I have been sampling fruit from my yard since about Mid November and I have now developed a list of my favorite tasting Oranges & Mandarins. For your perusal:

Marc’s Snackworthy Scale

1. Page Mandarin
2. Washington Navel Orange
3. SRA-92 Clementine Mandarin Tied w Nules Clementine Mandarin
4. Cara Cara Navel Orange
5. Aoshima Satsuma Mandarin
6. Dancy Mandarin
7. Miyagawa Satsuma Mandarin
8. Moro Blood Orange
9. Fukumoto Navel Orange
10. Wekiwa Tangelo
11. Oro Blanco Grapefruit
12. Royal Mandarin
13. Cocktail Grapefruit
14. Sangunelli Blood Orange

Some of my other crop is not ready yet:

Tahoe Gold
Minneola Tangelo
Kara Mandarin
Gold Nugget Mandarin
Encore Mandarin

Some of the crop is ready and is not to my liking this year (Yet):

China S-9 Satsuma
Xie Shan Satsuma
Owari Satsuma

No Crop this year:
Tarocco Blood Orange
Daisy Mandarin
Jaffa Orange
Shasta Gold
Valencia Orange
Trovita Orange
Robertson Orange
Caffin Clementine

Comments on your favs this season?

Thats quite a nice collection you have there! I know you had some more varieties that were not quite ready yet, is there any chance we could get an update? I just recently purchased 2 Gold Nugget mandarins (hope the fruit quality is good...) and a Tango (which I hear is a seedless W. Murcot). What are your thoughts on the Gold Nugget?

I was just curious what your (or anyone's for that matter) favorite early season mandarins are? The three mandarins I have are all mid to mid/late season mandarins and I would like to get a couple of earlier producing varities to have fresh mandarins half the year. I would love any and all suggestions!

Thanks,
Joe

Ah, the Gold Nugget... That fruit ended up being SO GOOD that two of my friends who tasted ran out to buy a tree immediately. I LOVE the Gold Nugget. I would have to say it is #1 best tasting fruit in my yard.

Update is below.

Hmm early Mandarins... Probably the Miyagawa Satsuma Mandarin would be the earliest best tasting. Not too stingy either.

Marc’s Snackworthy Scale

Gold Nugget Mandarin
Page Mandarin
Washington Naval
SRA-92 Clementine Mandarin
Nules Clementine Mandarin
Cara Cara Navel Orange
Tahoe Gold
Moro Blood Orange
Dancy Mandarin
Miyagawa Satsuma Mandarin
Minneola Tangelo
Kara Mandarin
Fukumoto Navel Orange
Wekiwa Tangelo
Oro Blanco Grapefruit
Royal Mandarin
Cocktail Grapefruit
Sangunelli Blood Orange
Valentine Pomello, Blood Orange Hybrid
Marsh grapefruit

Some of my other crop is not ready yet:


Some of the crop is ready and is not to my liking.
China S-9 Satsuma
Xie Shan Satsuma
Owari Satsuma
Encore Mandarin

No Crop this year:
Tarocco Blood Orange
Daisy Mandarin
Jaffa Orange
Shasta Gold
Valencia Orange
Trovita Orange
Robertson Orange
Tango Mandarin
Yosemite Gold
Smith Red Blood Orange
Kiyomi Tangor

Citrusboy I do not even care if you are lying to me, that is EXACTLY what I wanted to hear! lol... I was a little leery of going with the GN because I had a had a hard time finding people that had expierance growing them. If you rank if above the Page I feel VERY confident in my purchase. Do you have any expierance with the Tango mandarin (patented UCR variety)? I have a one year old version of that tree I got from Four Winds Growers along with the 2 Gold Nuggets. On a random note, Four Winds customer service is SECOND TO NONE!

Thanks for the suggestion of the Miyagawa. I have honestly been leaning in that specific direction (especially if I was going satsuma specific). As it stands right now I have to wait a little bit before I can justify getting another citrus tree (the lady might have my head otherwise...) but I would like to get one or two more early season mandarins so I can have some fruit during the fall/early winter. If anyone else has a suggestion feel free to let me know!

