Hi, new here but been lurking for a while.
Looking for cultivar suggestion based on the following criteria:
1. fastest ripening (shortest time from fruit set to picking)
2. good to eat out of hand
3. available in SoCal
4. on dwarfing rootstock (optional)

Hoping the citru-brain trust can come up with something collectively
Thanks all!

Satsuma mandarin.

what part of so cal are you in?

Owari Satsuma is a good option

Kishu Mini is also a nice choice

I would recommend going with an early (see above), mid (tango mandarin), late (gold nugget mandarin) and valencia for a 9 month harvest.

P.S. all these varieties are "seedless"

@Laaz - Thanks for the suggestion, its funny that you mentioned the Satsuma, I just picked one up from Four Winds about 2 weeks ago, but no new growth since I took it home.

@Chris - Inland Empire (Riverside). Thanks for your suggestions too, picked up the Gold Nugget on the same day as the Satsuma. Was also in the market for a Kishu but couldn't find anyone in IE or Orange county that had one in stock. Was mostly shopping at OSH since they carry Four Winds stuff and they were on sale.

So the reason for this inquiry was to find a test subject for my experiment this year. I got it in my head to grow a dwarf citrus tree hydroponically and was looking for a cultivar that would fruit the quickest so that I could get data quicker. I plan to pick up 2 of the same cultivar and keep one in Deep Water Culture and the other in a container, maybe 1-2 pot sizes up. Wanted something that would actually be good to eat so that if I succeeded there would be a benefit for the effort. My first thought was for a Moro Blood orange, but based on the suggestions so far I may just go with the Satsumas since I already have one for the control.

If any of you guys have any data on hydroponic citrus, I hope to hear from ya.