They look very similar to Ponkan mandarins which are my favorite. I get a great crop every year.

Well, after 8 Sumos, I found one fat little seed this morning. So, going to try my hand at germinating it. Hopefully I'll come across a few more, since germination isn't 100%. Will see if this sprouts!

Good luck, Patty! I looked at my 4" pots a little bit ago to make sure that they weren't drying out and they looked just right. I felt I had to do something so I increased the neat on my propagation mat to 84F. I'm not very patient with this sort of thing so I hope they hurry up! lol

Harvey, if you did not remove the testa, at 84F it would normally take 18 to 21 days for germination. For a grower who is around say 65 year of age, he/she could be 72 to 75 before a seedling orange tree begins to produce fruit, and 5 years older (up to 80 years of age) before a citrus tree begins to produce quality fruit. - Millet (671-)

Heck yes! I just got 10 at central market in houston! Wish me luck on finding a seed!

Good luck tidusid. I planted my wee fat little Dekopan seed today. Went to pull it out of the moist towel and baggie I had it sitting in, in the refrigerator. I was all psyched up to carefully peel off the testa, but while sitting in the refridgerator, it had swelling up and split the testa, so I just planted it in seed starting material and it's incubating on the mat. I'll put the pot and mat in my sunny kitchen window in the morning. Hoping I can get this one little seed to sprout. Fun to try to grow my own citrus seedling. It will be some years before I see fruit, but curious to see if I can actually grow it to a tree.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to eating a Dekopon, because of the kindness of Harvey. Harvey sent me the fruit via priority mail. Dekopon has many of the required essentials to be a successful commercial variety: ease of peeling, seedlessness, size, color, and a high soluble solids content. In my estimation, unfortunately the matching percentage of acid was lacking. I would not call it any where close to being insipid, but noticeable lacking. I should mention, that my wife said it was the best citrus she had ever eaten. All in all, I would give it a good rating, but I have a higher appreciation of Xie Shan and Page. Xie Shan is still my #-l favorite citrus variety. I was very fortunate some years back being able to locate and purchase two Xie Shan trees, as they are very difficult to find. In a year or two, Dekopon should be available in most all supermarkets throughout the USA. I don't think I would bother growing the tree, rather electing to purchase the fruit when desired. Thank you Harvey, it was indeed kind of you, know that your generosity was MUCH appreciated. - Millet (668-)

Thanks, Bob, for the great report/evaluation.

While the taste of the six or so fruits I tried did vary, I think that low acidity is a common trait I found in all of them. My wife, son, and father enjoyed one fruit we shared and I believe low acidity was a key factor in my son saying he liked it. My son does not eat citrus, period. He will help me pick navel oranges but won't eat them. When I went to Lindcove and brought back 20 pounds of assorted citrus and asked him to try some such as 88-2, etc., he raised a fuss about it and did not like any of them (I probably got him to try a couple, as I recall). He does drink orange juice (without pulp) and lemonade and that's it. I don't know if he would give a repeat performance with Dekopan as he's done that a couple of times with other foods which he abhors (asparagus, for one). But I found promising.

I think the large size of the fruit, seedlessness, sweetness, and easy peeling with make it a popular fruit. The Sumo marketing name is probably a catchy one since people associate it with "very large". That said, I noticed on my last fruit that the segments are definitely too large for the average person to want to consume in one bite and I think that a one bite size is a positive characteristic. Sumo might just be a little too big.

I toy with the idea of growing some mandarins for sale for a local fruit stand and I think that Sumo might be good for that. I tried 15-150 at Lindcove and thought the same thing for that fruit which is smaller than Dekopan. It also didn't have the best flavor to me, but it had man of the same characteristics as Dekopan (just not quite as big).

I really regret not getting to taste Xie Shan when at Lindcove. Based on Bob's comments about this fruit I was looking forward to it. It was my first time at Lindcove so I followed the guide's instructions and listened to her describe fruit, etc. as we worked our way through the block. Some people broke away immediately and we should have done the same. After about an hour of tasting we were told to head back to the office but we had only made it through about 60-70% of the block. We were given maps and I should have scanned it and marked the ones that were "must try", but I learned from this and later saw Xie Shan was well past the point where we stopped. All the more reason to go back next year.

I concur, Millet, that was my finding. And, my husband loved it. I've put two Sumos in a chicken dish, as well as in a green salad, and he just loved them (they were actually quite delicious cooked in a tangerine sauce for the chicken). But for eating out of hand, I though Page and my little Algerian Clementine were both better. I am hoping to be able to get some Xie Shan budwood from UCR in June (just got on the list), so now I need to figure out where to find rootstock, as this will be my first time grafting. The directions on the forum are really excellent - the photos are extremely helpful. I have picked out Xie Shan, Ugli, and haven't decided upon the 3rd choice, yet. Will need to poll the esteemed forum members about a 3rd choice. As far as the Sumo goes - good for salads and cooking becuaes they're sweet, seedless and thin membraned, but I'd rather have a Page to snack on. Still going to grow my little Sumo seedling if it sprouts, just to say I did it, but not so much worried about getting any fruit from it. Heck, by the time it bears fruit, the craze will be over, and there will be Sumo fruit and trees galore!

Sold out at the FGV Whole Foods Market in Fresno. I spoke with the produce manager who had arrangements with the lower grower(s) for "enough inventory to last through April". But that estimation didn't hold up. He was sold out and received his "final shipment" two weeks ago and was told yesterday his supplier only has 10 cases left anyway.

The cases he procured were gone very fast. There was no holding them back. "I would buy 1000 more cases right now if they had them", he said.

Oh well. The Ojai Pixies were of decent flavor, though.

Okay, update on the wee fat little Depokan seed. I planted it on St. Patrick's Day (seeing as I only had one seed, figured I could use a Saint's help). Being the impatient type, I finally broke down today and dug down very carefully and saw that my wee fat little seed is sprouting!! So, I will leave it alone, and keep it on it's little seed warming pad, and in my sunny kitchen window (if we get any sun, that is). So Harvey, any progress with your Depokan seeds, yet? When did you plant yours? I know you found yours a few days before I found mine. Anything sprouting for you, yet?

I've been a bit more patient than you and not poked around yet, but now I'm tempted.

Yea, Harvey! They're already popping up! I don't have a thermostat attached to my seed mat, so I'm only at 85 degrees or so. But hopefully in a couple of days, my wee little fat Depokan seed will pop up, too. Still have a few Sumos to eat, so still hoping for a couple more seeds. myself.