Shasta Gold Mandarin

[Millet]

I purchased a Shasta Gold mandarin from Logee's greenhouse and planted it on October 18, 2019 in a 3-gallon Root maker air root pruning container.  The tree is planted in a 5-2-1 medium (5-parts Repti-bark wood chips, 2 parts peatmoss 1 part perlite).  This is a highly aerated and rapid draining medium, so I water the tree by soaking the entire container for 1 hour per week (at least at this time of year).  An hours soak allows the Repti bark to absorb up a supply bank of water for extended use by the tree. Soaking the root system for this period of time does no damage to the roots.  A citrus tree can remain submerged for two days before any root damage begins to occur.  In the 5 months since the tree has been planted, it has had one flush and one flowering.  However, the tree dropped all the small fruitlets from this initial bloom.  I expect that the next flowing should be around August.  If at that time some fruit is retain, I will allow the tree to keep one fruit.  Retaining one fruit, even on a young small tree, does not effect the trees potential growth at all.  This is because all the energy a fruit requires to produce and grow to maturity is derived only from the 3 or 4 closest leaves to the fruit, and not from the entire tree (research my Karen E. Koch U. of Florida). For container growing I find the 5-2-1 medium works very well.  An additional 5-2-1 advantage, is one does not need to worry about over watering.  I fertilize the tree with Jack's professional 25-5-15 w/micros fertilizer.   

[brian]

I bought a shasta gold from logees also, this winter.  I am looking forward to trying the fruit.  Though it is flushing it didnt put any flower buds out yet. 

[Millet]

See that Brian......Great minds think alike.

[lebmung]

For container growing I find the 5-2-1 medium works very well.  An additional 5-2-1 advantage, is one does not need to worry about over watering.  I fertilize the tree with Jack's professional 25-5-15 w/micros fertilizer.

Millet do you actually need to worry about overwatering a PT or FD rs? They are pretty strong to root rot.

[Millet]

Lebmung, your correct. Thanks for pointing that out.  Poncirus does well in wet conditions and clay soils,  Because trifoliates  do better then most rootstocks in wet/clay soils, they have a hard time with dry conditions. 

[brian]

Ah I just noticed that I was looking at the wrong tree!  My Shasta Gold did flower after all, and has some small fruits.  I should get to try it soon

[lebmung]

Lebmung, your correct. Thanks for pointing that out.  Poncirus does well in wet conditions and clay soils,  Because trifoliates  do better then most rootstocks in wet/clay soils, they have a hard time with dry conditions.

My remark was because I know you mostly prefer FD, but who knows what logee's uses so your medium is a better bet.

[brian]

My c35 rootstock trees so far are doing fantastic in my native clay soil in the greenhouse.  Maybe because I can control the watering, or maybe there is more loam to it than I gave it credit for.

[containerman]

I'm glad to see the interest in the Shasta. Mine is loaded this year with blossoms. I'll take a pic after the rain. I can't wait until next year to try them. The same with my Yosemite. My Tahoe has been producing for 3 seasons now. Everyone who has tried the Tahoe has loved the taste and from everything I've heard its the least favorite of the three. So I'm really looking forward to the taste comparison test next winter/spring.

[Johnny Eat Fruit]

Shasta Gold Mandarin is an excellent piece of fruit. Very similar in taste in my Yosemite Gold which has now been in the ground 9 years from a small pot. Everybody I turn on to the Yosemite Gold loves them. While their sugar level is not as high as a Gold Nugget at its peak the Shasta/Yosemite Golds have a very rich and distinctive strong mandarin flavor that I love.

Here is a recent photo of my nine-year-old Yosemite Gold Mandarin on C-35 rootstock.  This year we have over 250 fruit and there is still some left on the top. We start picking in January and go until late April.

The tree is fairly vigorous and the leaves are dark green.

Johnny

 


Yosemite Gold Mandarine Tree 3-25-2020

[containerman]

Nice looking tree Johnny !

[Millet]

Johnny, the amount of leaves on your Yosemite Gold tree are so very full I can't see a single branch.  The growth is very columnar in shape.   

