Ponkan ('Chinese Honey Orange')– is a member of the tangerine family, but its fruits are the size of oranges. The fruit is round and around 7-8 cm wide in size. It makes an excellent ornamental, can be kept in a container or shaped by pruning to make a landscape plant. The big fruits, with red-orange rind and orange flesh, hold on the tree well. They are used for juice when not fully mature; when mature, skin becomes easily separated.
Ponkan cultivation in the USA The fruit is still very popular in the Melrose area, and often sold at roadside stands there. Trees can be propagated by seed, as they breed true, or grafted onto other rootstocks, trifoliate orange being the most popular. |
The fruit is very sweet. Trees are heavy bearing every other year, and sometimes the limbs break due to the heavy yields. Growers resort to propping the limbs up with sticks at times, though if the limb bends gradually down and grows in that position it will do better in future years. "R.C. Pitman, Jr., of Apopka, Florida, organized the Florida Ponkan Corporation in 1948, served as its President, and has continuously promoted the culture of this delicious fruit. |