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? Summer ripening mandarins

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brettay:
Hey all, are there any good summer ripening mandarins?  I have gold nugget which ripens in late spring and holds well on the tree into summer.  I’ve been disappointed with the fruit quality of gold nugget however.  It’s, in general, pretty dry.  It seems like I’m not the only one who has had this experience.  Are there any other mandarins that you can pick in the summer?  I would imagine that these would also be fruits that ripen in late spring and can hold on the tree well.  Thoughts?

-Brett

poncirsguy:
Valencia

From Google:
  What is special about Valencia oranges?
Image result for valencia oranges
Worldwide, Valencia oranges are prized as the only variety of orange in season during summer. Furthermore, Valencia oranges bring benefits because of the vitamin C and flavonoids contained. In 2012, the genome of the orange was sequenced, and was found to have 
  From Me:
  WOW!

sc4001992:
I also have a large/old gold nugget tree which finishes with ripe fruit about now. My gold nugget tastes good til the end (mid-June).

But there is another mandarin that hangs longer, it's a murcott mandarin. I have two versions of the murcott tree which has different fruits/tastes. The ones that hang on the tree ripe until July is the murcott (honey, from FL) with super thin, smooth skin, has many seeds, and is very sweet. When you compare the taste of the fruits in May-June with gold nugget the murcott is much sweeter and juicier. I'll pick a few ripe fruits tomorrow and post it so you can see what the murcott fruit looks like. Of all my mandarins, it is the only one that is still ripening now (March-July?). The fruit skin is so thin and tightly adheres on the flesh, so it is not as easy to peel but it does still peel away from the flesh sacks. This murcott variety closely matches the UCR CCPP VI-147. My other murcott (VI-462) fruits are different. It has very few seeds, peels easily, but doesn't hold until June. The VI-462 ripens from Jan-Apr/May. It tastes more watery and not as sweet as the VI-147.

Yes, I agree, I have four varieties of Valencia orange and they do stay ripe and hang on the tree during summer. They are good for juicing, messy if you try to peel and eat it, very juicy. If I had to choose between the murcott and valencia orange, I would pick the valencia orange since it has less seeds, fruits are larger, so you get more to eat.

Oolie:
I have had many disappointing GN's as you have described, but they, like most, mandarins will be like that for the first 7 years or so, after which they improve dramatically.

Other super lates are Pixie, and Shasta gold, which hangs well until late.

I've also got a navel which holds until May or so that many have mistaken for a mandarin, but it's a sweet orange by flavor.

Galatians522:
Murcott and W. Murcott are two totally distinct varieties which leads to a lot of confusion. To add to the confusion, Murcott is often marketed as "Honey" but there is an third mandarin by that name! King was the old Florida stand by for late production and had a reputation for being the latest to ripen. The internet tells me that it does not fare well in California. Although they have quite a few seeds Murcott has such a rich sweet flavor that it is definitely worth growing in my opinion.

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