i have a nearly 6 year old satsuma tree thats had its first year producing fruit. they have got to be some of the worse citrus ive ever tasted that arent rotten to begin with. so i have over 200 grapefruit sized puffy sour satsumas that will most likely go to waste and im looking for help for next year. ive searched all i can on the web and this forum looking for anything the can help, and havent found much.

so to sum up what i think ive read through the years, is that it might take longer for the tree to mature, it might have rained too much, too little at the right time, and it might be a various nutrient(N?) problem??? is there anything at all i can do to help, before i decide i dont like this tree anymore? i hate to waste 6 years on a tree thats yet to make a decent fruit....


red

i forgot to add, that this year has been rather hot, its possible they havent "ripened" enough yet, but im well past their supposed due date to wait for the cold air to help them out. even if it did, it doesnt do much for the puffiness that was there from the start

They are waaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyy past ripe. Satsumas ripen Sept - very early Nov. They are actually good before they turn all orange.

i ate one fruit a week from about sept onward, they were never ripe. its funny it was actually like 2 different trees(no its not rootstock) one side had a thicker puffy skin from the start and the other had decent looking fruit, but they never got sweet. at one piont they were edible but i certianly hope that wasnt the best i have to look forward to...

That's strange, even on young trees the fruit gets very sweet. Satsumas will often have a few puffy fruit no matter what age they are. I pull them off as soon as I see them forming.

I agree, i have my 8 month old ponkan i left a few fruit on that were nearly like sugar. This one just stumps me. So i guess once the fruit turn to the dark side theres no salvaging them. They always gonna puff and be pithy and dry? Whats the biggest giveaway for a young fruit, basically a thick bumpy rind?

I was under the impression they will grow out of it as they further mature. I had some that were only puffy on the North side but both sides were insipid.

Even a old tree will have a few, yes the peel will be bumpy and rough. I had one on my Owari this year that got almost as big as a grapefruit.

i ended up pulling all my fruit of the tree, i roughly counted over 550 satsumas...all wasted. man thats depressing.

I had over 3,000 that went bad this year. I'm going to have to find a place to sell them next year.

redster, this year pull off at least half of the fruit before they reach the size of a quarter, you will still have some puffy fruit untill the tree gets older, but most will be much sweeter, also, do not over water. it does not take as much water as you might think. was this the owari or the st. ann, just curious.

I missed the fact that you had so many fruit on the tree for the first time ever.
Maybe the fruit would have been a lot better if you had thinned your crop. That said usually I think the smaller fruit taste better and if you thin early enough to do any good the fruit will get bigger. What I don't like is the white fuzzy stuff that is so hard to pick off. I think that is drought induced. 550 is a lot of sats. for a first harvest..... Tom

Its the owari. My st ann is only 8 months old, ironicly the one fruit i left on it was the best sat ive eaten all year, along with the few ponkans. I agree that 550 is a lot, i figured it for 200-300 just looking at it. It may have been overbearing for that first time. Im gonna prune it back a bit and pull some fruit to see if it helps any this year. Oh and i never really water, we typically get enough rain, plus 15 inches in 2 days from isaac this year...

... make JUICE or JAM ...

Do you have good luck with the Gold Nugget mandarin in your area ? It sounds great if I could make it through winter . I think it would be expensive for me to keep it growing all winter.

Great list of varieties. What are your favorites please. Tom