I was considering a Clementine also, any good early season varieties anyone has experiance with?

Thanks again,
Joe

We would do well eating fruit together. Of the varieties you list my top four would be:
1. Page Mandarin
2. Cara Cara Navel Orange
3. Washington Navel Orange
4. Nules Clementine Mandarin

I now have 4 Page mandarin trees. (trying to catch up with tolumnia)

The Page Mandarin is considered by many citrus experts as the best tasting citrus of all varieties, especially for juice. Although Page is commonly called a mandarin, technically speaking this variety should be referred to as a hybrid tangelo, since its parentage is three-fourths mandarin and one-fourth grapefruit (Minneola tangelo X Clementine ). - Millet (1,276-)

I am surprised nobody listed Ponkan mandarin--I cannot say that my Page was any better than the Ponkan, but the Ponkan is easier to peel and bigger. Owari has also been pretty good here. And my Daisy mandarin was pretty good as well.

This year I will be able to add Murcott, Moro Blood Orange, Hamlin Orange, Mandarin, Ambersweet Orange, Minneola Tangelo, Star Ruby GFT, and Royal GFT to the taste comparisons--but Page did not set.

Citrusboy, do your Miyagawa satsumas generally ripen before your Nules clementines? I checked out the UCRs citrus variety database and both ripen there between October and December but I get the impression the Miyagawa ripens first then the Nules. Just checking.

Also, how do you like your Sanguinelli blood orange? I got a small one on the cheap and was curious about how it matches up against the other bloods in your collection? Sorry to ask so many questions, your list just includes so many of the trees I have (but havn't produced yet, I'm new to citrus) or want to purchse soon!

So I think I have my next 4 purchases pretty much mapped out (Miyagwa, Nules, Page and a Cara Cara). I'm trying to plan everything out so I can have ripe mandarins for as many months out of the year as possible for the girlfriend (and myself of course). As it currently stands we have limited window/balcony space. Its my happy medium, I get my trees and she gets mandarins (her fav) for as many months out of the year as possible... So thanks to everyone for their insight and direction!

Joe

Hey Brancato, You are in my hometown Chicago! What the heck do you do in the winter when it's -30 wind chill?!! (Maybe the same thing Millet does...)

Anyway, the Clementines that I have are tiny! However the Nules and the SRA-92 gave some fruit and yes. Very tasty and the made "the list". I still have to wait on the SRA 63 and Caffin which gave me ZIP last year. I scowl at them every time I walk by.

Tango's I had one. Now I have 3. 1 container and two in the ground lining the driveway up to the house with 4 bearrs limes. Thank you Aaron Dillon from Four Winds who set up the Tango for me like 20 months ago and finally was able to ship about a year ago (Along with a Red Smith Blood Orange, Kiyomi Tangor and Marrakech Limonette) Four winds is AWESOME!

Skeeter. Dude (Sorry, I have been in CA a LONG time) I keep forgetting to get budwood for that! Thanks for reminding me that people love the Ponkan. Next cutting it's mine. Along with the budding class I took at UCR, I may actually get some buds to take.

On a down note, I am seeing leafminer already. UGH.

Yes Citrusboy, I do something similar to Millet but I unfortunately do not have a greenhouse. Yet. I'm working on that situation though. The girlfriend and I are planning on moving out to Colorado next year around this time (grad school in Denver) and hope to one day be able to take advantage of all of the sun out there with a greenhouse. I currently have 12 citrus trees and a bunch of seedlings all of which I have gotten over the past three or four months and are being grown in containers on my balcony.

So are you from the city or the burbs? I live about 25 miles west in Arlington Heights.

Joe

Millet, you need to get going to catch me. I now have 9 Page trees. Hard to decide between Page and Ponkan, but I think Page wins.

What didn't you like about the Sanguinelli orange?