'Kishu' mandarin: Nothing to sneeze at

I had company over last weekend and was asked for the obligatory garden tour. When I presented the ‘Kishu’ mandarin tree to my friend’s wife she jokingly said, “Gesundheit!” I then told her the fruit was nothing to sneeze at. :slight_smile:

The tree is loaded with fruit that is still green shouldered, with a bit of yellow/orange blush, but I grew bold and started to peel one for grins. That wonderful perfume jumped out like it always does, a sure sign that the essence was there. Even slightly early, ‘Kishu’ is still a winner.

Lesson learned, don’t wait for full blown orange. They are very good with some green still on them. Get out there and try some now. OK?

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Agreed. Start sampling when they are becoming yellower. I hope to find a local seller with some Kishu trees, but saw none last year to buy. I just ate my first couple Page mandarins, and they were nice even though not yet full color ripened. I will let most of the satsumas and mandarins continue to tree ripen until they get exposed to some 30-40 degree weather for the final sweetening boost before they get picked and given away or juiced for the freezer. A local grower loves munching on the small Kishu’s when he is out working in his orchard, so he grabs a pocketful before getting started with his work.

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‘Page’ holds so well here that I normally wouldn’t try them early. They do lose some zip as they hold but they do become easier to peel.

Mr. Clint, do you feel like your kishu tree is a slow grower? Ours has been in the ground for two years now but seems to be growing much slower than our other mandarin trees (gold nugget and satsuma). Maybe a worse patch of clay for its site but I looked online and another person also mentioned relatively slow growth.

That might be a matter of perspective. It’s certainly a very well-behaved and productive dwarf tree. I bought mine directly from Four Winds so it was expected to stay on the smallish side. It’s the only Four Winds dwarf tree that I have, so I can’t compare it 1:1 with any of my other citrus.

Most of my citrus are from Durling (not a conscious choice, just what’s always been readily available here).

Since I got this tree from Home Depot, I would like to confirm if it indeed is seedless Kishu as they say.

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I can’t say for certain, but both the fruit and leaves look like my Kishu.

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