I am going to take a guess that no one will have clear answers to your questions, but the superiority of Sky Valley fruit over others is probably multifactorial. One thing you didn't include is watering and fertilizing practices. Over the years, people have complained (on this board and others) that California citrus are dry and lack flavor. I would agree that many citrus from CA bought in grocery stores are disappointing, however the citrus I harvest from my own garden in CA and purchase from a few select sellers in CA (e.g. Frog Hollow farms) are absolutely delicious and juicy. This has nothing to do with the fact that the fruit originate from CA. Instead I think a lot of this has to do watering and fertilizing practice, not some intrinsic superiority of the trees that I own compared to those of professional growers.

-Brett

Dave, you ask the question..."is Sour Orange root stock that good". The answer is yes (if Tristeza is not in your area). Does the age of a citrus make a big difference in the fruit's taste....Absolutely yes. Does location make a difference in quality ....yes it does.

sky Valley has a niche market to sell to a group of buyers a citrus that taste better than anyone else's. They can afford to leave the fruit on the tree until ripe. They use the, superior to most other rootstock, 'sour orange. The others don't use the rootstocks that come close enough to sour orange to make the grade. Sky probably spends the little extra to ensure they have the best Sky also has the clientèle that will pay a little extra for better and sky is probably selling at a little extra rather than price gouging.

The politics and policies of the company is as much responsible for the better fruit.

Steve

You could buy a couple of Seville oranges and plant the seeds. Your seedlings will be ready to graft by June and you can be picking in 2 years.

Steve

My Seville orange seedlings take about 2 years to get to an appropriate grafting size. I even leave them in a hot greenhouse in the winter so they continue to grow all year round. They aren't that fast!

This is a 7 month old US897 rootstock with a New Zealand lemonade scion.

It has produced 4 lemons and is well branched. I don't have tree pictures here with me in Philadelphia Pa.

1 of 5 of my 50 week old seedling Meiwa kumquat trees. They are twice as big as the grafted tree above.

https://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/85336102/thumbs/seedling-meiwa-kumquats-1-9

I VERY much doubt that many (if any) people on this board could duplicate that rate of rootstock seedling growth. Six months to grafting is not a reasonable estimate of how long the average person on this board will have to wait.

How big do you want your rootstock to be when you graft it. Mine was a single trunk 16 inches tall and 1/8 inch diameter at the base and 1/16 in diameter at the point of grafting. I grafted to 3 year old rioted cutting Kuharske Citranges with 3/8 in bases and i grafted 4 inches above the soil line. I also grafted to US897 rootstock seedlings, both just under 1/4 inch diameter 4 inches from the soil line. I get most of my growth in the winter with my plants under 16 hours of lights, not in a greenhouse.

Fukushu on 2 year old C35 seedling. Bud burst out 8-1-17, picture 12 1-17

Bucket light quintuples growth on US897 in same amount of time. Picture of exact setup with my seed grown Meiwa seedlings. No picture of US897 setup but the same bucket and cups were used a year earlier. Bucket to right

Can we see pictures of your sour oranges seedlings

last winter 8 month old NZL on US897

I just noticed that Dave in NoVA must have gotten this Sky Valley thread idea off another citrus form on the Internet.

Thanks all. I was just hoping some people (especially California fruit growers) would comment on what is truth and what is hype about these oranges. I mean most California hobbyists claim their home-grown navel oranges are wonderful! Are they all growing 'old-line navels'? Are they all growing on Sour Orange rootstock? Probably not. But they are letting them ripen perfectly AND they are storing them on the tree and not in a warehouse.

Also, I have a hard time believing that the specific location where Sky Valley oranges are being grown is all that unique within California. There must be similar climate and soil in the San Joaquin Valley all along the Sierra to the East. And as has been mentioned, some rootstocks are better in different soils.

So I was suspecting that the chief reason that most of our grocery store fruit is so inferior is that the fruit had been picked too early and stored too long.

Silica, I had done a search for Sky Valley Heirloom and one previous thread did come up from a few years ago.

I suspect you are right Dave...picking at the right time and quickly distribution would greatly affect flavor.

There are 2 things I remember clearly as a child.

1. Bananas tasted great

then they didn't taste great any more

2 Oranges tasted great and then they didn't

It wasn't until I got involved in the citrus web that I learned of the tristeza virus that left us with low quality oranges on so so rootstocks and the fungus that wiped out the grenella banana that replace by the Cavandish.

I also learned that the oranges I eat 50 years ago were probably Changsha satsumas.

there are rootstocks that come close enough to the sour orange in producing great fruit but are not used because they are not as resilient as the sour orange. Other resilient inferior fruit producing rootstocks are used instead.

It is amazing how many interesting facts can be found cruzing theminternet.

Here is a link to the previous thread:

http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/2810426/heirloom-orangeswhere-are-they?n=28

People can write Sky Valley heirloom oranges are all marketing or all hype, and what not, UNTIL they actually taste them. There is a big difference.

Silica: Big difference between Sky Valley heirloom oranges and what?? Home-grown? Store-bought? Can you be more specific?

They sell at Trader Joes and we have a Trader Joe's 26 mile round trip. I Can't find out how to contact S.V. They work through Facebook and appear to have no home office of their own.

I really doubt Sky Valley (Cecelia packing) sells direct to retail.

Whoever sees the first Sky Valleys in the stores this winter (and lets us know) gets a an award! These are the BEST.