US-1284 Citrandarin

US-1284 is a USDA citrandarin selected from a 1995 Ninkat mandarin × Gotha Road #6 trifoliate orange cross made by Kim D. Bowman at A.H. Whitmore Foundation Farm. It was released to Florida nurseries and growers in September 2014.^⁠[6]⁠[1]

In a St. Lucie flatwoods trial, grafted Hamlin on US-1284 yielded 63 kg/tree in 2013 and 47 kg/tree in 2014. The release also reports a Water Conserv II ridge comparison with no consistent yield advantage over Swingle across the reported years, although a difference was significant in 2009. These are site-specific scion results, not US-1284 fruit measurements.^⁠[6]

A 2020 nursery study measured US-1284 rootstock fruit and seeds and found high seedling emergence in its tested seed lot. The authors also report true-to-type and off-type seedling classifications, including a separate 24-seedling SSR validation subset; these are study-specific results from open-pollinated seed and do not establish a universal propagation rate.^⁠[3]

Two videos from one grower describe a US-1284 plant: one reports dieback to ground level at 2°F and 5°F in a makeshift bottle greenhouse, while the other describes a Satsuma rootstock plant recovered from a basal cutting. The reports lack exposure dates and durations, and may concern the same specimen; they do not define a general cold-hardiness threshold.^⁠[4]⁠[5]