Out of curiousity, does anyone have a rule of thumb for when they start harvesting their citrus? Obviously, you can do what I do and pick one or two a week after they turn orange for a taste test to see how sweet (or sour) the fruit is, but I thought the experts might have some advice. My Gold Nuggets are getting pretty tastier as the weeks go by.

Phillip

With my sweet citrus I'll try the first one after I've noticed some change to the peel color. My tangerines and such most all ripen before they've completely turned orange and in the case of the Ponkans this year we'd eaten nearly all of them before they were more than 75% orange in color.

With the limes I like them when they start getting the first yellow cast to them, but while they're still mostly a light green in color.

Lemons I like a solid but bright yellow.

.....Alan (not an expert).

Phillip,

Try this link: www.ccpp.ucr.edu (under variety data).

It has some info I believe you are looking for. Also:

www.citrustreesource.com can link you there as well (under variety research).

Jim

For Owari Satsumas, I have seen graphs of the acid and sugar content over time (for So AL). Acid content peaks in Aug but sugar content continues to increase until the first of Jan. A sugar:acid ratio of 10 or higher is considered ideal--that usually occurs around Thanksgiving for Owari.