Gold Nugget Mandarin

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Sure

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I was actually looking for rootstock code

What an awesome mandarin! We live in orangevale, next to citrus heights, a really good climate for citrus as we get nice cold nights usually never going under 28 degrees. The cold nights intensively sweeten our citrus, and I will have to agree, after tasting many mandarins, including owari satsuma, which we are famous for, and seedless kisu, I like the gold nugget the best, followed by satsuma. The best blood orange is torraco in our climate. Of course the best are always hard to grow. My original tree is doing great, but ive lost several that look just like Richards. Can you elaborate on your snail problem Richard? Is this a problem cultivar? I have lost 2 of 4 so far and my brother in clovis , fresno has lost 2. I repotted one of my problem trees and it is doing better in pot. @pointers, you are in a very good zone for citrus as well, whats your input on gold nugget? How often do you irrigate and what do you fertilize with and how often? Thanks all, great thread!

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I haven’t had any problems with gold nugget. Hardy down to 26 degrees. I cover others, but rarely gold nugget. I do put the black pipe insulation around all the trunks. We usually get down to about 25 or so during the winter. Doesn’t get much cold damage to the fruit but had a few rotten fruit, mold or something that went through the core, these seem to drop off tree after rain. I fertilize with Espoma, citrus tone, 3 times a year. Water wise i need to do better(consistentency and amount) tree seems to spilt more than ‘Tango’ and ‘Kishu’. We had over 40 days of 100 degrees.

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This Citrus is also due to Howard Frost, but nurseries have long dropped his name from the title:

I believe they are coming under the fence from next door. I put down Sluggo regularly but sometimes they beat me to the punch. The Lemon and Lime trees adjacent to it are snail free!

Spring through Fall I try to maintain about 70 gallons per week. I fertilize all my fruit trees with Grow More 16-8-24 but also supplement the Citrus with 21-7-7.

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Today’s harvest :slight_smile:

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Will Gold Nugget be still seedless if I plant it next to my Owari Satsuma Mandarin tree? I heard about commercial growers covering the Mandarin trees to prevent cross-pollination, so wanted to check.

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Yes. Some mandarins are not seedless and hence covered, or only harvested from “internal” rows of the grove.

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The WeirdFruitExplorer also did a review of this variety, he liked it quite a lot. And this guy has probably eaten more fruit than anyone else :sweat_smile:

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Anybody know of a source for Gold Nugget in Texas? These are the best tasting IMO!

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Order them here. I recommend the larger size plant:

Costco sells some citrus trees (including Gold Nugget) in the spring here in Northern California. I haven’t seen any other online nursery selling Citrus certified for California other than FourWinds that Richard pointed to.

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Good morning Richard,

I bought a gold nugget from clausen in bonsall and a tango from 4 winds. What time of the year do you fertilize your gold nugget?

-James

I find gold nugget citrus regularly at Lowe’s and home depot. I haven’t bought it because its harvest overlaps too much with my pixie mandarins.

Still looking for tango mandarins locally.

Four winds growers says that this variety doesnt need heat to sweeten fruit. Unlike every other Mandarin variety.
What does this really mean? Is it accurate that they will ripen like a Meyer Lemon with no heat?

@James_SD - I fertilize mine continuously through fertigation.

@ramv - As you’ve seen me comment before, our spring here is cooler than inland areas and the summer is typically not blazing either. The Gold Nugget is producing just fine.

@Martin - I’d Ross the pixie and grow the Gold Nugget instead!

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For a long time I debated between the pixie and gold nugget. I have a few neighbors who reported that the gold nugget can get dry and fibrous in my area if not picked early enough, which contradicts the long harvest season that others are reporting. Plus I’m an hour away from Ojai, so I figured I couldn’t go wrong with pixies in my area.

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That’s awesome…My gold nugget is pusing out new growth. I think after transplanting, it went through a shock for a whole year. I’ve been buying Sumo mandarin. I like it a little bit more than gold nugget. What do you think?