[Johnny Eat Fruit]

Millet,

My tree is putting on new growth now and yes the tree should be wider and bushier compared to a slimmer more columnar appearance it has now. 

The reason for this is in early 2019 I removed a similar size Tango Mandarin tree that was just seven feet south of the YG.  This tango tree blocked light from the midsection down of my Yosemite Gold resulting in poor growth in these areas. Now that there is much more light reaching all of the Yosemite Gold it should fill out nicely in the next several years.

The Tango did not work out at my coastal location. The Tango produced a good quantity of fruit but it remained high acidity even into spring. I suspect it would do much better inland with more heat. My area is fairly mild being about 4-5 miles from the coast. Also as I mentioned this tree was partially blocking light to my YG Mandarin tree which produces much superior fruit at my location. Taking out the Tango was a good move for my situation. I should have never planted a Tango and in retrospect, it was too close to the Yosemite Gold to begin with.

Johnny

[spaugh]

Shasta Gold Mandarin is an excellent piece of fruit. Very similar in taste in my Yosemite Gold which has now been in the ground 9 years from a small pot. Everybody I turn on to the Yosemite Gold loves them. While their sugar level is not as high as a Gold Nugget at its peak the Shasta/Yosemite Golds have a very rich and distinctive strong mandarin flavor that I love.

Here is a recent photo of my nine-year-old Yosemite Gold Mandarin on C-35 rootstock.  This year we have over 250 fruit and there is still some left on the top. We start picking in January and go until late April.

The tree is fairly vigorous and the leaves are dark green.

Johnny

 


Yosemite Gold Mandarine Tree 3-25-2020

Nice post Johnny.  Have you tried the Tahoe gold and compared to the other gold series?

[Johnny Eat Fruit]

I have not tried the Tahao Gold.  I believe years ago, Gary at laguna Hills Nursery, told me the Tahao Gold does not perform as well hear in So Calif. At the time he was selling Shasta Gold. I found the Yosemite Gold tree at Clausen Nursery in Vista but I don't believe they propagate it now, unfortunately. So for I have been very happy with the fruit quality and growth of the Yosemite Gold at my location. The fruit is large, seedless, juicy and richly flavored. Recently I have been making juice from my YG and it is awesome. As the tree fills out it will look even more attractive.

The Yosemite Gold is the best overall mandarin tree I have ever grown and I have tried a lot of them over the years going back to the 1980s.

Johnny

[brian]

I was out in my greenhouse today and just noticed that the Shasta Gold fruit looked ripe enough.  The skin was still slightly green but I picked all four of them because I was afraid I'd forget about them and let them rot on the tree.

They are excellent!  Probably the new "best mandarin I've grown".  At the very least this will take my in-ground Tango's spot.  I'm still waiting for more Xie Shan and Shiranui/Dekopan/Sumo to see which of those I like best. 

Tango has always been my favorite store-bought mandarin so I planted one.  The ones I grew are very good, but this Shasta Gold is clearly better (for me)

[SoCal2warm]

I've tasted Shasta Gold and Yosemite Gold, from a store, and in my personal opinion, I definitely prefer Shasta of the two. It has a very orange-like flavor, but with a nice sourness, deeper level of flavor, and very aromatic.

I'm pretty sure they had Tahoe Gold one time at that store, which I tasted, but to be honest I might be misremembering and can't be completely sure.
If I did taste it, Shasta Gold was definitely the best of the three.


In case anyone was wondering, this store happens to carry very obscure varieties, so I've gotten the opportunity to taste all sorts of weird varieties there. Some of the varieties are so obscure/unusual I can barely believe they are being sold there.


I was a huge huge fan of Shasta Gold. It was almost as good as the best Satsuma mandarins I have tasted, although it's hard to compare because it's a different type of flavor. (I would say they are not in the same mandarin family when it comes to type of flavor)

[vall]

I tried all three golds at the south coast station u-pick a couple years back.  I 100% preferred the Shasta gold so that's the only tree I bought.  I have two fruit on my tree now but I might wait a few more weeks to pick - in general my fruit ripens later then the rest of SD.

