thank you homemade. These are a cross between lemons and kumquats. I don't know how I got so lucky to find this tree at the Lowes store. Someone else had ordered it and they didn't pick it up. It was sitting with the Meyer lemon trees. The peeling is edible like kumquats. I am not sure how you would use reg lemons. Perhaps sub 1/2 kumquats and 1/2 Meyer lemons. Anyway you wash and dice up the fruit very small and remove the seeds. I also removed some of the inner white pith on a few of the larger ones. Put in a large heavy pot with 1 1/2c white sugar per pound of fruit. I had 3# of fruit. Boil to 220. Stir as needed . I didn't take off foam as it seemed to disappear as soon as I turned the heat back. I have always skimmed other fruit jams. I then placed in hot jars and they sealed just fine. I got 6 -- 1/2 pint jars from this amount. danielle I so hope you will have pics. I can't think of anything more wonderful than seeing the children making Challah. c

Hmm, maybe it's an individual taste, like the broccoli gene? I've always loved them, the sweet/sour taste. And it's definitely sweet peel/sour flesh. My Meiwa does have a sweeter peel than Nagami, and the inside is a little less sour, but it's still sour. OP, that does look like a Nagami in shape, it's just very large. Your leaves indicate that it could use either more or a better fertilizer. What do you use and how often? Looks like some micro-nutrients are lacking, and the tip browning could be fertilizer salts built up. You may need to flush the soil well a few times.

Laura, do you have a way with just digging a hole in a very sunny warm area and partially or completely burying the Nagami pot? It will keep the root zone warm while it gets all the sun it wants, even more than you could provide with lights... Do you have a very sunny area right up against the window inside? If you keep it at cold temps with less than ideal sunlight, they will still ripen, trust me..I have many fruit that still do and they are sweet...The tree focuses on ripening fruit or even maturing fruit while the leaves themselves slow down drastically...By nature, that is exactly what happens to in ground grown ones..The temps cool of drastically in many areas of the world while the ground stays warmer...This process ripens, sweetens and matures fruit in areas where citrus naturally grow... Just a few options for you) Funny, I partially buried one I could care less about and it seems to be quite happy outside even with temps down into the 20's!!! As for the Calamondin...That will do ok even if you brought it inside...With all the sunlight or lite you give it, even with less than ideal sunlight, this fruit should mature... I would introduce any of them to inside heat and light slowly though..The both of them..From cold open air and sunlight, to dry heat and less light, any plant with react sharply...You could loose the fruit and a few leaves..It varies for everyone..Just a chance we all take once they have been acclimated to very cold temps, natural light, and fresh air for so long.. They are beautiful Laura,,,Good work! The

Wow, thanks very much everyone for your very substantive comments and your advice. So, although I hadn't said so, was planning to grow at least a couple of tried-and-true varieties along with the "weird" ones I've chosen from Baker Creek. But considering the cautionary comments about putting all my tomatoes in a single basket, maybe I'll grow a couple more of the reliables and save a couple of the experimentals for next year. I'm really not too concerned about the labor requred, because I'll only be growing 8-10 plants in total. AND I fully intend to "pamper" all of them. I add a several-inch layer of compost in my garden every spring before planting, and add a little more at points later in the growing season. I use no addtional fertilizers except for a sprinking of GardenTone around each plant. All of my tomatoes are caged or staked, depending upon their habit (one of the reasons I was asking about the relative vigor of the varieties' growth). I've been pretty successful with these methods in the past. I also don't expect the productivity I've seen with the regionally popular varieities. But, as I commented earlier, there are a number of farmers' markets here that offer the fruit of locally-grown varieties at very reasonable. cost, amd I'm not too bothered by the prospect of having to support my local farmers if my yield comes up short. And I'm looking forward to more exiting colors and forms that might compensate for the lower yield. But an 80% reduction in yield, if it were to be that high, would be disappointing. So maybe I'll start some heldover seeds of varieties I grew successfully last year, and save a few of the Baker Creek varieties for next. Schule, I'm glad to hear your opinions about Baker Creek, as I felt I was taking a bit of a risk with this company. (I'd always ordered from Johnny's in the past for varieties I've grown from seed.) The Baker Creek catalog is so stunning, and their photos and descriptions so enticing, that it has occurred to me even before I place an order that I might be succumbing to hyperbolic representations. But I did read dozens of company reviews and most were quite positive, so I decided to give them a try. I also read hundreds of their customers' reviews about particular varieties they offer before I made my selections. The Green Vernissage was one of the "free seed" varieties they sent with my order, and it is one that I'll try to grow. One thing I've noticed here on the Growing Tomatoes forum is that quite often there's a lot of disagreement concerning the flavor of a given variety. I realize that climate, soil and other environmental factors have an effect on flavor, as does one's own taste receptors. Riesentraube is one example of contested flavor merit (even here within this thread). I believe the variety was locally developed here in Pennsylvania, and grown and liked by Pennsylvania Germans (Pennsylvania Dutch), so I'm going to gamble that it's suitable for my own Pennsylvania garden conditions and has at least a fair chance of yielding a flavorful fruit. It's interesting that you mention the kumquat series, Tarolli. I was unaware of its poor reputation before I ordered seeds for Indigo Kumquat last year, but when I did learn of it, I decided to give the kumquat a try anyway. Well, it turned out to be the outstanding star performer of last year's garden, superior in every way to any cherry-size tomato I'd ever grown before -- rich and fruity flavor, hyperproductive, the very last to succumb to end-of-season diseases by a full month, and gorgeous! It's the only one on my list above that I've grown before, and I'll definitely be planting it again this year. It's also very vigorous, by the way -- tall and sprawling. So, dunno. I guess one needs to consider assessments concerning flavor (as well as, to a lesser extent, productivity and disease resistance) as subject to variability. Or be able to trial hundreds of varieties as you and Schule and others here have done! I didn't know that Celebrity was determinate, though. That does explain why production fell off a lot after midseason. Thanks again, everyone. Best of luck with the upcoming season. I'm looking forward to reports from you about how your plants are doing, and how those tomatoes taste! ;)