i have a 5 year old owari satsuma that in previous years made no more than 10 fruit. this year it has at least 200 fruit on it that are still puffy and of horrible quality. nevermind that i have to wait another year for a decent satsuma, hoping my tree matures, but what do i do with all the fruit in the meantime. theres at least 75 fruit already on the ground that are growing what i could only imagine is penicillin on them, from being such a wet warm winter so far. im raking them away from the trunk a bit, just in case, but is there any real potential to hurt the tree? i realize if i werent here and nature were to take its course the ground would be covered in mold, so i cant imagine its a problem, am i wrong? if nothing else the rotting fruit will help fertilize for next year...

thx

red

No it won't hurt your tree. Penicillium (P. digitatum if olive green and P. italicum if bright blue) is among the most common fruit-rotting fungi, after the fruit has fallen on the ground.

And I thought I was being funny calling it that, its the bright blue variety, I kinda thought penicillin was only green I guess. I'm amazed how fast it spreads on the fallen fruit, glad to hear it won't harm anything!


Thx