I have both these varieties, and I was wondering if I can expect them to be as good as the later Owaries. Most of the early satsumas I have tasted were not as good, however i am far from an expert. I have been told that the later season satsumas are bigger and sweeter. Gary

Which way is later?

Some mandarins start harvested during October, then November well unto January and February. In this case, the later they are, the more sour are their fruits.

With Navels and Valencias, they start from November, then December, January well into summer and even fall. In this case, the later they are harvested, the sweeter are the fruits, and oftentimes bigger too.

Wanna see a fruit of my Washington Navel? Gosh , it's big! it was hiding why I did not see.

I was speaking about early October as opposed to late November. I don't know if the do or not, but the early st. ann & la. early are supposed to start ripening in the middle of September. My guess is that most of the early season satsumas for sale around here are Armstrongs.

The colder it gets when they're mature, the more sour they are. So I am really contextualizing the concept of late. Those harvested during Fall just before the first major frost would ideally be the sweetest in our area.

Reason why us here in Northern Ca that most of our citruses are sour because most of them are starting to get filled and ripen going into the COLD winter. Cold days and nights means deeper color orange, deeper blood pigmentation, but the taste is really more sour. Not the case for Southern Ca, where the sweetness of most citruses are light years better than us here, regardless if early or late harvest as long as they are harvested right time.

Fortunately most mandarins are sweet and good enough in our area. But for Navels and Valencias that are harvested much much later than spring are as good as those in the South, and certainly better than those from the stores.

There were growers in Louisiana that got budwood from the Louisiana Early,before it was named Louisiana Early. and sold it as Armstrong, not armstrong Early. I personally know one of the largest growers in Louisiana that did this. The Armstrong Early has been around for a long time and has smaller leaves and is more compact growing. The Armstrong Early someitmes is edible as early as labor day. The Early St. Anne and Louisiana Early are hight quality satsumas. The Brown Select is an excellent later maturing satsuma. The Brown Select, Louisiana Early and Early St. anne were developed by the Dr. Ralph Brown whos was superintendant of the citrus station at Port Sulphur Louisiana for many years. The Brown Select was anmed after him.
Most satsuma have better quality as the tree ages. The first year to bear is the worst. Alav Vaughn, county extension agent in Louisiana recommends not permitting the trees to fruit for the first 3 years.

Bonnie thanks for the wonderful information about these varieties. Precisely what I was looking for.

I also found that if you graft other Satsuma varieties unto a mature satsuma tree that is more than 3 years old, the fruits from those new grafts (which comes about only a year and a half later), are as good as those from the original mature trees where the budwoods also came.

So budding to mature trees have some advantages than budding unto tiny rootstocks. And definitely quickens the time for evaluating the taste of new cultivars into your area.


Regards...

When it comes to Satsuma's Bonnie Childress is the person with the knowledge. I have a BC-2 Mandarin (Bonnie Childres-2), that I have not tasted the fruit yet (this is a new tree ) however it is certainly a good producer. I sent Laaz some buddwood from my BC-2, and Laaz is going to send me one of his grafted BC-1 trees. GREAT TREES. - Millet

Here in southeast Texas, the satsumas get sweeter and sweeter as time passes. They are good from Thanksgiving but are like pure sugar in late February if they survive and haven't frozen on the tree yet.