Best- can be a hard thing to pin down in citrus. Whats great in one area can be only so so in another. Also you have take into account that what taste great to one person is only OK to another one.

Here's my picks for what I grow in my area (Texas gulf coast). They fall mostly in line with the above choices.



Pong Koa mandarin-Large fruit, one of my personal favorites. Most that try them love them. Kind of refreshing contrasting taste. Make you want to go back for more.

Page-Very rich taste, size wise- my fruit runs about a third smaller than a baseball. Mine do have a fare amount of seeds. Oily skin.

Kishu-Might as well be candy. Cant say enough about these. Kids eat most before I get them. Don't let the small size scare you off, you can put a dozen in your jacket pockets and they will not last the hour.

Fairchild-mine have allot of seeds also, very good, rich

Satsuma's -My first choice would be a firmer mandarin over a satsuma. But I have friends that would take my satsuma's over, any other of my citrus. One drawback in my area is that they take awhile (4-7yrs) to make a good fruit. If you get more than one plant make sure you get a early one and late one to spread them over a longer time span. Hard to judge one of my satsuma varieties over the others satsuma.


David-send me your address and I will send you a few Pong Koa, and Page mandarins that I picked today. I did have a couple of types of satsumas but my wife juiced all of them this weekend, I think she made about twelve gallons of juice.


Selkirk


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You are right about the subjectivity of taste, I have given friends both my satsumas and Ponkan mandarins. To me the Ponkans are clearly the best, but some prefer the satsumas.

Time --thru the season--also makes a difference. I just ate another Murcott (I only had 4) and I would have to move it to second best now--ahead of the Ponkans.

I also do not think that each yr will be the same--some yrs one fruit may be best, the the next another-maybe due to climate, maybe due to load.

David, Skeeter, Laaz, et.al,


I notice those of you growing this are in SC, Germany, and TX (coastal?). I live in Central CA where it's hot & very arid (almost desert), typically great citrus country. But as prior posts stated flavor is environment dependent, I also understand some citrus do not grow well here -- particularly those lacking heat tolerance when ripe or requiring humid conditions. Although I'm going to start a new thread re:this topic, I wanted to specifically ask about the Ponkan referred to above.

Question: Does the latest knowledge support that Ponkan taste will certainly be at most fair (and potentially poor) quality if grown here? With a low chance of being "tasty" I doubt I'll try to find/prop one.

Here is the info I gathered:

The Citrus Variety collection at UC Riverside (CA) states:

Quote:

3/1987, EMN: Alternate bearing but fruit size is OK. Light orange rind, puffy, peels and sections readily, flavor only fair, seedy, considerable rag

and from the Citrus Industry Vol. 1:

Quote:

Climatically, the ponkan is one of the most tropical mandarins. Under tropical conditions the fruit attains maximum size and quality and finds little competition from other mandarins. In the hot arid subtropics, however, it has generally proven disappointing and other varieties are better adapted and more popular.

Being I grow in SC I can not comment on how the Ponkan will do in your location of CA. Here in the humid deep south they are of excellent quality, large with a very firm flesh. Not seedy at all here, maybe 3-5 seed per fruit.