I was wondering what peoples opinions where on the top 7 citrus or fruit trees to have inside. I'm going to san diego next week and was going to pick some trees up. So far I have 2 meyer lemon, nagami kamquat, and washington naval, kinzu orange and a varigated calamondin. I have heard owari satsuma mandarins are good, star fruit, strawberry guava ect......

Taste is very subjective, but many citrus experts agree that the Page Mandarin is the absolute best tasting citrus variety of all citrus. I have 4 page mandarin trees. I also like Ponkan mandarins, both for taste and size. Ponkan is among the largest of the mandarins. - Millet (1,329-)

I agree with Millet. Page, Ponkan, then I would rate calamondin, limequat, Bearss lemon, Persian lime, any blood orange. That gives you a good selection of sweet and good to eat and juice fruit, plus some acid things for good marmalade and cooking.

In addition to what tastes best, I think you should consider what grows best indoors. I'm no expert but I've noticed some of my citrus trees are happier with indoor growing conditions than others. My trees spend at least nine months of the year indoors in a south facing window mostly at 68F/20C. The rest of the year they are outdoors where the daytime highs are in the 80's and 90s and nighttime lows are in the 40s to low 50's. In general, my limes and lemons seem to do better indoors than my oranges and mandarins. I have not tried to grow grapefruit or any others. The healthiest tree I have is a Bearss lime. It grows constantly, produces a lot of fruit, and doesn't drop many leaves. The most difficult tree I have is an Owari Satsuma. It produces good fruit but it has dropped most of its leaves and it has never produced a single new leaf in the more than a year since I purchased it. My orange tree does well outdoors and through most of the winter indoors but goes through major leaf drops late in the winter indoors so it looks a little funny. One thing I've noticed is, if I rank my trees in order from least cold hardy to most cold hardy, the indoor performance of those trees is in exactly the same order with the least cold hardy being the best and the most cold hardy being the worst. I know that the most cold hardy varieties go dormant well above freezing which is what makes them cold hardy in the first place. I'm wondering if normal indoor temperatures and my summer temperatures are just too cold for the most cold hardy varieties to come fully out of dormancy. Has anyone else had a similar experience? Any other ideas why I might be having trouble growing leaves on my Owari Satsuma? Next winter I'm going to come up with some way to heat the root zones to try to avoid some of the leaf drop. Hopefully that will help the orange and Satsuma.

Anyway, from an indoor growing performance perspective, this is my ranking from best to worst.

1. Limes (Bearss/Persian/Tahiti)
2. Lemons
3. Oranges
4. Mandarins

You live 500 miles south of me but you are also at a higher altitude so your growing temperatures are only slightly warmer than mine and both our areas are very dry.

ilovecitrus,

You need to be aware that San Diego is under a quarantine for Asian Citrus Psyillid. You will want to purchase your trees outside of the quarantine area and not travel through the area with them.

Here's a link to the quarantine info and map: http://pi.cdfa.ca.gov/pqm/manual/pdf/420.pdf

Kent

thank you so much for the information on where i can and can not get citrus around san diego. I checked the link and the place i'm going to is just outside the boundries but i was planning on buying them going to central san diego and then home, so now I will just buy them on my way home from my trip. Thank you again for your help.

Hey, is this the same Millet that sent some STEM to NJ for houdini (Eugene)?

If yes, glad to see you're still around! My calamondin actually just bloomed for the first time this season (about 2 weeks ago).

If not, nice to meet you. Somehow, I have a feeling you are the same guy from GardenWeb. cheers!

Eugene

Millet wrote:

Taste is very subjective, but many citrus experts agree that the Page Mandarin is the absolute best tasting citrus variety of all citrus. I have 4 page mandarin trees. I also like Ponkan mandarins, both for taste and size. Ponkan is among the largest of the mandarins. - Millet (1,329-)

Hello houdini. Yes, I am the same Millet that sent the STEM to NJ and was a past member on Gardenweb. Lazz started this forum several years back, as an alternative to the Gardenweb. Lazz has done a great job with this forum. Welcome to the forum, we are excited you have joined. Take care and we hope to see you around here for a long time to come. - Millet (1,33-)

I'm looking to buy a dwarf mandarin tree that I am going to use to graft other mandarins on to. During my initial research I chose Owari Satsuma but I have been unable to find the right tree with the right branching structure I'm looking for. So I did more research and found the Owari Satsuma may not be the best choice. I've read that it is slow growing and I want something that will give me enough branches to graft onto. Also, jrb from the post above said that it is giving him a hard time.

My next choice would have been a Dancy Tangerine since I like the ones around Christmas and this is said to be it.

Millet said above that Page is the best tasting. I've never tasted Page so I wouldn't know.

So my primary criteria for a mandarin tree to choose would be taste, vigorous grower so others can be grafted onto it, productive and hardy, in that order.

I know taste is subjective so I'm willing to go with the consensus.

My current choices are Owari Satsuma, Dancy tangerine and Page mandarin or another.

What would be the best mandarin tree to multigraft on to?

I've seen quite a few Dancy's around here and I don't think I've ever had this type. I'm curious about it as well.

Not to hijack, but do people prefer Dancy over Clementine?

Personally no - Millet (1,189-)

My favorite is Ponkan---and this yr my tree is loaded!

I'm glad Skeeter brought up Ponkan. It is a good mandarin, and certainly is among one of the largest of the mandarins. Thanks Skeet. - Millet (1,188-)

Another variety I can't track down here!!

Ponkan is my favorite as well