Does anyone know how good satsumas will do on their own roots in sandy soil? The benefit would be that they would always come back true after freeze damage.

Skeet, I have two. One that I rooted from a cutting, and one where I budded mature wood to a satsuma seedling. Both are doing fine and have good fruit. They are 7 to 10 years old. My soil is well drained sandy loam.

Ned

Thanks Ned,
I have several satsuma seeds that I have sprouted so I figured I would give it a try. I did a search after my post and did find one website that said they would be about a 1/3 smaller tree when mature, but that should not be a problem for me.

Skeeter how long do thing it will take for the seeds to produce their first fruit?

I am guessing, but think they will be like most mandarins and fruit at 5-7 yrs. But, I will be grafting mature wood onto the seedlings so that they should fruit at 3-4 yrs. They will still have the satsuma roots in case of severe freezes and will come back true.

Stan had a very large seed grown Satsuma that produced excellent quality fruit. It got hit with a hard freeze about 3 years ago and never came back. Stan should be able to fill you in on the details.

I grew one in a large pot that fruited in 4-5 years.

Ned

Skeeter I don't remembers the specifics... I was up at his place the fall before & had some fruit from the tree. The next spring when I went up it was gone. I believe he said he was away on a cruise during the freeze.

A lot depends on which Satsumas you have
interest in growing. Some do better on their
own roots and some should be budded onto
a reliable cold tolerant, rootstock. Inasmuch
as some Satsumas have done pretty well grown
in the foothills around here, usually a Western
Garden Book zone 7 designation, there is the
issue of cold intolerance that a few of the
Satsumas do have a problem with.

I've seen Satsumas that were propagated from
rooted cuttings do better on their own roots
than those same clone plants did grown as
seedlings. A USDA zone 9 should be fine
for most of the Satsumas on their own roots
grown outdoors. Better grown in containers
and protected when grown in cooler climates.
My favorite Mandarin of all time is a red
fleshed Satsuma that I first tasted in Osaka
in 1990, later had plant of it sent in on its
own roots, that is similar in many respects
to Dobashi beni. In severe, prolonged freezes
my plant does suffer but has come back from
cold temps as low as 6 degrees but it takes a
while to bounce back from the wood loss.
Straight sand soils are not much good for
freeze protection, a sandy loam is far better
for in ground plantings. I use soil (silt) in
my potting mixes for outdoor container
Citrus to help the plant out for the onset
of cold and to aid root stability.

Jim

I am not sure if it is the same tree mentioned here, but Stan did have a good size satsuma that was on some sort of lemon rootstock - I assume Volck. He lost that tree to a freeze several years ago. If you have a tree on lemon, or you aren't sure about the rootstock, it pays to protect it to at least 12" or more above the graft union if there is a severe freeze in the forcast.

I have found Satsuma very hard to root. I know there must be some secret, because at least one big nursery in Florida use to sell rooted plants in #1 pots in quanity. I have managed to root a few myself, but they are not nearly as easy as lemons, and some others. I am now convince that they are best grown on trifoliate orange. To ensure that they come back true after a freeze, protect them to several feet above the graft union. That is a pretty easy thing to do.


Ned

Going along with Ned's post, I am getting to appreciate trifoliate orange as a root stock on many different varieties of citrus. Especially in greenhouse cultivation.

Skeet, I noticed on the local weather that displays with your posts are always the same. For example on this thread it says:
12-22-07 (12:39pm) 44F 82% humidity
12-22-07 ( 8:57 pm) 44F 82% humidity
12-23-07 ( 9:20 am) 44F 82% humidity
12-24-07 (12:29 pm) 44F 82% humidity
Florida weather must certainly not vary much.

Hi Millet,
The weather hasn't varied much today, it has been cloudy and cold all day, we may get into the mid 30s tonight, but the weather banner updates all of the banners to the current conditions no matter when the banner was posted. I wish it would keep the old data-- that would be an easy way to get past data from days that I do grafting.

Ned, I have been using seeds, it may take longer to get a tree, but the fact that it has a taproot may help it catch up later. If anyone wants seeds next year, I will ask my sister to keep any that she gets (in Alabama so it doesn't violate the quarentine).

First, I have started several seedling satsumas that have been very good. The fruit quality has been excellent. They make a rather large tree and usually will come back after a hard freeze. The BC-1 and BC-2 were planted in the late 70s and did come back after the severe freezeof 1983 when all the grafted trees were killed. To the best of my knowledge there has never been a bad seedling however normally they take 5 plus years to bear fruit. Treesearch farms in Houston still have the BC-1 and BC-2 cultivars. The BC-1 is also known as Port Neches.

Bonnie how large does the BC-1 and the BC-2 get in the ground?

Millet