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Tangerine and Tangelo oranges fruits are sour

10 years ago

My two orange trees produces sour fruit. Its been almost 4 years since I planted but it never give me sweet orange taste. Is there something I need to do to make the trees produces sweet orange taste. Also the skin are hard to peel. I only fertilized them once. Does it matter if its planted next to other species of fruit trees? Thanks for your advice. Randy5491

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Comments (6)

johnmerr
10 years ago
Nitrogen, water, sun, and heat make sugar; but sometimes nothing works. My Mother had a Satsuma mandarin that would not get sweet no matter what we tried; we finally took it out and put in a Washington navel, which produced great oranges; we just had to leave them a little longer on the tree.
silica
10 years ago
You should fertilize your tree a minimum of 3 times a year. However, I dont believe fertilizer is your trees problem. The sugar content (sweetness) of citrus fruits is determined by the number of heat unites the tree receives during the growth season. You do not give your location, so it is difficult to know if your tree is receiving the required amount or not.
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Flavor will often depend in growing conditions and is quite subjective. My favs: Sweet orange: Trovita--very productive; Lane Late--very productive; (Cara-cara only ok here on a very young tree, but really good from the grocery store :) Mandarin: Pixie, Clementine, [Satsuma (Owari)], Gold Nugget--all quite productive. Grapefruit: hybrids Cocktail grapefruit (soo good!) and Oroblanco. I never met a tangelo that I like. Minneola seems to be an aggressive grower, haven't had home-grown fruit. Temple Tangors (aka Royal mandarin) and Ortaniques are supposed to be very good, but I haven't liked them much though I have yet to have home-grown. I fully expect the Temple to not be good here, but you may do well with them in a greenhouse setting (they like heat). You may wish to think about a pummelo (like Chandler), or sweet acidless citrus like Palestine sweet limes or Mexican sweet lemons--quite interesting fruit that you may not be able to purchase easily. I like the acidless ones, though I agree with descriptions that the typical American palate may find them a little insipid. Sour/bitter oranges I find very easy to grow and are quite ornamental. HTH.
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Sorry for the delay, here is the recipe. It was given to me by a friend, she is British would you know and makes this very good marmalade. Lots of people in my village rave about it and she is usually very generous with it. Sue's Marmalade (sour orange marmalade) Cut sour oranges in 4 and remove pips (save them). Slice oranges very thinly, weigh and add 6 cups of water to every pound of pulp. Soak 24 hours. Rub preserving pan with lemon. Simmer pulp and pips (in cheesecloth bag) more or less 4 hours or until chips are tender. Turn into a basin , remove pips, let stand 12 hours. Weigh and put a small quantity of pulp in a pot. Add 1 1/4 lb of sugar to every lb of pulp. Bring slowly to a boil, than boil rapidly til set. Notes: This marmalade sets considerably more after a fortnight in the jars. Boil in small batches in heavy bottom pot like pressure cooker. Can and process in BWB We made two cases of marmalade so I cannot give you a yield, I had three huge plastique buckets of pulp in water to start with just for my bushel. The amount of sugar sounds like a lot but it is not, it remains nice and sour. It is very popular and people here buy it especially when I tell them it is Sue's recipe. if you have any questions, just let me know. Marie
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Randy5491
Original Author
10 years ago
Hi Silica
I am in the state of California in LA county area. We don't get enough rain here. I don't think heat is the problem. Thanks.
tantanman
10 years ago
Fruit quality can be poor if the tree does not get the right balance of potassium, magnesium and calcium. That can be a real problem in alkaline soil.

If your soil is OK then sunlight is the next limiting item. You need about six hours of sunlight or more.

In a cloudy fall I have had trouble getting fruit to sweeten. Fruit can be sour early and sweeten later. The acid may be too high and needs to age so it decreases. "Round oranges" may do this better than tangelos and mandarin types, because they hold their sugar longer.
hoosierquilt USDA 10A Sunset 23 Vista CA
10 years ago
Okay, everything mentioned above can affect the sugar content of your fruit. However, the most important issue is the time you're picking your fruit. What kind of orange tree is it? Valencias ripen March through July. Navel oranges ripen January through February here in S. Calif. If you're picking a Valencia orange now, they'll be sour. Most mandarins are ripe in the winter, but not all. What types of trees you have would help, amongst all the recommendations offered, previously. If you live in Los Angeles, you have plenty of heat, and we're all assuming the trees are receiving full sun (you don't mention how much sun they are receiving). But, you definitely have not fertilized enough, and timing the picking of your fruit is also pretty important.

Patty S.
Donna Richmond
7 years ago
We have a tangelo, and lemon tree. The lemons are huge and tasty, while the tangelos are yellow with grapefruit taste and slightly bitter. Don't know when to pick them either in southern MS. They were more bitter last year.

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