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Tangerine and Tangelo oranges fruits are sour

8 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
8 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
8 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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re grapefruit, they reach full sweetness about the time the following years flowering is done. It takes on average 12 to 16 months for grapefruit to reach it's prime. Most other citrus do not take as long, reaching good to each stage starting in September and running all fall and winter, depending on the variety. Note sour orange is what is used for marmalade. I also use the juice to render my own BBQ sauce, adding low salt soy sauce, and another fruit juice (pomegranate, grape, or plumb are my favorites) in equal thirds, then reduce with a rolling boil stirring constantly. You can also add a bit of sugar if you like it sweet. I like mine hot/spicy so I add a bit of fine ground red pepper or Tabasco sauce. Fantastic on ribs. For pork BBQ I use tangerine juice, soft dates (like Barhi or Medjool), and soy.
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I remember reading your original post and wondering what a 'Sour Orange' was, which led to many google searches and lots of learning. I have a large plant collection and I get rooted cuttings/seedlings or potted plants as gifts all the time and sometimes I remember what they are or keep track of the tags that come with them and sometimes I don't. Long after your post I was digging through the pile of pots of plants that never made it into winter storage because I ran out of time and space in the hoophouse and low and behold one of the survivors was a small Sour Orange - it even had its tag buried in the soil! Last winter was mighty cold here in Raleigh and it never lost a leaf. It may have been sheltered from all the jumble of pots around it or from the slab of asphalt it was sitting on - however it did it, I am amazed at its cold hardiness.
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Jolana, I agree -- it sure looks like it's made of plastic, The succulents they sell at Hobby Lobby look so real I'm tempted to buy some and be done with trying to grow some of the more exotic looking ones. Incidentally a beautiful and hardy (down to 25) succulent that is nicely colored and grows fairly large is Echeveria 'Fred Ives'. Echeveria/Graptopetalum' Fred Ives' Also I bought a pretty one off the sale tables at Lowes which has been hardy so far this winter. It has thick leaves with red lines running through it. Mara would know what it is.
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I would say that tangelos are very similar to oranges, in a way. But tangelos have more flavor than orange (although it's not exactly the same flavor). When tangelos get bred with mandarins the flavor starts becoming more orange-like. Both tangelos and oranges can be seen as lying somewhere on the spectrum between mandarin and pomelo, the two progenitor citrus species from which at one time these citrus groups are believed to have originated from. The term "tangelo" doesn't exactly carry a precise definition. If we viewed all these citrus groups as being on a linear spectrum it would be in the following order: Pomelo, pomelo hybrid, grapefruit, tangelo, orange, tangor, mandarin The general definition of a tangor is a cross between grapefruit and mandarin, however it's not infeasible that a cross between pomelo and mandarin, crossed with a mandarin again, and then once more crossed with the pomelo-mandarin cross, could also be regarded as being a tangor. What I'm saying is it's all a matter of proportion. I think oranges tend to result when there is a lot of backcrossing and the flavor starts becoming more muted. That's one perspective on this (and not necessarily the only valid one). pip313, you say "tangelo is mandarin and pomelo". here is something to consider, cocktail grapefruit came about from a cross between a pomelo and a tangor, and a tangor is very close to a mandarin. I'm guessing if you actually crossed a pomelo and mandarin it would be very close to being somewhere between grapefruit and orange on the spectrum (although without the distinctive flavors particular to grapefruit or orange). You could call it a "tangor", but it would be more pomelo-like than any common tangor. (But then again, some people might not regard Cocktail as a true real grapefruit)
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Randy5491
Original Author
8 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
8 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
8 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
5 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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