Meiwa Kumquat

UCR identifies Meiwa as Fortunella crassifolia and describes short-oblong to round fruit with a thick rind and relatively few seeds. The CRC 1471 accession lists its parents as unknown. The historical description reproduced by UCR discusses a possible natural hybrid origin, but this does not identify confirmed parents for the accession.^⁠[1]

For CRC 1471 at Riverside, UCR’s accession header lists year-round ripening and flowering from May to September; its cultivar notes separately describe summer flowering and late-winter maturity. UCR’s notes say trifoliate rootstock seems best and that kumquats are especially susceptible to zinc deficiency; it describes Meiwa as slightly less cold-hardy than Nagami. Grower reports concern individual trees and do not establish a single yield or hardiness threshold.^{⁠[1]⁠[9]⁠[12]⁠[13]}

Reports do not point to one fixed taste profile. UCR and one Meiwa–Marumi comparison describe thick, sweet peel; Fruit Maven reports sour juice, slight peel bitterness, limited juiciness, fibrous texture and a seeded batch. Reddit commenters give differing flavor impressions, including one family’s experience growing three kumquat varieties, while video tasters describe sweet, juicy fruit with differing seed observations. A separate under-ripe fruit was called “sweet and candy-like”; that tasting does not establish a fully ripe, cultivar-wide score.^{⁠[1]⁠[8]⁠[11]⁠[10]⁠[12]⁠[13]⁠[3]}