winter with wrapping (I have had a yuzu sapling do this already, but I didn't realize it until I had pulled it up because I thought it was dead) and if it doesn't they grow well in pots too.
the sudachi
Of them a yuzu would probably be the most useful, since it is the one I use most often. However I have had a lot of trouble with that in that they type of Yuzu I want ( a small fruited version whose fruit makes a lot of juice) no longer seems common as fruit (replaced by a larger, juiceless yuzu in the Japanese markets) and I have found no nursery selling yuzu trees that tells you what kind it is they sell.

Someday I'd LOVE to also get a tree of the true calamansi i.e. the green skinned orange fruited Philippine one, not a caldomin (which is used the same and confused with the calamasi but is not it)

I am always impressed with your knowledge !!

4 winds citrus has yuzu trees listed for sale

I know a LOT of places that have Yuzu trees for sale. the problem, as I said, is that I have yet to find one which specifies WHICH kind of yuzu they have. It would be a bit like going to a nursery and seeing a tree marked "orange". What kind of orange? Navel? Valencia? Juice? I'm not buying until I know that what I am getting is what I am after.

Add on that the odds are skewed against me. The kind of yuzu I am after is the one I sometimes refer to as the "old" yuzu. It's smooth skinned, bright yellow, and very, very small (about double what your caldomins are). For a long while that was the only one on the market (or at least, that kind and the other kind coexisted happily). But as time has progressed most of what is available has gone over to the "New" yuzu, which is bumpier, and a lot larger (about the size of a small orange). From the POV of the average Japanese consumer, the new one is by far the better choice. They mostly want the zest (for flavoring) and the new version is not only larger (so more zest) but peels easier (so it's a lot easier to make pieces that are easy to grate) To a Japanese person, the juice of the actual fruit is a bonus afterthought, at best. But I use the juice just as much as the peel, if not more , and by and large the new kind is almost totally juiceless, when you peel the fruit the insides are simply a mass of dry pith and seeds (on rare occasions I have found ones that are new size but have old insides, but those are ridiculously uncommon) So as it stands now I am reduced to trolling the Japanese markets hoping I see the right kind (I haven't seen one since the year before last, and they were rare even then) hoping to get a seed (unlike the new kind, the classic version is often seedless, and even when it does have seeds, it's usually one) hoping that seed germinates and makes a healthy plant (because of it's jiggled genes, a lot of seed not only does not come true (like any citrus) but produces trees that are not even viable, albinos and ones that cannot produce leaves or branches), and hoping I can tend the tree long enough to try and go outside.

Kabosus look a bit like the new yuzu (a little smaller and less bumpy) but are different (they have very sour juice, like vinegar)

Sudachi loom like the classic yuzu, but their juice is not only sour, but intensely bitter (like a bitter orange) you can use it in meat marinades (to make a sort of Japanese mojo sauce) but that's about it.

Supposedly the Ichang is the most cold hardy of all of them, but it's "lemons" are kind of flat tasting (usable for lemon pie, but apparently no substitute for the real thing).

Tcnically, trifoliate orange is even more cold hardy than that, and CERTAINLY can grow well up here (there is or was a hedge of them by some building off union Square, and a MASSIVE tree on the grounds of the Bronx Botanical Garden (just outside the gift shop) But there is debate on whether it's fruits (which look like oranges, but are fuzzy) are edible (some people make bitter marmalade out of them, but most consider them too bitter to consume.)

A citrus tree from seed can take 20 years before first fruit. Why most are grafted.

Or why I keep hoping I DO find a nursery that is familiar with both, it will save me a lot of time. And why I'd probably keep the tree in a pot even if it did turn out they can live outside up here (who knows if I'll be living here in 20 years?)

Oh almost forgot, since you are local, playing around with odd fruits as well, and it is sort of the season. At some point over the next few months, visit a Mrs. Greens. (I know the ones on Central Ave. are gone, but there's still the ones in Eastchester, Mt. Kisco, Briarcliff etc.) and get one of their "blood oranges" (make sure there's a little black label on it that says "Buck brand" since they carry two suppliers.) Those are actually another variety called a mango orange, that everyone ought to try at least once. Not to say you'll like it, but everyone should try one once! (Mango oranges apparently have managed to acquire the same odd gene Palestinian sweet limes and Jamaican sweet lemons have that turns off the citruses ability to make acids, oh and the pith and integuments are bright pink.)

Thanks for the suggestion to try mango orange, I have been on a kick of trying new foods!!

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/citrus Members here are serious citrus people bet one will know where you can get tree variety you want

I'll try and drop you a note when I actually see them arrive.

Buck brand used to have another choice citrus. Back when I first was getting fruit from them, their tangerines/clementines used to still be the "true" mikan satsumas, the ultra tiny ultra sweet kind so beloved in Japan (you know those mandarin orange slices you find in cans? That variety) Unfortunately, about five or six years back, they must have re-done their orchards, and their tangerines are now the larger, sourer kind favored here.

VERY rarely I bump into the old kind in some Asian supermarket, but it is not common (even they now like the big one better for eating fresh)*.

And there are a lot of deceptors in the market there. To a lot of Asians tangerines are tangerines, so all types go into the same bin. So I sometimes find ones that look right (very small very smooth, very large peel pores) but aren't (i.e. are sour)

I suppose it's a bit like what goes on with normal blood oranges in most markets. If you go into the markets you will invariably see a massive pile of Tangier blood oranges (normalish looking, orange peel with a red blush, red splashed orange flesh that is sour) and for some odd reason ONE OR TWO of the older Moro type (smoother, more elongated, skin with a district green tinge and often with a dark cast over the whole fruit so it looks more brown than orange. Dark Dark purple flesh, deep almost bitter flavor) I assume that Sunkist (whose label is usually the one on them) keeps a few moros around as pollinator, and decides they might as well toss any fruit they make in as well.

Oh and you may bump into something called a Cara Cara orange that LOOKS like a giant mango orange (in that the flesh is pink) It isn't (they taste just like a standard Valencia.)

* not that I eat many mandarins nowadays