Satsuma Tree - SoCal fruits

[sc4001992]

Yup, too much fruit left on the tree is not good. That's why I pick 200 fruits at a time from now until January or the branches will break from the weight. I'm picking another 200 fruits tomorrow.

[jbirdfunk]

People keep mentioning the Sarawak/Tahitian pummelo is good, but I didn't think so and I top worked my tree with other better tasting varieties.

I remember reading those comments about Tahitian and bought one on a whim at Lowe’s that was on sale. Still small but I’ll make a cocktail out of it if it’s not good. I finally have some Chandler coming in this year after 3 years in the ground. I don’t expect to be wowed and will graft others on.

Still a favorite in our house is Oro Blanco (more grapefruit than pomelo of course) but I’m planting a couple more because we get friends and family asking for them.

[sc4001992]

I have a few older Oroblanco trees which always gets many fruits. My tree has fruit clusters like grapes, and these fruits weigh over 1lb each so I need to put some rope to support the branches before they break off. I had one side branch (2" diameter) that was holding 110 Oroblanco, the fruits almost got completely yellow before the entire branch broke off.

You might want to add the Melogold (VI323, sister of Oroblanco) since it is also seedless, but sweeter, not much sour taste at all. On my Oroblanco fruits I can taste a little sour after I eat it.

[SoCalGardenNut]

Ok, she is right, that one is very good, I bought many from Weee online store. I'm not sure what the real variety name is, it may be buoi Da Xanh (Green Skin). There are a few other varieties from Vietnam that is supposed to be real good tasting called buoi Tien Vua, and buoi Tam Hong. The neat one is the Tien Vua, all red skin and red flesh.

I have a friend who is growing the green skin, red flesh pomelo so I hope to taste one from the tree in January.

Because of this thread I went to an Asian supermarket and got some Emerald Red(name according to Whee). This fruit is not super sweet, very deep green skin, i.e. I don't think it was picked at its peak, I personally want to taste it before I pursue this variety.

I have a spot where my mulberry Silk Hope is located, I’ll probably replace it with this pomelo variety.

[jbirdfunk]

I have a few older Oroblanco trees which always gets many fruits. My tree has fruit clusters like grapes, and these fruits weigh over 1lb each so I need to put some rope to support the branches before they break off. I had one side branch (2" diameter) that was holding 110 Oroblanco, the fruits almost got completely yellow before the entire branch broke off.

You might want to add the Melogold (VI323, sister of Oroblanco) since it is also seedless, but sweeter, not much sour taste at all. On my Oroblanco fruits I can taste a little sour after I eat it.

Thanks for the advice on Melogold - it's been in my ccpp cart a few times but never bought it. I will try it. I also have Banpeiyu pumelo, Thong Dee, Siam Ruby and Bakouzba on my list.

My Oro Blanco has about 60-75 large fruits a year but has not broken any branches. Mine also does the cluster growth, some branches must hold 10-20lb of fruit but no breaking. These branches recurve down to the ground and it almost looks like it's a bush citrus. Tree is only 5' tall but 8' wide.

My Gold Nugget broke several finger thickness branches last year and I was able to save a few with poly grafting tape and support and they've grown back and look strong but I'm keeping the fruit thinned this year.

[sc4001992]

SoCalGardenNut, I don't know how many different pomelo varieties you have tasted, but most have no taste or are barely sweet. I have tried most of the varieties that you can buy here in the Asian markets and from friends yards and from my UCR varieties.

The Emerald Red (buoi da xanh) is good (average to good) taste for the store-bought pomelos, at least it has some taste, most of the ones you will see during December-January celebrating the Chinese New Years (White Honey, Red Honey, is for looks, but no taste. I just order a few myself to see if they taste any better than the ones I tried earlier. Still tastes the same, good, but not very sweet at all, oranges or mandarins are sweeter. It will be interesting to see how the fresh Da Xanh fruit will taste from a member's tree.

My Cocktail grapefruits are excellent tasting with sweet, very juicy, but a little tartness. The Valentine pomelos on my trees are just starting to turn yellow, should be ready in late January to compare it. Also, my Roy seedling pomelos are all turning a little yellow now so by end of January I should have photos to show. The Thong Dee and Banpeiyu is behind, still large green fruits but no yellow so probably will be in February before it is ripe. Next year I should have about 14 pomelo varieties fruiting to do some taste comparison. I think some people like the pomelos which are drier, not as juicy as a grapefruit. I like both dry flesh and juicy flesh as long as they taste good with some tartness like the Cocktail grapefruit hybrid.

If you like sweet citrus fruits, then pomelo may not be what you want to add. Instead, I suggest you gets Satsuma (like the tree above), or other good tasting mandarins like the Gold Nugget, and Yosemite Gold (both seedless) which have high fruit production and are seedless. Don't buy a Kishu since it is just a miniature version of a seedless Satsuma.

[SoCalGardenNut]

Kaz, you are correct, I bought another variety, Buoi Bien Hoa, pretty tasteless to me. Next year, I should be able to purchase some pomelos from a Fallbrook nursery, I might have a chance to taste homegrown pomelos and make better assessment.
I already have Kishu, pretty tasty fruit, and I also have a Golden Nugget, but no fruit so far, my sister has one tree with 3 fruit. Maybe I will get to taste it eventually.
She also have a small Cara Cara Orange, I wonder should I graft this to my Valencia Orange or just graft another Sumo branch to it. Valencia Orange is very sour for some reason. My Washington Navel is much bigger and very sweet. What do you think of these varieties?

