Hi,

Satsumas are the most hardy, but they are sweet. Not as sweeet as the Honey, but not like an orange. Not sure about the other two.

Minneola Tangelo is my personal favorite. They are soooo good. Juicy, Sweet with just a slight little bite. I would get one at the grocery and take one for a test drive.

From UCR: Minneola is a tangelo, a hybrid of Duncan grapefruit and Dancy mandarin, sometimes marketed under the name Honeybell. It was developed by the U. S. Department of Agriculture and released in 1931. The tree grows vigorously to a large size. The fruit is round with a pronounced neck and smooth red-orange rind that can be peeled. The flavor is rich and juicy, with a touch of its grapefruit parentÂs tartness. Minneola should be harvested late in the season to ensure the fruit reaches a desirable sugar to acid ratio. Minneola blossoms are self-incompatible and must be cross-pollinated by a suitable pollinator to assure good fruit set. Most mandarin-types are suitable pollinators, with the exception of Satsumas and MinneolaÂs siblings, Orlando and Seminole. Unfortunately, when cross-pollinated, MinneolaÂs fruits tend to be seedy.

Hope this helps.

Citrusboy aka Marc

Performance will depend a bit on your climate. I live in sunset 17 so that's all I can comment on.

I like Satsumas (seedless) when they're ripe, but I don't care for much of an acid background ( translate--I like Pixies though I am not big on Honeys :) Marc's right with their hardiness--most mandarins are quite cold hardy--and I find all of the mandarin types are pretty easy to care for (not picky like Meyer lemons). The thing about Satsumas--Owari is the type that you'll likely find in CA though I just got an Armstong--is that they are really slow growing and that the fruit doesn't hang on the tree very long at all. Clementines (mostly seedless depending on nearby pollinators) are also very good around here--not much acid there either--and do keep nicely on the tree. I've never had Minneola that I have actually liked b/c I think they are too sour and I only recently got a little tree--can't comment on it yet--but if you like a bit of tang you'll prolly like it. Dancys are also quite sweet.

In terms of yield, once the Satsuma gets going it isn't stingy. I find in general most of the mandarins produce good yields pretty easily...but some tend to alternate-bear. My Clementine (Algerian) has been like that lately, don't recall it so in the past, but maybe I am not remembering accurately...getting senile :)

HTH.

Thanks for the responses.

In terms of taste, is there a preference between the Dancy, Satsuma, or the Clementine.

I guess if you had to rank them best flavor, which order would you put them in. Wish I could just buy them and find out, but they are out of season.

Thanks

I like Clementine the best of the three followed by Satsuma and then Dancy...and I avoid McDonald's like the plague :)

You know Marc, I was gonna do the *exact same* with some cheapo trees that I have too....how'd you get your hands on the Treesource trees? They're an interesting source... I have a couple of tiny cone-sized ones from them but getting more can prove to be difficult--or maybe not? TIA.

Somehow I got on their Mailing list for available mini citrus (Cones). The last one, I placed an order with Frank Woods (VERY Busy)for about 15 trees, 7 in stock. They have a minimum order of 25 advertised on their website for the $7 each price but Frank never asked. Never asked for my tax resale cert # either. So we got all the credit card info down and solidified that they were going to send the 7 in stock trees this week. I just sent an email to Frank this morning and if I don't hear from him by... let's say 10am, I will be calling.

They haven't charged anything yet but they haven't sent me a confirmation, receipt or anything. Kind of disorganized. I will keep everyone informed of the Treesource process once I actually get some trees...

So, to recap.

Ordering trees in stock under the 25 min. Not difficult.
Getting trees in stock. Somewhere between "Shouldn't I have my trees by now?" and "I have to call these people." Not quite to "Where are my effing trees!?"
Ording trees that will be propagated. Not difficult.
Getting trees that will be propagated. See above.

Maybe I will drive up to Exeter, CA next week and get the "Cheapo" trees?!

*Cheapo*. Part of the extensive Rickjames citrus vocabulary collection.

Ah, I see...so this is a work in progress. Thank you for the info, I await with bated breath the outcome of your efforts. Met Frank Woods once before--you must have met him at UCR's centennial, yes?

And you are right, the citrus vocabulary can be quite extensive, most of it being expletives :)

I am looking, too, to plant a tangerine tree. First a question: do they need to be planted in pairs (I read once). Anyway, my kids will only eat Clementine and are angry if I buy a tangerine that is not?!?

Hi real novice,

Here is a quote from the UCR Citrus Variety page on Clementines:

"Clementine requires cross-pollination to ensure good fruit set. Unfortunately, cross-pollination also usually ensures a fruit containing many seeds. There are many Clementine selections and the season of maturity varies with the individual selection."

So it looks like if you plant just one, you won't get a tree that gets you a lot of fruit. However, they will have less seeds. It doesn't say anything about what they need to be cross polinated with, so I am assumming it's another Clementine. But then, you know what they say about assuming...

Citrusboy

Here is a link that might be useful: UCR Clementine Link

If you live close to Santa Cruz, you could have my Dancy. I am thinking of ripping it out. I have neglected it and it has turned into a monster. Plus it produces tons of fruit but I don't like the flavor. I prefer Satsuma or Honey.
Clare
{{gwi:589491}}

Well I LOVE Honey and Daisey and Kinnow because they have both high acid and high sugar. I do like the tangyness of high acid citrus though. I'll eat a lemon or lime out of hand. So, I would say the Algerian would be your best choice. The Satsumas (several varieties) are usually pretty mild, not to acid and Dancy is also fairly low acid by comparison.

