Anyone have any experience growing the early ripening satsumas such as LA Early, Xie Shan, Miho, or Okitsu? I’m looking for great flavor that ripens at the latest early November.
There is not much difference in the tastes of the satsuma so I would just pick the ones the will ripen early for you. I hear good things about LA Early, I grow the others you mentioned and can’t really taste any major difference in the fruits. Xie Shan (according to an expert) is supposed to be the best tasting/taste winner but I didn’t notice any significant difference from my 14 mandarin varieties. I doubt you can find it, but if you can then Yosemite Gold has large fruits and is the best tasting to me.
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Of those four,I have Xie Shan.The flavor is good,but like sc4001992 states,it’s similar to others.Abundant fruiting is apparent with the variety,even at a small size and ripens fairly early in a 40F greenhouse,around December,near Seattle.
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I have 8 xie shan satsuma trees 9 years old here near Houston,TX. The 2021 freeze set them back but one is bearing heavily this year. Flavor is good. Xie shan is by far the earliest satsuma I have grown of 10-15 varieties. Xie shan fruit is ready now. By the time other satsumas will be ready xie shan will be dead ripe. Miho is another favorite. Very vigorous and good bearer. Only other one I’m growing is Frost owari which is late to extend the eating season. With Frost owari I can be pretty certain it is actually owari. Many labeled owari aren’t.
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Aka “TDE4,” it’ll be off patent in January, if anyone with a tree outside quarantine areas is interested in selling some scions in a few months:
I have its sibling “TDE3” aka Tahoe Gold in my greenhouse, but a squirrel came in when the doors were open this summer and stole the only fruit it set this spring. Maybe next year! TDE3 is already off patent now.
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I have Miho, Xie-Shan and Iwasaki. The later 2 haven’t fruited yet but Iwasaki should be earliest of all the satsumas. This is what Miho looked like 3 days ago in zone 7A/B in cold Europe
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Paul, I had a lot of mandarin variety including Miho. I lost some tags on my grafts and so I grafted another Miho this year. I didn’t think the fruit had a neck protruding like your fruit. Please comment on the taste when it is ripe. Xie Shan should be the sweetest of the three you mention.
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You are right. I thought there is just one “Miho”. But just searched online ans some seems to have no neck and some do have one. Maybe that’s the difference between “Miho” and “Miho Wase”. Maybe some citrus guru can clarify this…
I buy my scionwood from UCR CCPP budwood program and on their website they only show one Miho mandarin and that’s the one I have grafted.
Neck is called sheep’s nose. It is typical for satsuma on young trees with low fruit load. CitrusFruitQuality - mrtexascitrus
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TDE series are all late season up to spring mandarins. This guy wants early mandarins.
@anon57642013 @Bradybb @anon47724557
Thank you all for the information! I have Xie Shan and LA Early. Where did you all source your varieties? The early ones seem hard to come by.
I buy my sconwood/budwood from the University of Riverside College (UCR), they have a Citrus Clonal Protection Program (CCPP) where the budwoods are all disease free and they sell to the public. The only bad thing about purchasing from them is that they just increase the price per bud 3X this year, so it is very expensive for hobbyist to buy from them. You should be able to buy the same grafted trees from Madison Citrus nursery.
These guys are excellent source for citrus plants. Owner is an experience citrus grower.
Quality Citrus Trees Shipped Direct to you! - MadisonCitrusNursery – Madison Citrus Nursery
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I just bought a bunch of rootstock from Madison Citrus this year, they were a joy to work with and the trees were of excellent quality for the price I paid.
Xie Shan ripening up nicely in my greenhouse, picked the first one a few days ago. First year the tree has yielded good fruit for me (it is on it’s 3rd year in the ground in my GH)
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Your Xie Shan fruit looks very nice, also pretty large fruits. The ones on my grafted branches are not as large, but very sweet.
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bopcrane, here’s some photos I took of my fruits from last year. I also did my own taste test comparison, the last 2 photos shows the best tasting ranking numbers.
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What state are you in?
Mine came from Harris Citrus in Florida and Four Winds Growers in California.
I was thinking about getting Brown Select,but not sure now.
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