how can you tell that satsuma is ripe?

You probably should have thinned off some of the fruit and not let so many fruit grow on one branch. Might be too late now. The branch is not going to be able to support all that weight.

In the wild, these trees with big size fruit don't begin producing until the tree is much bigger with thicker branches. So grafting the tree onto rootstock is not really entirely natural and leads to some issues that require human intervention.

I'm surprised Ponderosa is doing as well as it is in your zone 9a climate. I thought Ponderosa lemon tended to be a little less cold tolerant than other lemons. (I could be wrong)

Bklyn, perhaps Satsumas ripen differently in different climates but it's my experience that you can eat Satsumas as soon as the peel gets at least some yellow on it. Sure, it will sweeten more later but the inside will be riper than you might expect when there is still green along with the first yellow areas.

Socal, yes, thinning would have helped...clearly. This tree, as are all of my Ponderosas, is seed-grown. They start producing fruit early for a seed-grown citrus....from 5-7 years after planting the seed. I do get some freeze damage to the younger trees but the mature trees have hung in there in the past several winters (especially winter before last) when we had temps down around 25F at night. That definitely kills back small diameter growth and the mature trees lost a lot of leaves but they hung in there. I have about 20 Ponderosas at lots of different ages....just couldn't see killing trees that came up in my compost so I transplanted them to different parts of the yard. My first five trees are also seed-grown from a co-worker's lemons he shared.

What great trees! How fun to see seed-grown trees making fruit. My satsumas are just beginning to color up and are certainly ready to eat!

John, your trees are loaded with fruit, beautiful! I have two loquat seedlings in containers, they are 3 years old and 5-6 feet tall. Do you think I can get fruit on them at some point?

John, your trees look fantastic! Great to have you back!

Sunshine, you might get fruit from your potted loquats. I don't have any experience with potted loquats so I don't know how long it may take for them to fruit that way. Mine fruited for the first time this spring and the tree is about 10ft tall. It sure liked that spot to grow!

Kelley, thanks! Looking forward to some fruit in a month or so. Actually, I already had a few satsumas. The peel is pretty green but the ones that have some yellow areas are pretty good.

I just can't wait to try the blood oranges.....been YEARS since I planted that tree! Going to be a lot of work juicing them but already getting set up to juice and freeze lemon juice. Also picking up cardboard boxes to share lemons with a few locals who want some. I wish I could share with my Gardenweb friends but the FDA would rightfully frown on sharing across counties and states to boot! Does anyone know off the top of your head what rules there may be regarding transport of just the juice? I don't know if citrus greening can be spread via the fruit juice. I assume the law applies to any part of the fruit, including the juice but not sure.

John I love seeing your huge trees in the ground loaded with fruit! I can’t be how big that little dig has grown! Wonderful! Just today my daughter picked a fig off the parent tree and devoured it.

The fig took a while to settle in but now it's on a growth spurt. It will be interesting to see how well it does in my climate. The celeste has a tendency to sprawl out but this one is starting out straight up.