What is the name of this mandarin orange?

I’m excited. I think this is a good lineup:

Valentine and Tahitian pummelos
CA Honey, Xie Shan, Shiranui, and Kisku mandrines
Cara Cara navel orange
Cocktail grapefruit

Thank you everyone for your help.

2 Likes

@fruitnut I so envy your space the ability to create a list and … plant it all! … one day!

Lovely list.

1 Like

Btw do you already have a Washington Navel Orange? If not I’d recommend looking into that too. I don’t have it myself but know folks who do and have of course eaten a lot of it and they say it’s a super vigorous tree and has excellent fruit. There is apparently also a “Summer Navel” variety that was a sport IIRC and fruits at a different time of the year.

1 Like

@kingwood based on your feedback, I just ordered a box of CA Honey to try from Pittman Davis. Seems to have great reviews. Let’s see how they package it.

Link:

2 Likes

Tahitian pomelo, like lemon candy to me. I also really like kumquats, Meiwa and Marumi are nice.

3 Likes

That doesn’t look same as mine. Look at the skin of your orange. Mine is all around rough and yours is rather smooth.

1 Like

Shiranui mandarin skin is too smooth. Looks wise it is different than what I bought. This one looks more similar to mine but does not have protruding naval top.

2 Likes

Mine is absolutely NOT honey mandarin by just looking at it. I don’t see any similarity.

1 Like

Maybe in some photos, but shiranui often looks like that gold nugget. I don’t know if there are different sports or if it’s just climate-based, but there’s a lot of variation in the bumpiness of shiranui. That is definitely what is shown in the first post, I think. Here’s a photo of a bunch of Sumo brand shiranui that I found online:

3 Likes

I think it is SUMO after reviewing all the replies and verifying with the pictures. Shiranui or Dekopon’s doesn’t look same because their skins are too smooth even though they are supposed to be the same as Sumo. There are reasons to have trade mark. Shiranui or Dekopan may similar but not the same as Sumo.

1 Like

Some of them look like Sumo. Are they called Shiranui?

1 Like

Sumo is just a trademark name for shiranui.

3 Likes

Sumo, Shiranui and Dekpon are the same thing.

4 Likes

I grew kishu until the polar vortex took out pretty much everything including muscadines which was a surprise to me. I originally grew it based upon recommendations from Patti out of San Diego. Flavor profile never changed in my yard. I grew gold nugget also. It was good, but not close to the store bought Kali fruit. Kishu in my yard was a mid-level fruit. Not worth the space. It must be totally different grown in Kali. Still don’t believe Kishu could hold a candle to xie shan, kali honey, Tx honey, and no way cocktail. I ate cocktail green with splashes of orange on the skin. I could not eat them ripe. Syrupy sweet…

2 Likes

I grew that for about 8 years. It was good and bore a lot of fruit every year. At that time, I was also growing Chandler pummelo in my greenhouse. I liked the Chandler better. Most seem to think Valentine and Tahitian are better so I went that route.

1 Like

Makes sense! Thanks! I think I’m going to create another order to add to my pending scions from the California Citrus Clonal Protection Program based on this thread :slight_smile:

I can totally believe it. I’m even more excited about my pending budwood order now.

It is very confusing. I haven’t seen any Shiranui or Dekpon so I cannot comment on it, but one thing I must say is that there is a reason to have a trade mark which should separate it from others. If Shiranui and Dekporn are cousin of Sumo that would be easier for me to understand.

2 Likes

Agree it’s confusing. I found this write-up by Greg Alder quite a good read on this variety. He has a number of other detailed profiles for citrus and avocado and stone fruit in SoCal on his execellent blog. A lot of us veg and fruit gardeners in SoCal are avid readers.

2 Likes

As a trademark attorney (that’s my day job), let me be the first to say there’s usually no such justification. Trademark names for fruit are usually just for marketing purposes and those same trademarked fruit always have cultivar names that are the same exact fruit. Sure, they want you to think there’s something special about SUMO® brand shiranui, but that’s all marketing B.S., they are all the same cultivar.

In fact, if someone were foolish enough to try to sell a cultivar with only a trademark name (i.e., never give it a generic cultivar name first), then their trademark would likely be later cancelled, if it is used by the general public as the cultivar name. Cultivar names are ineligible for trademark protection. This is why you’ll usually see patents list some boring thing like “TDE3” as the cultivar and then their trademark is something more marketable like “Tahoe Gold®”.

5 Likes