[sc4001992]

Valencia is always acidic tasting, will not improve. But good thing is, it will fruit a long time, my tree gets ripe fruits 3-4 times during the year when other varieties are not ready to eat. Cara Cara is not very sweet, like a pink navel. Washington navel is always sweeter and juicier. But the pink flesh is nice.

[sc4001992]

Graft a Sumo.

[SoCalGardenNut]

Valencia is always acidic tasting, will not improve. But good thing is, it will fruit a long time, my tree gets ripe fruits 3-4 times during the year when other varieties are not ready to eat. Cara Cara is not very sweet, like a pink navel. Washington navel is always sweeter and juicier. But the pink flesh is nice.

Out of all my citrus trees, Valencia has the best shape, very nice green leaves. I agree with you, I will graft a Sumo, I hope it takes this time, lol. I bought 3 scions from UCR last time and only one graft took.

[sc4001992]

I picked another 500-600 fruits from the same tree. I need to trim it back more, has too many fruits.

[SoCalGardenNut]

Kaz,
I just bought this pomelo from the local Zion market, they are green outside and pink inside, pretty juicy, but not as sweet, but much cheaper than the other varieties so far. Do you know what this variety is?

[sc4001992]

No, I don't recognize that one, looks nice on the inside. The flesh almost looks fine like the Ruby Honey, but it has more of a yellow green skin, and the flesh looks similar but it was the best one I tasted, very sweet.

[sc4001992]

.

Can anyone read this tag and tell me what variety it says?

[BorisR]

I translated it as "Ruby Pumelo", I don't know how true that is. Perhaps there are some subtle shades of meaning.

Here are the hieroglyphs just in case: 红宝石柚

By the way, about the translations. I come across "Pumelo" and "Pomelo", are these equivalent words in English?

[mikkel]

Thai Red Ruby

https://www.hardtofindtrees.com/product/thai-ruby-%E6%B3%B0%E5%9B%BD%E7%BA%A2%E5%AE%9D%E7%9F%B3/

also:
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=%E7%BA%A2%E5%AE%9D%E7%9F%B3%E6%9F%9A#vhid=OXVA0YiXngFuMM&vssid=_LSlfZ4-WDfSI7NYPqvyp8Q8_35

[sc4001992]

Boris, yes, some people call it pomelo, UCR says pummelo.

[sc4001992]

Mikkel, thank you for this info. I forgot the hardtofindtrees showed it in their catolog. Only issue with their citrus and other rare items are they come dropped  shipped from China so you will most likely have the FDA/agriculture dept confiscate and destroy any orders.

[bussone]

I translated it as "Ruby Pumelo", I don't know how true that is. Perhaps there are some subtle shades of meaning.

Here are the hieroglyphs just in case: 红宝石柚

By the way, about the translations. I come across "Pumelo" and "Pomelo", are these equivalent words in English?

There's not really a consistent English spelling. It's basically translated phonetically at your own risk.

[sc4001992]

I had more mandarins from my trees. My ponkan mandarins are starting to ripen so I gave many fruits to people to get their feedback on the taste, also some ripe Washington Navel, Cocktail and Valentine pomelo. Everyone like the seedless Satsuma mandarins since it is sweet with no seeds.

But the latest feedback I got from the same people who have been tasting these varieties said they liked the Valentine the best. I like to give the fruits to the 4-5 postal workers at the office.

One person from the post office said "it is so sweet,  so juicy, so good, love it, The best."

[jbirdfunk]

Valencia is always acidic tasting, will not improve. But good thing is, it will fruit a long time, my tree gets ripe fruits 3-4 times during the year when other varieties are not ready to eat. Cara Cara is not very sweet, like a pink navel. Washington navel is always sweeter and juicier. But the pink flesh is nice.

Regarding Valencia:
We bought a rental property that had a Valencia of some sort, looks about 15 years old, who knows. Anyway, it was ignored for years, had lots of dried fruit, shriveled, etc but also 2 distinct crops on it that looked good. The older looking crop looked fine but could tell it was leftover from previous year and the fruit had a little more give to them.  There was some newer fruit turning orange. The old fruit was picked and was the most delicious rich tasting oranges we have ever eaten. Then later on I heard this is done in Japan and they are called “2 year oranges”. So that is a way to get Valencia to not be as acidic!
I have a midknight Valencia and may add another Valencia just to alternate picking to do this

[sc4001992]

jbirdfunk, that is interesting. I know that sometimes my Valencia fruits are sweeter than other times. Since I have more than one crop on the Valencia I never kept track, maybe that is the reason it was good once in a while but other times usually sweet with lots of acid. I still like the fruit, just not as sweet as others. I have 3-4 different Valencia types since they do ripen when my other citrus does not. I like my variegated Valencia (3 different ones) just because they have the neat variegated leaves and the fruits are also variegated until they ripen.

[SoCalGardenNut]

I have 2 Valencia trees, i might leave some alone just to see if this is true. But I’m wondering if i do that will it affect my potential graft with Sumo. I plan to graft both trees to Sumo.

[Oolie]

I have other citrus trees that will hold fruit until the next crop is ripe, but they are almost always a dry husk of their former glory by that point. Valencias are the exception.