I got a Gold Nugget Mandarin from Four Winds Growers. I just opened the box and it has thorns. I thought mandarins don’t have thorns. Are gold nugget a exception?
My Gold Nugget has thorns and came from the same seller.
1 Like
Did it produce yet? I am wondering if it is true to name or if it is just a ungrafted tree. I don’t see a graft on my tree which is weird.
No,but the tree is flowering right now.From what I’ve read,the thorns appear,when young and then stop after getting more mature.
3 Likes
I got one from from Four Winds also. It’s now 3 years old. Only one branch has thorns, even the though the branch is above the graft line. it will be interesting to see if that branch produces flowers next year.
2 Likes
My Tahoe Gold from Four Winds also has thorns. It looks like it was a bud graft, which makes it harder to spot than a cleft or whip. I didn’t think the thorns were an issue, but I’m pretty new to citrus so I’ll follow along with this thread!
1 Like
My Gold Nugget has no thorns. Also a Four Winds tree.
1 Like
Do you have any pictures of how yours looked? I have found posts stating their Gold Nugget from Four Winds and the Gold Nugget from Costco had it. I am hoping it is not a bad graft.
Yeah I guess I noticed a slight indentation but don’t see a big graft point. My Owari Satsuma has no thorns and you can clearly see the graft which is why I was curious.
A good page description of gold nugget.
Leafs are often distinct on citrus types .
http://idtools.org/id/citrus/citrusid/factsheet.php?name=Gold%20Nugget
1 Like
My gold nugget mandarin from Four Winds Growers also has thorns. My Owari Satsuma and California Honey do not (yet anyways).
1 Like
Interesting. The older branches I never noticed any thorns but in these pictures you can see some areas where it does have them. They’re also not very sharp, but still present in some places.
2 Likes
In my experience, if a mandarin tree has thorns, it’s actually a rootstock that overtook the graft. Have seen it multiple times.
1 Like
I just sent a message to Four Winds about this.
1 Like
Many citrus plants produce thorns when they are young which will disappear later. Some varieties do retain them, e.g Shasta Gold. Even in the ones that disappear, heavy pruning will produce new growth with thorns. If you bought a Four Winds tree in their “semi-dwarf” rootstock, I believe it is C-35. It is difficult to mistake a branch of C-35 to a mandarin, with its distinctive 3-lobed leaves
1 Like
I have a small mandarine tree in the ground for about ten years. It is a Satsuma variety. It had flowers for the first time in 2020 that set about 50 fruits. The fruits ripen late, March to now. They are big and very sweet when picked ripe, and are one of the best mandarines we have tasted. All the branches have sharp thorns more than one inch long. I don’t think it is the rootstock. I have seen the trifoliate leaf from the lemon tree.
1 Like