“Sugar Belle® ‘LB8-9’ Mandarin Hybrid Tree For Sale (U.S. Patent PP21,356) – Propagation prohibited by law. Trees and fruit may not be resold or distributed.
Sugar Belle® trees are available in both 1 gallon and 3 gallon sizes and produces fruit that look similar to Minneola tangelo, has a slightly reddish color with a balanced sweet / tart flavor. Price includes a $6 Royalty Fee.
Mature Tree Height: 15 feet
Ripens: Early Winter
Hardiness: ~28F*
Tastes Like: Sweet & Tart
HLB Tolerant - Sugar Belle is one of the strongest documented commercial HLB-tolerant varieties.
Our trees are grafted with mature buds so our trees will fruit quicker.
* Hardiness temperatures are approximate, and indicate where fully dormant, mature trees may experience significant damage.”
Even though it’s technically early ripening I’d suggest giving this one as much hang time and ripening as you can. Especially in short season areas like yours.
Sugar Belle has roughly 2 to 3 times more acid than most early mandarins or things like Navel and Cara Cara oranges. It’s about as acidic as a grapefruit so you really need to get as much ripening as possible.
For reference, in Florida the fruit ripens as early as late November, but it doesn’t reach a favorable sugar to acid ratio until mid January through early February.
That’s in Florida. The date ranges will be different in cooler climates. And of course taste expectations can be different as well, some people like sour fruits.
The great news is I’m growing in a greenhouse. I’m going to have plenty of time to ripen late season fruit. I appreciate the information. Honeybell is one of my favorites and im told sugarbelle is even better. I actually want very late season fruit. I have a large orchard with lots of spring, summer, and fall fruit. Extending the season is exactly what my goal will be. I have the months below covered now.
May
June
July
Aug
Sept
Oct
Nov
My goal with the greenhouse is to cover these months
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
March
April
May
Outside citrus would be great if it happens but I’m not holding my breath. What i will do is make my crosses with cold hardy citrus and wait for a mutation. It takes patience, luck, knowledge, and prayer mixed with the right genetics to start with. A Carolina lime x prague or yuzu or 10 degree tangerine or thomasville might yield good results or need baxlckcrossed with trifoliates of some type like poncirus+. The greenhouse will always be where sugarbelle, Cara cara, moro, owari etc live. . Outdoor citrus is a pet project like the Clark’s crabapple I developed years ago. I remember grapefruits ripen in Feb or March in Florida and I acquired a couple of types of those. Once I determine the realistic temperature of the greenhouse I will find out how much more I can grow if anything more tropical. My concern is the plastics R value. I already went with double wall thick plastic and I may double it leaving a space for more insulation value. Cost is a factor for everyone and I will have a budget to maintain on the project.
Had some Sugar Belles included with a variety box from Madison a few years ago. Along with the Sumos, these were among the best tasting citrus I’ve ever had. Def a bit more tart than many other mandarin-types, but in the best way possible with so much flavor. Purchased a tree from Stan McKenzie and plan on putting it in ground in spring.
That sounds delicious. We really liked the Sumos we have tried, and the Minneola Tangelo has long been one of my favorite citrus. It’s hit or miss at the grocery store but the good ones are great! More acid is right up my alley.
Our Sugar Belle in the greenhouse bloomed this year but I thinned the fruitlets since it was going through transplant shock because it lost some root mass. It has since recovered very vigorously. I look forward to trying this one!
I have two trees in ground for 3 years nows. Obtained from IFAS directly at a plant sale in Pol County. Had first flowers this year, not alot though as it took a bit of damage in the cold this winter. No defiolation like my Meyers/Key Lime or tropicals, but quite a bit of leaf burn.
They are either slow-growing or on dwarf rootstock, a little shorter than me. I didn’t keep the tag and they were one of my first trees obtained, so I didn’t think twice about rootstock. They grow like they are on Flying Dragon (lower branches, propensity to grow downwards, short) but I don’t currently have one not on Flying Dragon and mature to compare to.
As far as disease, it seems to be fine. Still gets bothered by both leaf miners and psylids, but I only sparsely spray (once a month in summer, twice a month in spring) and it keeps the bugs away. Never any sooty mold like the wild sours have, and once I got the nutrients situated, no signs of heat or drought stress.
Excited for the fruit hopefully late 2027 early 2028.
Yeah once they’re getting along in ripening, Sugarbelle can get some really high Brix numbers much like Minneola and Sumo. With Sumo the acidity drops off a lot and they become incredibly sweet, while Minneola and Sugar Belle retain a bit more acidity and you get both high sugar and fairly high acidity once they’re ripe so they come off as intensity flavorful.
The studies I saw from Florida had Sugar Belle around 10 Brix in November which at 1.5+% titratable acid makes for a pretty sour fruit, but by January the acid is down 50% and the Brix jumps to some of the highest of any citrus at 15-17.
