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World of CitrusWorld of CitrusUS-802 Citrumelo
University of California, Riverside — Citrus Variety Collection
https://citrusvariety.ucr.edu/crc4266 (opens in a new tab)
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The Mulberries · YouTube · 2026-03-02
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkMk7xPCGeU (opens in a new tab)
Summary from transcript: At 10:45–11:10, the presenter reports a young US-802 graft’s late-growth tip damage; fruit is untested.
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Citrus Rootstocks
https://citrusrootstocks.org/rootstock-cultivars/ (opens in a new tab)
The index lists US-802 parentage as Citrus grandis ‘Siamese’ × Poncirus trifoliata ‘Gotha Road’ and its USDA release date as 2007. The table does not report selection, field performance, release contributors, or other historical events.
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Rayane Barcelos Bisi; Ute Albrecht; Kim D. Bowman · HortScience 55(4):528–532 · 2020-03-05
https://doi.org/10.21273/HORTSCI14598-19 (opens in a new tab)
Bisi, Albrecht & Bowman 2020 seed and seedling study; exact US-802 fruit/seed and nursery rows, sampling and limits are retained in the cited plant observation. Fruit is from rootstock seed trees; seedling percentages are this study’s nursery sample, not universal cultivar rates. Not scion fruit or taste data.
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Citrus ID
https://idtools.org/citrus_id/index.cfm?packageID=1179&entityID=8884 (opens in a new tab)
Citrus ID Edition 2 (October 2011). The origin account attributes clone DPI-814-802 details to the Chiefland Budwood Facility (2010): Kim Bowman entered it into the program in 1994; it was released to industry in 2007; cross reported as Siamese pummelo × Gotha Road trifoliate orange, field tested by Don Hutchinson, Heinz Wutscher and Kim Bowman. Morphology: compact or dense, nonweeping crown; trifoliolate leaves with bluntly toothed margins and freshly lemon-like crushed-leaf scent; fruit ranges from yellow to red-orange, slightly rough to rough, leathery, orange-fleshed and without a navel. The entry lists competing taxonomic classifications; it does not resolve a specific Siamese accession. Its source-coded “sour” descriptor is not a sensory rating.
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Dr. Kim D. Bowman · Growing Produce · 2010-03-23
Bowman describes US-802 as a pummelo × trifoliate-orange hybrid producing a vigorous, productive tree. In an Osceola County Hamlin rootstock trial, he reports that eight-year-old Hamlin trees on US-802 were over three feet taller and wider and significantly more productive than those on Swingle. In the same trial, he reports tree heights at age 18 of about 20 feet on US-802, 15 feet on Swingle and 9 feet on US-897. These are grafted Hamlin scion results at one site, not fruit or yield of US-802 as a scion; the article provides no trial design or uncertainty estimates.
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USDA Agricultural Research Service
The USDA ARS page states that US-802 was released in 2007. It describes US-802 as having field tolerance to the Phytophthora–Diaprepes disease complex, resistance to citrus tristeza virus, good fruit productivity, high vigor and large tree size. The page gives no site, scion, sample size or trial method for these broad rootstock claims.
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Josh McGill · Citrus Industry · 2023-07-03
In an interview, Kim Bowman describes US-802 as a suitable choice where a vigorous tree is desired and says US-802 and US-1516 have performed well across a wide range of soils. This is attributed program-level interview context; the article gives no US-802-specific trial design or numerical result.
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clarkinks and forum contributors · Growing Fruit · 2026-07-26
https://growingfruit.org/t/citrus-rootstocks-us802-etc/81410 (opens in a new tab)
Posts #2 and #5 by a_Vivaldi (July 26, 2026) and #16 by themulberries (July 27, 2026) include personal US-802 growing reports. One grower describes a fast-growing large tree, no damage so far and an explicitly speculative low-single-digit/0°F hardiness estimate; fruit is untested and its reported size/seediness is hearsay. Another says their two US-802 trees were vigorous and hardy in their area, without a measured minimum or trial context. Post #5's drought explanation is speculative. The opening post embeds World of Citrus text, not independent evidence.
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Kim D. Bowman; Ute Albrecht · Scientia Horticulturae 225:681–688 · 2017-11-18
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scienta.2017.07.049 (opens in a new tab)
The abstract compares single-node cuttings of six rootstocks in a repeated propagation study. US-802 had 82–91% of cuttings rooted and growing at eight weeks. This is nursery propagation evidence, not a field-performance result.
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Ute Albrecht; Kim D. Bowman · Scientia Horticulturae 147:71–80 · 2012-11-12
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scienta.2012.08.036 (opens in a new tab)
The controlled greenhouse study graft-inoculated eight rootstocks. During the first six months, no more than 7% of plants were Las-positive in US-802 and four other genotypes. At 12 months, US-802 was in the group with 91–96% positive plants; shoot mass was significantly reduced in US-802 seedlings. The authors classified US-802 as moderately tolerant, not resistant; greenhouse results for US-802 were variable.
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Kim D. Bowman; Greg McCollum · USDA Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Horticultural Research Laboratory
PDF reports separate Valencia-on-rootstock trials in Lake Wales (planted 2008; US-802 388 vs Swingle 397 cumulative lb/tree, 2012–2015; 21 trees/rootstock, seven randomized replicates) and Collier County (planted 2002; US-802 765 vs Swingle 544 total lb/tree across reported harvests; 18 trees/rootstock, six replicates). All trees were Las-positive. These are site- and Valencia-scion-specific results, not US-802 fruit or universal yield.
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Deived Uilian de Carvalho; Daniel A. Boakye; Tim Gast; Rui Pereira Leite Junior; Fernando Alferez · Frontiers in Plant Science 12:777078 · 2021-11-19
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2021.777078 (opens in a new tab)
The study includes a separate US-802 rootstock seed-tree cohort (27 grafted 8–10-year-old source trees at UF-SWFREC, Immokalee). Table 2 reports physical fruit means by harvest date; Table 3 reports filled seeds per fruit. These are rootstock-source fruits and nursery seed findings, not commercial scion fruit or taste evidence.
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Kim D. Bowman; Lynn Faulkner; Mike Kesinger · HortScience 51(10):1208–1214 · 2016
https://journals.ashs.org/view/journals/hortsci/51/10/article-p1208.xml (opens in a new tab)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21273/HORTSCI10970-16. Full-text copy used for review: https://ccpp.ucr.edu/onlineOrdersV2/assets/uploads/files/2016__K_D__Bowman%2C_L__Faulkner%2C_New_Citrus_Rootstocks_Released_by_USDA_2001-2010%2C_Field_Performance_and_Nursery_Characteristics.pdf.
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