Tale of 3 mandarins

[Mike T]

With the first day of the southern winter now June is here I know my mandarins are ripe even if the skins are mostly green. That is often the case in warm climates. For those who have been lying awake at night wondering how emperor, honey murcott  and hickson compare well here they are.



The loose skinned emperor is at the top, with the tight skinned honey murcott (really a tangor) on the right and the hickson on the left.





Here they are cut and in the same positions and all are ripe and bursting with juice. Which taste the best? They will all sweeten further when evenings get under 20c.in terms of richness of taste and sweetness hickson wins this showdown with emperor a close second and honey murcott sweet but without the richness of flavour of the other two. I will try this again at the end of the season to see if there are significant changes.

[Riverland]

Nice haul Mike.
Bit early to judge the Honey Murcott I'd say.
Here they are picked late July, but the acid levels can be too high in the early fruit.

[Mike T]

Very low acid in all of these mandarins and winter is the usual time of ripening and especially July/August Riverland. That is 6 months different from you guys in cooler and drier area. They are usually better after some cooler evening boost acid levels to balance the taste a bit better.

[Mike T]

Sorry Riverland, South Australia I see and not the northern hemisphere where. most people are on the forum. I am almost at the northern limits for quite a few citrus and chopped out minneola, imperial mandarin and navel which can't handle wet tropics and the fruit are crappy. Generally the same variety of mandarin or orange will have thinner skin, higher sugar to acid ratio, larger fruit and less skin colour at the most tropical end of the tolerance compared to towards the cooler tolerance limits.

[jmc96]

Can't believe all three varieties are ripening together.
Here, in NSW Australia, the emperor will be ripe at the end of this month (May/June, Pic 1), the Hickson (Pic 2)will be ripe the following month, June/July/August, and my Honey Murcott won't ripen till September.
The first pic is of emperor, almost edible. The hickson have more colour but still need to fill out and sweeten up.

[Mike T]

John I didn't recognise you at first and it is a good forum. Your trees look great and you should have fruit over a extended period with varieties ripening in sequence.I also have quite a few months of fruit because the mandarins all had several flowering flushes each over a couple of months and there should be a long period of ripening because of it.

[Millet]

Almost all mandarins mature before the peel obtains full color. - Millet

[Mike T]

Millet I didn't realise it is fairly typical for green mandarins to be ripe.
I tried the completely green mandarins are they are also fine. I am used to eating grass green valencias that are ripe with low acid. I notice the valencias can go back to green after being yellow/orange and are still alright inside but will get dry and flavourless if left to long.

[jmc96]

Almost all mandarins mature before the peel obtains full color. - Millet

I think Hickson is an exception to the rule. They can look fully ripe but still be as sour as.

Hey'ya Mike, sorry about off topic, but would you like a couple of Bali passionfruit seedlings?

[Mike T]

John I presume they are P.ligularis, Thanks but I am pretty well loaded up with passionfruit but managed to plant a Pandora and gave away P.nitida and P.ligularis because I had no room. Thanks anyway John.

[Mike T]

I have been eating mandarins every day in June and have given 100's away from 4 trees.




There are still a few fruit on the emperor and dwarf hickson at different stages of ripeness.

[Mike T]

I'll try the hickson,emperor and honey murcott camparison again.


It is a draw all are extra sweet, better than 4 weeks ago and bigger. The flavours are really different and ideal for blending for juice.


Valencias are getting as big as grapefruit and are very sweet and juicy. It has been a good year for this tree and the fruit will last for months.

[Mike T]

After nearly 14 weeks of edible fruit the big puffy skinned eperors are nearly finished but are superbly sweet