Welcome to my website citrusworld.eu. I started it to have a place to collect and share my notes on a wide range of citrus species and from my travels. It is sometimes very difficult to find information on some of the rarer cultivars, so I hope this will make hours of searching easier for any interested parties.
Like many citrus growers, my interest began in 1991 with the planting of my first lemon seed, which I had grafted a few years later. For many years I had only humble beginnings, growing a few small trees outside the windows of my Prague apartment. It wasn’t until I bought a property outside of Prague in 2011 that a 20m2 conservatory came along. This too was soon small and in 2017 I managed to complete a partially sunken 81m2 greenhouse which is automated and computer controlled. The greenhouse is glazed with double insulated glass on the sides and a 16mm polycarbonate roof. The structure of the greenhouse itself maintains a temperature difference of approximately 10°C in winter, the rest is taken care of by electric heating. There is also a small growing greenhouse for plant propagation. I am also experimenting with a geothermal battery for outdoor citrus growing without winter heating. This space is also protected by 16mm polycarbonate and is not heated at all in mild winters.
Over the years, my focus has shifted primarily to botanical and native citrus species. I travel to citrus-growing regions to learn about local species and cultivars, while also gaining insight into the culture of the local people and how they use local citrus fruits. I then strive to share this information with the public, whether here or through social media posts and public lectures.
My private collection includes over a hundred botanical and native hybrid citrus species. My goal is to build a comprehensive collection of the world’s major citrus species from across the globe, all brought to fruiting. Unlike commercial growers, I am not concerned with either the volume or the quality of the species I grow, nor am I interested in modern, selectively bred cultivars. What is more important is gaining an understanding of exotic species in the context of the places where they are cultivated or grow wild, and the culture with which they are inextricably linked, and subsequently helping to disseminate this knowledge to the public as well as to commercial growers. In this spirit, I also support other private and public collections and activities, including those of citrus growers’ associations in Brno and Prague and their citrus exhibitions at the Botanical Garden of the Faculty of Science at Charles University and the Botanical Garden of the Faculty of Science at Masaryk University in Brno, as well as the National Citrus Collection at the Botanical Garden of the Faculty of Tropical Agriculture (FTZ) of the Czech University of Life Sciences (ČZU) in Prague.
Given that a large portion of European collections contain misidentified historical cultivars—where labels have been lost or mixed up—and in some cases, mislabeled cultivars have even been included as accessions in genetic studies, I am also engaged in tracing and comparing historical cultivars with available sources.
Furthermore, I am exploring cultivation options in temperate climates. I am particularly interested in testing rootstocks for cultivation in the extreme conditions of unheated greenhouses and winter shelters, as well as rootstocks suitable for year-round cultivation in containers with both warm and cold overwintering. Traditional commercial rootstocks are generally not optimal for these conditions; therefore, my goal is to find suitable rootstocks that would help promote the wider adoption of citrus among gardeners and hobbyists.
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