Who's got Tangerines Ripening?

[Calusa]

My little 7' tree (Dancy) has about 3 dozen or so tangerines that are about half orange-red and getting more ripe each day.
I expect mid-January will be picking time. Look forward to it.

Anyone else?

[poncirsguy]

I got New Zealand lemonade, Fukushu kumquats, and Meiwa kumquats ripening at this time.  I will be picking fruits up to may.

[sc4001992]

Ponkan mandrins are starting to ripen, some are already ripe and tasty.


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[Galatians522]

Dancy was originally grown for the Christmas market here in Florida. One of the issues with HLB is that it causes delayed ripening and keeps the peel from turning fully orange as soon. Page and Dancy should be starting to get ripe at the farm.

[EricSC]

Ponkan mandrins are starting to ripen, some are already ripe and tasty.


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That are a lot of ponkan.   When compared with Satsuma, which one  would you like more?   And how are they different? To me, Satsuma is good but the inner cell is a little tough, and the taste is not as rich as Clementine.

[manfromyard]

My seedless Changsha has about 12 on it (it's still small). I've been sampling one each week to try and see when the fruit are ripe. The ones this week were very good. There's a point where they go from too tart, to just right, to insipid. December though January seems to be the best time for these..

[EricSC]

I have a small Oroblanco tree with has 10 fruits this year (I thinned them in spring).   I started sampling them in early November that was a little sour and bitter, about comparable to those purchased from stores.   Now in early December, they taste clean sweet with little sour and bitter remaining.

[Oolie]

I tried one yesterday from a dooryard tree in Alabama. The fruit was shaped like Dancy and it was phenomenal.

[sc4001992]

Gold Nugget, looks ripe, but not yet. I tried one fruit, it was not sweet yet. My fruits become sweet in Jan-Feb.

[sc4001992]

Eric,

I did compare the taste of Satsuma and the Ponkan, to me the Satsuma doesn't have much flavor. If it is picked after it looks nice an ripe (2-3wkks orange color) it may still be just watery tasting and not much sweetness. Satsuma that I grow seems to need to be leaft hanging on the tree for a long time until the skin starts to feel puppy, so maybe until January in my location. The Ponkan starts to ripen in November and continues hanging until January. I tastes good now, sweet with no acid/tartness. But if I wait until January it gets even better. So Ponkan wins in taste for me.

I'll post a few photos of the Satsuma fruits and Ponkan fruits later tonight. I only have one clementine (Fina) and it doesn't have much fruit this year. I grafted more clementine varieties so in a few years I should be able to compare the other good ones (Nules).

[Calusa]

All the photos of mandarins in this thread look great, and I congratulate you all on your beautiful and delicious crops. Thanks for sharing!

Me? I'm cutting down my two trees this weekend and starting over with one Sugar Belle, with hopes of avoiding the HLB that got my Dancy and Minneola.

[EricSC]

Eric,

I did compare the taste of Satsuma and the Ponkan, to me the Satsuma doesn't have much flavor. If it is picked after it looks nice an ripe (2-3wkks orange color) it may still be just watery tasting and not much sweetness. Satsuma that I grow seems to need to be leaft hanging on the tree for a long time until the skin starts to feel puppy, so maybe until January in my location. The Ponkan starts to ripen in November and continues hanging until January. I tastes good now, sweet with no acid/tartness. But if I wait until January it gets even better. So Ponkan wins in taste for me.

I'll post a few photos of the Satsuma fruits and Ponkan fruits later tonight. I only have one clementine (Fina) and it doesn't have much fruit this year. I grafted more clementine varieties so in a few years I should be able to compare the other good ones (Nules).

Good to hear that Ponkan is better than Satsuma.  My Satsuma is good but the fruits have a short pick up duration.  Early the fruits are sour or watery, vs too late to be dry, tough cell.   They have a clean flavor but never get very sweet .  At the same time, clementine fruits are slightly more sweet with much rich flavor, but the tree is hard to manage: easy to be alternative baring, and fruits get a lot of seeds if cross polinated by other citrus tree. 

[sc4001992]

Yes, I agree about the Clementine, my Fina seems to be alternate bearing, this year it only had 6 fruits. But I'm also grafting other Clementine varieties now so I should have some that will hold fruit every year.