All will be more tart early, and get sweeter with time.

Minneola is a cross of orange and grapefruit and one of my wife's favorite. they are quite tart but still have an orange flavor that some say is something like tangerine.

The Clementine can have a massive crop one year and then may not (and probably will not) have a crop the next year, or maybe the next two years. I am no expert, but you might check this out with some research. It was suggested that I take some of the young fruit off the trees so the trees wouldn't burn themselves out.

When this happened in my small orchard, my first reaction was to question my watering and feeding methods, but then I found out that this is the case with the Clem. I live in Georgia, just north of Florida -- it gets plenty hot and humid here; some years will be very dry and other years we'll have plenty of rain. We get several frosts in the winter and this winter had a few light freezes. I usually protect my trees when I expect some frost, but I have missed and the outer leaves on the trees with the dense canopies got burned. The trees with open canopies lost all their leaves, but had great growth in the spring.

This is a very helpful thread.

that is correct, they do tend to bear heavy alternate years. But I have always has some fruit on the every other off year. The heavy years I have lots to juice and to give away.
I have to say, a glass of fresh squeezed tangerine juice that has been set in the freezer for about 20 minutes to get cold, or better yet, just picked and juiced on a cool crisp winter morning.... ohhhhh my that is one of God's better creations!

I don't know if this fungal disease could be in your area, but here is a list from the Univ. of FL. of citrus trees affected by this fungal disease called Alternari brown spot...
Most affected: Dancy
Minneola tangelos

Severely affected: Murcotts (Honey)
Orlando tangelo
Nova
Lee tangelos
Robinson
Sunburst tangerines

Oranges are not affected.
Grapefruits are affected some if they are adjacent to a heavily infested tangerine or tangelos.

As you can see, the Clemintine was not on the list, but there was an article about the tree being infested from the UofFL.

My sweet Clems. are on the fast track for loosing every single young leaf and the rest of my Mandarins are next. There were heavy winds yesterday so several hours from now I should be raking double-time.

not only that, but I just realized this post started 2 years ago. LOL

I have a feeling that most people here who are commenting are too young to know what a real tangerine is. Real tangerines are not sweet, but kind of sour-tart and they originally came from North Africa. I want real tangerines! I have not been able to buy real tangerines for maybe forty years. Anyone know where I can get the real thing?

I suspect they are older now, as this thread started over 10 years ago

Boy, talk about raising the dead !!!

Tangerine is a marketing name... like ruby red. They are not specific varietal names. The name was generated for Mandarines from Tangiers if i recall.

I think you would like an early harvest Mandarin. Try growing a Clementine or similar and harvest them just at the first hint of color change.

No sir! I think that is completely wrong. I think the last real tangerine that I eat was about 40 years ago. Mandarins and clementines are not real tangerines, and they don't have to be harvested when they are green. Real tangerines are very bright orange colored, and are small, and they are not sweet. Whatever happened to our sour taste buds, so neglected, no not neglected, but forced not to be used! Everything has got to be sweet now. So thankful we still have lemons, but give them time, they will make them sweet to! I think the problem is that people are too young to have experienced real tangerines, I am 82, I know what a real tangerine is.

Ice,

You are soooo wrong... The first mandarins imported into the US were from Tangiers; and were marketed with the name "Tangerine".

Here is my favorite story about this.... Near my home town of Chico, California is a small grove of mandarins, named " Brown's Tangerines". He use to hire the local high school students to harvest them; and he sold them at the roadside on the honor system for $1 per bag... take a bag, put a dollar in the locked box. It was amazingly successful. One day someone (probably his college educated son) told him they were not tangerines; but mandarins. He changed the sign to "Brown's Mandarins" and sales began to fall off. One day, while he was re-stocking the roadside stand; a woman in a Cadillac stopped to buy some fruit. She said to the owner, "These mandarins are good; but whatever happened to those wonderful Tangerines you used to have?" Next day the sign was changed back to "Brown's Tangerines". True story... I used to use it in my Ag marketing courses.

I grew up using the term "tangerines" because that is what the supermarkets called the small fruits. The only people who use the term "mandarins" are people who grow citrus. To me, tangerines and mandarins are interchangeable.

John - love that story - ! I think I am going to have a few - ahem - tangerines, for lunch now.

You could be all right about them being different or being the same.

What one culture/country/generation calls something can be very different to what another country/culture/generation calls it. Yams. Limes. Schallots are all examples of this. Foods do change over time. Courgettes/zucchini/young marrow/summer squash :) could be quite bitter when I was little, I will rarely find a bitter one now. Thats ok. It is interesting to learn from each other and explore the differences.

Let's see, can I make this a lot simpler? I will not call them tangerines, but many years ago there were these kind of small really orange colored fruit that were sour and tart, and I loved them. Are mandarins sour and tart? No. So I must be talking about some other kind of fruit. Right? So what kind of fruit are they, these tart ones? Let me say this: the confusion is that I don't believe any of you have tasted these tart fruit, you could not have, because if you had you would not be calling them mandarins for crying out loud!

Very true icehoe, best of luck on your search, may you find them.

Johnmerr is exactly so correct. The word Tangerine has no scientific standing at all. Tangerine is/was simply a marketing name, that came about due to the fruit (mandarins) being imported from Tangiers.

If you are looking for something tart perhaps try a Tangelo