The Seedless Kishu mandarin is probably the finest mandarin variety out there. It is exceptionally good. The ONLY reason this mandarin has not made commercial headlines is due to its size - it's little. But, it makes up for it by having a real zipper skin, is probably the most seedless of any "seedless" citrus fruit, and is super sweet, yet has a lovely complex "tangerine" flavor. Cannot speak more highly of the Seedless Kishu mandarin. I don't have an Indio Mandarinquat, but if you found one at Costco, snag it. They are pretty hard to find.

And, you really want to stick with a semi-dwarf Meyer. They are very vigorous growers, and you'll have to do some serious pruning to keep it at a "pickable" height. And, hard to say height-wise. Not very big if they are only 1 year old. But, remember, trees in the store are probably 2 to 3 years old.

Patty S.

...And you may want to think twice before getting more than one Meyer. At maturity they're known to produce a LOT of fruit in a season (I've read upwards of 75 lbs!), and you may be hard-pressed to make use of it all. If it were me, I'd aim for variety and plant as many different kinds of citrus as my garden could bear.

Tim

Try more like 175 lbs, Tim. I'll take a photo of my Meyer. It's a semi-dwarf. I am not lying when I say there are probably 200 fruit on this tree right now. I have Meyer lemons coming out my ears. Neighbors pull down their blinds when they see me coming with bags in hand. Tim is right, pick another interesting citrus. One Meyer is PLENTY. It is by far one of the most prolific citrus trees ever.

Patty S.

I sure hope I get a ton of Meyers!

We have a large enough area to support a variety of trees and a large veggie/berry garden. We already have 3 lemons, one Eureka that produces well but is in danger of dying at any time. The trunk on it has been half dead for decades but someday it will fall over. And 2 mutant lemons, I think root stock that took over decades ago.

But the standard meyer is going in a row with 2 limes another eureka and a clementine all standards now. The little meyer is with our little grapefruit instead.

FYI, all that juice freezes really well and makes for some great year round lemonade.

In our area, near Houston, the Kyshu is good but not all that good unless you're one of those that is completely seed intolerant. I gave Robert Soliz, a poster here, a bag of mixed fruit to sample and he and his boy liked the CCTC Kat mandarins. He talked about them almost as much as the Pages. CCTC is a Chinese Kat that means small sweet orange Chou Chau Tien Chieh or something like that spelling. It is not in my Oxford Mandarin Dictionary. But say "show shau tea-in shay" and native Chinese will know what you said. It bears huge crops and is very cold hardy. I thinned it twice when they were less than thumbnail size and still got two and a half crates off that six year old tree. It will probably give less this year because I haven't gathered all the fruit off it yet. I have a Tim Kat in a pot that is supposed to be the best Kat but it needs to be in the ground for that.

Indio Mandarinquat is just too tart for me. They are best as an ornamental. Think tiny Minneola, that's what the tree looks like. They are beautiful.

Tantanman, I am thinking of the Mandarinquat to replace a kumquat tree that has stopped producing. It was ignored and lost under a bougainvillea for years. But several years of pampering only got us 6 fruit and it is in a bad spot to start with and I am thinking it is just one more plant that the root stock took over.

FYI dad was a serious gardener for years (he wrote for the paper-consulted to local estates and was a rare fruit growers member along with teaching/educating many of the people inspired in the 60/70s) so the yard was his baby. He loved trees and "found a space" to always fit one more. But too many trees is a problem and so is aging. He was proud of his urban jungle and wanted to be the only with his hands on the property but years of not being able to work in the yard left mom and me a task to try and create an orchard and garden that we can use for our purposes.

If the Indio Mandarinquat is not so tasty

Which Mandarin would you pick from?

Semi dwarf Gold Nugget
Semi dwarf Tango
Semi dwarf Page
Standard Pixie (on Carrizo)

to go with a Kishu Seedless Standard on Carrizo?

We are on a hot west facing hillside, but in a coastal town-Santa Barbara

We have 9 existing oranges (probably planted in the 1890-1920s), a large mandarin guessing satsuma mostly (has at least one grafted limb-over 60 years old) And the new lemons, limes and clementine.

I recently attended a citrus class and the speaker spoke very highly of Kishu. He was not selling plants, but was a researcher from the Riverside experimental station of UC.

To go with the Kishu, I'd pick in order: Page, Gold Nugget, or Tango. And that's a hard call, as they're all very good. Kishu ripens December through January, Tango ripens February through April, Page is ripe from November through January and Gold Nugget ripens from February through June (holds very well on the tree.) So, you might want to think about a succession planting, to give you mandarins for the longest time possible. Your Clementine will be your earliest mandarin, October through December (Christmas mandarins). So, personally, I would plot out what will give you the longest mandarin availability.

Patty S.

I became annoyed with how small the kishu fruit is. I topworked the tree to red navel. I think you will be happier with a larger mandarin no matter how tasty the kishu is. Indio mandarinquat is extremely sour like a lemon on a fruit that is much smaller. IMHO it can't be eaten hole like a kumquat. The fruit is very pretty though. I have one in a pot because of the pretty fruit.

Caution on page, very tasty, but fruit is also small and very seedy.

Here is a link that might be useful: mrtexas

Thanks for the ideas!

I think I am going to go with the gold nugget and the kishu

mrtexas, just eat 2, 3 or 4 Kishu. The skin zippers right off. You can pop 1/2 a Kishu right into your mouth at once. They are very prolific producers, so there's not shortage of fruit. The flavor is better than any other mandarin I've had so far. Doesn't bother me in the least since the taste is so exceptional.

Patty S.

Instead of 4 kishu I eat one satsuma

I thinned my pages last year so there were only one fruit to each six to eight inches on each branch. Result was almost no small fruit less than two inches. Most 2+1/2 to 2+3/4 inch diameter which is larger than super market size. Total lbs a little less but much better quality than last year.

Don't let the branches get too long. Pinch out the tips to get them to grow more branches every 8 to 14 inches. A key key to making a lot of fruit.

It is a small type tree and the roots will cause no problems.

Nice looking tree.

Thanks for taking the time to respond!