[containerman]

Good feedback on the shasta's as I have 5 on my tree this year and I'm waiting until February to try one. My tahoes look ripe on the outside and I tried one last week but they are still not ready so I'm leaving them until February as well when I will be doing a taste test side by side with my Sumo's, Tango's and Honeys as well.

[sc4001992]

Can anyone with the Shasta Gold fruit (full size-yellow color) take a few photos and post it. I have a small 5 gal tree with a few fruits not ripe yet and it seems to me that the fruit is smaller than I expected. Much smaller than my Gold Nugget.

[brian]

I got four fruit on mine.  Already ate them, but the larger two were the same size as Gold Nugget fruit i've seen at grocery stores.  Good size

[vall]

All 3 for size comparison, fruit from screc in Irvine. The ? after YG is there because that exact tree was not labeled, but by deduction it should have been Yosemite Gold.


Small hand for scale. These are definitely smaller than GN, more of an average size for any mandarin.

[SoCal2warm]

Shasta Gold fruits, purchased from store

[Johnny Eat Fruit]

My Yosemite Gold Mandarin tree is once again loaded. That is three years in a row with a large crop of fruit.

I am beginning to think my tree may not be alternate bearing but I will need 2-3 more years to confirm.

Enclose is a recent photo of my YG tree with ripening fruit. Will start picking in February when they sweeten up.

Johnny



Yosemite Gold Mandarine Tree with Fruit

[sc4001992]

Johnny, nice crop of YG fruits on your large tree.

Vall, Socal2warm, thanks for posting some photos of the Shasta Gold fruits. My green fruits look to be about the same size as the photos you showed.
I thought the Shasta Gold was a larger fruit but I'm wrong. I tasted some fruits from a farmers market that was a little larger than a Gold Nugget and I thought that was how big shasta Gold was. My fruit seems to be about the same size as the Tango mandarin.

[brian]

My Shasta Gold tree has a nice crop ripening now.  Dense clusters of large fruits. 

[Johnny Eat Fruit]

Yosemite Gold Mandarin is alternate bearing. 2024-2025 were poor harvests. Lots of variables including low rain and poor pollination. Hard to say what went wrong for those two years. 2026 looks good with solid fruit fruit set. Rain totals for 2025 so far look impressive thus far. All mandarins seem to alternative bear.

 Johnny


(Yosemite Gold Mandarin Tree on 11-5-2025)

[70Malibu]

Brian, your Shasta Gold fruits look big and nice. Let me know if it still is the best mandarin you have tasted when it ripens. Looking at your photos, the fruit skin appears to be soft and should peel easily. Can you tell me if it is easier to peel than the Gold Nugget or Murcott mandarin  with the tight smooth skin.

Johnny, my Gold Nugget seems to fruit regularly in my location.

[brian]

I started picking them occasionally, but I think they need more time to ripen on the tree as they are still slightly sour.  While I like acidity in citrus, this crop is not yet sweet enough to balance it out.  Still very tasty, though, I'm being picky at this point because I have a whole tree full of Dekopan to eat.

The fruits in this crop are very large and flat, with the fruits packed tightly together in clusters.  They are very easy to peel, though the rind breaks a bit so maybe not 100% zipper peel.  Peel has a very nice smell though not as nice as Dekopan.  The membrane between segments is slightly tougher than Dekopan and when you bite into the segments juice tends to shoot out.  No issues with granulation or puffiness so far.  Zero seeds as always. 

I'll report back again after I give them more time to ripen.  Right now they are very good but I'm less impressed than my first good crop.  Last season I bought a new Owari, as that was my previous favorite homegrown mandarin but my tree had died.  If the Shasta Gold fails to be consistently great I might replace it with the Owari at some point. 

[70Malibu]

Thanks for the details, nice to hear the peel is easy to remove. I noticed the same acid taste now on the Yosemite Gold fruits, still needs another month for the acidity to lower. My Gold Nugget fruits are all starting to turn orange color, but I know it will not be real sweet until February. But the Satsuma trees I help maintenance (in-laws) already ripened on the trees The same 2 trees had about 1000 fruits this year, not as much as previous years since I cut the tree down from15ft to 8ft.I'm going over there to the tree and pick off most of the remaining fruits.

