Honnefs Surprise Grapefruit (forum)

jakfruit etiquette starts with ...
Anyone growing Honnefs ?? I've found something like a giant seedless orange, with large pointy leaves, Is that a Honnefs???

Time: 9th August 2011 3:45pm

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Violet_Cactus says...
I'm not growing that particular fruit jakfruit etiquette, but I've looked at the pictures online here
http://www.daleysfruit.com.au/plant/Honnefs-Surprise-Orange-Grapefruit.htm

There is surprisingly little information online about Honnef's. Where did you get it?


Time: 12th August 2011 7:57pm

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jakfruit etiquette says...
Tree is in someones yard, it doesnt seem to be a straight pummelo. They have had it for years, cant remember where it came from.

Time: 13th August 2011 8:25am

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Lissa says...
Mr Honnef used to sell fruit trees here in Pine Shire.
Is this one named after him?

Time: 13th August 2011 6:47pm

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jakfruit etiquette says...
Yes, I think Honnef's developed an "orange" fruited grapefruit seedling.

Time: 15th August 2011 8:05pm

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MaryT says...
I'm reviving this old thread because Violet Cactus is right; there is little about it. I have one that has never flowered or fruited and am thinking of mulching it. Before I do, I'd like to hear from others if they have the same experience - should I wait?

Time: 14th May 2014 8:06am

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TMary says...
To cull or to keep?
Pictures - Click to enlarge

Picture: 1
Picture: 2

Time: 14th May 2014 8:27am

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MaryT says...
Has ANYONE had success with this tree? Please let me know if your tree has flowered and fruited. Thank you.

Time: 14th May 2014 10:04am

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BJ says...
I just moved mine as I'm having a deck built where it is and wanted to keep it. A friend said its similar to poor mans orange, but better. Mine flowers constantly but is still under 1m so I have to pull the flowers off every few weeks to get it to grow upward.

Time: 14th May 2014 10:59am

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MaryT says...
Thanks, BJ; it's good to hear yours flowered for you. Maybe mine's a dud. It's huge but not one flower so far. :( May have to give it the chop since every bit of room is too precious to waste here.

I should move it to another position to see how it would go but that task is beyond me now.

Time: 14th May 2014 11:21am

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David says...
Mary I met Franz Honneff some time ago sadly I think hes no longer with us. Wonderful man I used to visit him every week at the Narangba nursery he ran. It had to be the best of its kind in Brisbane, sadly none has surpassed it for range of rare tropical fruit trees.the Honneff surprise is indeed one of Franzs cultivars ,long live the tree, a great reminder of a knowledgeable and all round great fellow.

Time: 14th May 2014 5:51pm

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TMary says...
Thanks for the history, David. So he created this cultivar? Do you know its parentage?

Time: 14th May 2014 6:08pm

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David says...
Don't know for sure Mary ,Franz had a lot of things on the go all the time and would not surprise to find out that this cultivar is only one of the many successes that he had. Its easy to loose track of all the things that go on in life and im sure Franz had his fair share of success and failure.

Time: 14th May 2014 6:55pm

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MaryT says...
It's a pity that there is so little on it. I've read a positive comment or two about it but deafening is the silence from others who must have the tree.

Time: 14th May 2014 11:04pm

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BJ says...
The label has a little story on it and is a copy of the original label the Honneff's put on their trees. The speil is that they planted a grapefruit seed and got a sweet surprise, or something of that nature. I doubt it has been really researched for parentage. Lots of well established citrus still havent had this done, or done well, let alone the more obscure local selections. Is lemonade even confirmed as being Lemon x Meyer Lemon yet?

Time: 15th May 2014 10:10am

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MaryT says...
Thanks BJ; I've been watching Youtube videos on grafting citrus and it does not look too hard so I might just graft something onto the Honeff (like the Julie Seville).

A word about your continuous flowering Honeff; I read somewhere that if you remove flowers the tree would keep flowering but if you wait till the fruit is 10mm then remove them the tree would think it's done its thing for the year and wait till next season before flowering again, thus saving energy.

Time: 15th May 2014 10:33am

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Julie says...
That makes sense Mary. I know with annuals you remove dead flowers to stop them going to seed. They then make more flowers because its role is to make seeds and keep the genes going.

Never made a connection to perennial fruiting plants.

Time: 15th May 2014 11:48am

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MaryT says...
I've finally tracked down someone who owns a HS and though his tree is productive, he said it's not worth growing and advised me to get rid of it.

Time: 5th June 2014 6:42pm

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VF says...
Is it lack of production, or flavour that's the problem?

Time: 5th June 2014 8:49pm

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MaryT says...
My tree has not flowered, so no fruit. As to the owner of the productive tree, he was disappointed with the flavour (extremely sour).

Time: 5th June 2014 9:39pm

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VF says...
That's a shame, but I think grapefruit need a lot of heat for sweetness, older varieties more so than the newer red-fleshed ones.

Time: 6th June 2014 7:07am

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Brain says...
I can't say I've tasted lots of grapefruits but aren't all of them meant to be a little tart?

Anyway, citrus needs a lot of things to get right for the fruit (oranges, mandarins) to be sweet. I recall reading epson salt or was it bi-carb soda (to change the PH to allow the plant to absorb some other elements) to help it become sweeter.

Mary, you can always give your plant away to someone who likes grapefruits?

Time: 6th June 2014 9:18pm

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MaryT1 says...
Brain I appreciate your comments but my tree is not even flowering; not ever. Also, it has grown too big to give away; the only people I know who might take it on is leaving for Tasmania. My plan is to graft something onto it but will get some cuttings first to preserve the genetic material.

Time: 7th June 2014 6:55am

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Boris Spasky says...
Why preserve something that is a dud specimen?
Is your tree grafted Mary?

Time: 8th June 2014 12:07pm

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MaryT1 says...
Not sure, Boris Spasky on both counts. Maybe it's not a dud; just slow. Will look when I get home if it is grafted.

Time: 8th June 2014 4:21pm

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jakfruit etiquette says...
A member posted this recently...
Honnefs Surprise Grapefruit - I know this is a dated post, but I only recently came across it. I planted Honnefs in 2017 - I think Jakfruit recommended it. ... We got a heap of flowers but not really any overlapping and no fruit set. ...

Any further details ??
You may need to check if it produces female flowers,
if so you could try hand pollinating from either itself or from another Citrus tree ..

Time: 7th June 2021 8:22am

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Edward3 says...
If you are going to graft other citrus onto your grapefruit, you could leave one branch to continue as the grapefruit to preserve this variety. Maybe you would then get cross pollination when it finally flowers. This is what I am planning to do with my Carter's Red pomelo which produces many flowers but only 1 or 2 fruit.

Time: 18th August 2021 1:05pm

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jakfruit etiquette says...
Hi Edward3, here is a previous post about re grafting or multi grafting Citrus, while keeping some of the original variety. How do you rate the Carters Red fruit grown there ? https://www.daleysfruit.com.au/forum/grafting13/

Time: 18th August 2021 5:57pm

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Edward3 says...
Thanks for the reference. My present rating for Carter's Red is very low, but I hasten to add that maybe the fruits I had were still not completely ripe. They were on the tree for a whole 12 months, so I thought they should have been ready, but they were very bitter. I did leave one fruit to ripen even longer and put it inside a mesh, but a bush rat bit through the mesh and finished off the fruit. Maybe it was sweet by that stage seeing the rat only left the skin.

Time: 3rd September 2021 1:01pm

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