i was orignally looking for something in a mandarin, tangerine, or satsuma that wont ripen till january or later, since my current trees cover most of the fall and early winter. i dont want anything else offered by the locals here, so my first option was to pick up a temple orange when im in florida in a few months. as it turns out, according to the LSU ag center, i cant even bring the tree home myself. so ive been looking online for a temple and cant seem to find it anywheres but florida, but i stumbled across a few others that might fit the bill.

some clementines
murcott
minneola tangelo
pixie tangerine
tango mandarin
tahoe
yosemite
the kinnow
shasta gold
yukon gold
and the best looking one to me... the gold nugget mandarin

of course i want to know the best tasting but my biggest concern is whether any of these are capable of surviving the harsh louisiana summers since most seem to be better suited for CA. anybody in the south have experience with these trees, or even better, willing to send a fruit or 2 for me to try? and do they still ripen on the same time frame as ive read. will the fruit on a gold nugget really last through summer here???

Minneola is my favorite, january and february. I like temple as well. They use temple to pollinate minneola in Florida. I don't know of any late clementines. Your best bet may be to ask the La Citrus Center to get budwood for you from California Budwood program. Then you could get any of those.

Seeing that you live in New Orleans a Brown Select satsuma. Drive down to Belle Chase to Star Farm. They have great citrus stock Louisiana Early and Early St. Anne are great early ripening varieties.

Thx mrtexas, i may have to do that. Buddinman I have a st Ann, i need much later varieties. I bought a few minneolas to try and see what i think of them.

You could order them from TreeSource citrus nursery in California. I think they have Minneoloa in stock all the time.

I don't know how often you get a hard freeze in LA, but one hard freeze could destroy your entire crop.

laaz, when you say crop you mean just the fruit right? as long as the tree survives with minimal damage i can accept that. ive been in nola 7 years and ive only seen one "hard" freeze, and it wasnt a deep freeze, dont recall the actual low. i think that same year i had frost ruin 10 or so lemons of mine. is it the freeze thats the worse or the frost thatll do more damage?

it doesnt deep freeze in southern la often, in my 33 years i can only recall temps in the 20's twice. i looked online for an almanac and it seems to agree with my memory. new orleans is supposed to be protected to some degree by lake ponchartrain which helps keep our winters a few degrees warmer than most areas around here. how low can i afford to go with some of those plants on my list?

camo i think i can actually get minneola down here, the rest seem to be harder to find.

buddin the problem with star nursery, from my understanding is that they wholesale only? if i thought they would sale to me, i would certianly take the 15 minute drive to find out what they have..

and why hasnt someone pionted out that i added a potato to the list lol?

Any where from 27f or below will ruin the fruit, even if just for a few hours. That is the reason I don't grow Valencias in the ground here. The trees will survive no problem, but I would rarely get any fruit.

True lemons & limes on the other hand, temps like that can kill the entire tree.

I have a Gold Nugget in the ground here & have only gotten the fruit to ripen once, as Gold Nugget doesn't ripen until late Feb - Mar. & a freeze always destroys the fruit. The tree itself on the other hand has never had any damage.

I meant to say low 20's in the last post. Occasionally temps get to 27, but it isnt often. Like the once in seven years, 30/31 more likely...i can deal with that, as long as the fruit survive the hot summer also

Summers are hotter in Indian River Florida than in NO.

gold nugget is a real gem. the taste is great and it really holds on the tree which is very important to a home gardener.

I recommend it to anyone but as mentioned earlier, weather permitting.

order buds from UC and graft almost anything you like

thx chris, thats what i like to hear about the tree. i really think i could make it work, and im certainly willing to try so...

i looked at UCR and it seems like i would have to order like 36 budwood, if they would even do personal orders. im not entirely sure what i was reading. information on the internet is so hard to find....

so ive been eating some store bought minneolas for the last 2 weeks or so, and from what ive read here and other random sites, i expected heaven? i also read store bought usually arent that good, but out of 20 or so fruit id have liked one that was decent. that best flavor i got from one was like a barely tart navel...

please tell me they get better? if i buy one and keep it healthy, is it really a great tasting fruit? i like tart and sweet and complex is great, but thats not what i tasted....

Actually, I think generally, store purchased citrus fruit receives an undeserved condemnation on this forum. If they were as bad a people say, the American citrus industry would not be a 16 billion dollar industry. - Millet (245 BO-)

I think it has a lot to do with individual taste buds, as well as if you're used to eating fresh citrus off your own tree. Store bought citrus never tastes as good as a fresh off the tree fruit.