I just had a mini-taste test of some citrus with a group of 5 people yesterday, here's what we tasted:
- Satsuma
- Kishu
- Nules Clementine
- Oro Blanco
- Honey Pomelo
- Cocktail pomelo, from Dennis's tree
- Valentine pomelo
-  Cocktail pomelo, from mine tree
- Golden pomelo

The winner/best tasting was the Cocktail pomelo (my tree).

[brian]

Picked another cluster today.  They are still a bit more tart than I prefer.  Really easy to peel now.  Still very juicy and messy.  Still a lot more of them on the tree I will leave for a while, and pick one every week or two over the winter. 

[Johnny Eat Fruit]

I normally do not begin to pick my Yosemite Golds until late February as they are to acidic.  Peak flavor at my location is late March or so.

It is interesting though my YG did not begin to alternate bear until it was older than eight years.

Johnny

[SoCalGardenNut]

I just had my first Gold Nugget from my front yard, I didn’t think they are ripe yet, but I picked one to try, much better than Sumo. Much better than the Gold Nugget from my sister’s yard. Very nice flavor, and I have mine in a small container. It’s in full sun. The tree is loaded.

[70Malibu]

Yes, I like Gold Nugget, my tree is old (20+ yrs) and it is always loaded with fruits. I can give them away fast enough. But as Johnny says, the Yosemite Gold and Gold Nugget get sweeter in Feb-March. My fruits taste good now, but it does have some tartness which I like. In Feb (Valentine day) or March it won't have any tartness. Much better to me than Satsuma since the skin is harder so it last longer and doesn't mold much at all on the counter. The Satsuma gets mold in 3-5 days after you pick it unless you refrigerate it.

[SoCalGardenNut]

I’m glad I got 4 successful grafts last year of Gold Nugget. I don’t think they sell this citrus anymore, this is why I bought 2 more Satsumas. But one of my Satsuma fruit looks like a Gold Nugget, thick skin, not thin skin at all.

[70Malibu]

Just checked CCPP, all the Gold TDE series is available as well as Gold Nugget. One budstick is $15 plus $10 for Fed Ex delivery.

[SoCalGardenNut]

I’m now grafting all my existing citrus trees, especially the ones that haven’t fruit yet, to this Good Nugget.

[70Malibu]

You should also graft one branch with Yosemite Gold, I thought that was the best of the UCR TDE and Gold Nugget.

Last year when I attended a private citrus tasting for our CRFG, there was about 50 different citrus varieties to taste. Out of these, the top 2 variety that got a rating of 10/10 (a tie) was Miho-Wase satsuma and the Lee x Nova (Superna). You can buy both of these budwood from UCR/CCPP now.

I just ate a few Superna mandarin fruits from a friends tree and it was very good. The brix was not very high but taste was excellent. I will need to see what the Tango and Yosemite Gold brix reading was, just did it 2 days ago.

[jbirdfunk]

You should also graft one branch with Yosemite Gold, I thought that was the best of the UCR TDE and Gold Nugget.

Last year when I attended a private citrus tasting for our CRFG, there was about 50 different citrus varieties to taste. Out of these, the top 2 variety that got a rating of 10/10 (a tie) was Miho-Wase satsuma and the Lee x Nova (Superna). You can buy both of these budwood from UCR/CCPP now.

I just ate a few Superna mandarin fruits from a friends tree and it was very good. The brix was not very high but taste was excellent. I will need to see what the Tango and Yosemite Gold brix reading was, just did it 2 days ago.

I agree 88-2 (lee x nova) and Miho are on another level and don’t get enough attention. I’ve added grafts on various trees in the garden. TDE are great but Gold Nugget is still my all around fav.

[70Malibu]

Gold Nugget is a reliable fruit producer, and taste is pretty consistent from year to year. I have some many Gold Nugget fruits, I'm just cutting down all the branches. My neighbors like to complain that it attracts the rats.