I just picked about half of my Daisy mandarins off due to splitting--dry conditions for months--now TS Lee with lots of rain. Daisy is very susceptible to splitting here.

I've had slitting on all my trees. We have a very bad drought here in SE Texas.

periods of drought followed by heavy, profuse precipitations often leads to splits... moreover, extreme fluctuations in temperature, humidity and fertilizer levels may also result in fruit splitting. daisy is a tight skinned variety, therefore it's more susceptible. i'm afraid there's nothing to do when the conditions meet their thresholds, like temperature and humidity, which is out of our reach for in-ground grown citrus trees...

Glad I didn't select Daisy!!!

My trees were kept well watered this year. There has not been many split.

I can't say I kept mine well watered, but they got a good soaking once a week if it did not rain, but with this sandy soil, it gets dry again in just a day or two. I have over 20 varieties in my yard, but Daisy is the only one with severe splitting--I have had a couple (out of 100s) Ponkans split. Daisy was what I would consider my 2nd best tasting 2 yrs ago, but not that great last yr--I juiced most of them last yr. I don't think I would recommend it for this area.

In my opinion, the problem with Daisy is that the fruit is just to small. I tossed my Daisy tree out a couple years ago, as I did not think it was worth the effort to grow it. I fully agree with Sketter on Ponkan. Ponkan is an excellent mandarin variety (really good), but still second behind Xie Shan, the best of them all. (490-)

I am most looking forward to eating my Xie Shan. I planted four of them and will need about three more years I think. I have a Ponkan that should be good in two years.