Millet, have you heard of this variety?

I don't grow it, but yes I have heard about Dekopon. It is getting so that the number of citrus varieties are becoming never ending. Today I dug up a 3 year old Valencia that had been planted in the ground, and placed it in the compost pile. In its spot I planted a Sanbokan. I figured I can go to the store any time and purchase some Valencias, but Sanbokans are never seen, at least in the stores around here. I have a friend that works at the CCPP, and an acquaintance that works in the Variety Collection at UC Riverside. I could send an E-mail and see if it is possible to get some Dekopon bud wood. It really does not matter much that Dekopon is not listed on the current budwood list, but the tree must have already been released. If it has not been released, they can't offer budwood to the public. I don't have any thing slipping at this time, and I swore that I was not going to plant any more citrus. My greenhouse is over full. Tonight was the first time since last winter that I had to close up the greenhouse, The temperature is supposed to be in the 30's tonight. - Millet (860-)

Keep your eyes out, some California markets are now carrying the Dekopan! I was a bit skeptical of it being as great as written about by David Karp in his 2/17 article (see http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-dekopon-20110217,0,1927089,full.story) but I passed on word to a friend who bought some at Whole Foods this weekend and he says it's either the best or one of his top favorite citrus he's tried. I wrote John Bash at CCPP about budwood and asked when it might be available. He indicated it was still controlled by private parties so I forwarded the article to see if he could verify if CCPP is working on it being made public as stated in the article. Most likely, we'll have to wait at least a couple more years since the people growing it are under marketing license agreements, etc.

Oh, in case anybody might think I had overlooked a possibility, I asked my friend if he found any seeds. He had only eaten one of the fruits thus far and it didn't contain any seeds.

Europe will probably have to wait for the dekopon to hit the market here...

Anyone who feels like buying some very very expensive Dekopon seeds from ebay go here:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Japan-Citrus-Dekopon-Oranges-Priced-Cultivar-10-Seeds-/150555787075?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item230dd2ff43

After reading the description I'm tempted but the price is just way too high, plus for a supposedly seedless variety the seller sure has a lot of seeds.

Does anyone know if Dekopon grows true to type?

Seeds of "seedless" varieties, the ebay seller in the post above is also selling Buddah's Hand seed ???
http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Tropical-Marvel/_i.html?_fsub=2567229015

Yeah that ebay seller is highly suspect. Offering seeds from 2 varieties that are supposed to be seedless, and on top of that the amount of seeds available is huge - they have 1000 alleged Dekopon seeds! Also the seller is in Singapore not Japan. If the price was reasonable then I'd take a risk and grab 10 or 20 seeds, but the price being asked for is just absolutely ridiculous.

I found this from another website discussing Dekopon which indicates it comes true to type:

"I wrote to Gene to inquire about upcoming tours of his collection, and I mentioned the L.A. Times "Dekopon" article. He said that "Dekopon" (or whatever name you care to apply) is nucellar, and so should come "true" from seed. So anyone who's interested should start sprouting some out right away!"

http://www.cloudforest.com/cafe/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=461

They had also found the ebay auction of the alleged Dekopon seeds and they also found the thread on this forum from the person in Brazil who was excited to find a Dekopon seed lol. I've just asked him for an update, hopefully he is still around and will reply.

LOL, Phillip, you're definitely my favorite friend from Ramona!

I wrote to my friend who bought fruit this weekend and he says that so far he and his wife have eaten four fruits and no signs of a seed yet...rats!

I imagine the select growers have a very lucrative thing going here and were probably selected based on their past loyalty with this packer/shipper. I contacted a citrus grower friend of mine near Visalia to see if he might know any of these growers. He said he's familiar with some of the names but that's about it.

I wrote to Ken Love in Kona about this the other day as one of his other Facebook friends had posted it the other day and that was the way I came to know of this article. He works quite a bit in Japan and said he's familiar with the variety but also said that he'd put Hawaii-grown Minneola up against it. He's biased, of course, as he's got a mission to promote Hawaii agriculture.

I know David Karp, and David is a real hustler when it comes to promoting fruit (fruit of all types not just citrus). When David, AKA " The Fruit Detective," speaks about a variety, like Dekopon, it get attention among the citrus crowd. However, I would be VERY surprised if Dekopon's flavor is any better, or as good, as a Page Mandarin. It is very hard to get a new citrus variety popular enough to demand shelf space in the super markets. We as citrus hobbyist, have heard (barely) about it, but among the general public, it is completely unknown. My guess is that Dekopon is a good tasting "mandarin", but so are a wide selection of other mandarins. With its connection to David, Dekopon is 50 percent taste, and 50 percent hustle. - Millet (685-)

Millet, I've met David and read several of his articles and, like I said in my first post, I was skeptical. However, I think it's probably better than you're giving it credit for based on reports from my friend whose taste opinions I respect. A few years ago I believe he told me that Page was his favorite citrus. He know says he thinks Dokopan/Dokopon is his favorite.

If I get my hands on some would you like me to send you some to try???

BTW, my chestnuts were once mentioned in the LA Times in an article written by Russ Parsons who I was quite impressed with in his level of research before he visited my farm. It was a nice article and I got some good business from it. I've wondered if David Karp wrote about my chestnuts if the result would have been as favorable. I think I'd be afraid everybody would be greatly disappointed! As it is most of my new customers are pleasantly surprised.

David wrote about Ed Valdivia's sweet quince. I tasted the fruit at Ed's house (we've become good friends) and it was good but I'm glad I tasted it before reading David's article!

Harvey, sure if you come across a store selling Pokopon, I would appreciate it if you would send me a few. Personal regards. - Millet (685-)

I just received a “Sumo” fruit from my friend “Citrus Joe”.
I didn't expect to be able to try a Sumo for quite a while.
I understand why it's so popular. It's like a top of the line navel mandarin cross. It's big, easy to peel, seedless, great flavor and really sweet. It’s much more flavorful and interesting than a Navel.
That's got to be one of the top eating out of hand desert citrus.
Terry