Chandler pummelo

Citrus maxima (Burm.) Merr.

CRC 3244

PI 539389

VI 11

Photos by Toni Siebert and David Karp, CVC. Photo rights.

Source: Received as budwood from original tree at the Citrus Research Center, Riverside, Ca, 1959.

Parentage/origins: Chandler pummelo is a hybrid of Siamese Pink pummelo and Siamese Sweet pummelo produced by the breeding program at CRC, Riverside. It was released in 1961 by Drs. Cameron and Soost at the University of California, Riverside. 

Rootstocks of accession: Carrizo citrange, C-35 citrange

Season of ripeness at Riverside: Unknown.

Notes and observations:

OJB: The tree grows vigorously to a large size with pendulous branches.  The fruit is large to very large and almost round with a thick yellow rind that is occasionally blushed with pink.  The flesh varies in color from light pink to very dark pink depending upon where it is grown.  The flesh texture is somewhat ricey but still juicy for a pummelo.  The fruits mature early and the flavor is pleasant and sweet.  Chandler fruits are seedy when cross-pollinated by citrus fruits with viable pollen and seedless when grown in a solid block or in proximity to citrus fruits that are pollen sterile, such as navel oranges and Satsuma mandarin.

Description from The Citrus Industry Vol. 1 (1967):

"Fruit medium in size, oblate to globose; seedy.  Rind medium-thick, smooth, and sometimes faintly pubescent.  Flesh firm but tender, moderately juicy; flavor intermediate between acidless and moderately acid parents.  Early in maturity and stores well.
      Chandler is a synthetic variety, recently described and released by the University of California Citrus Research Center, Riverside (Cameron and Soost, 1961).  It is pink-fleshed like the pollen parent, Siamese Pink, but otherwise intermediate in characteristics between it and the seed parent, Siamese Sweet."

Availability: Commercially available in California through the Citrus Clonal Protection Program. Click here to order budwood.

USDA Germplasm Resources Information Network page for Chandler pummelo