Navel and blood orange. Cara cara is lame.

But, I would probably grow watermelon. Mature in 1 month vs mature in 7 months...

I assume this will be in a pot. ?

A fresh Cara is delicious.... but we get them by the bag here in CA and you may as well [Costco] where you are. Grow what you like and what you may not easily be able to get at the market. A Moro blood orange may be an option. but keep in mind that reaches maturity in late January/February or even later depending on growing conditions.

An early ripening Satsuma (such as Okitsu) may be a far better choice. If you want an orange, I'd suggest an early navel such as a Newhall, Fisher, or Fukumoto.

A Mandarin would be my first choice but since you asked I would choose a Moro. Mostly because I think they are interesting.

Satsuma in a large pot. Move outdoors in summer, indoors in winter.

Hey Dave. i was wondering how that Citrandarian you guys have been growing is doing. Did it make good fruit last year?

Molewhacker-yes this would be in a pot and spend winters indoors. I have fantastic light during the winter. Last winter I grew 6ft tall tomato plants indoors and ate fresh tomatoes all winter.

I actually haven't tried any of my three choices but I've liked every citrus I have tried with the exception of one grapefruit but I think that was a fluke. I do like grapefruit juice so maybe it was the wrong time of year for the grapefruit I ate.

My kids could eat sweet citrus all day so I'm hoping to have a collection that produces well and extend the season with as many varieties as I can. Right now I have Meyer lemon, rough lemon, tangerine, Valencia orange, and dwarf venous orange (which may be a calamondin). Everyone is in containers.

The Moro blood is my husbands first choice because of the color, though I'm not sure it will get as "bloody" as he wants in a container in our climate. The trovita is said to produce well in a desert climate which I have (even with this year's odd spring rain patterns). The cars cars seems like a good inbetween choice, almost a blood orange but still close to a sweet navel.

I really haven't even begun to delve into the world of mandarins, but I am open to it. :)

Of all the orange varieties I have Cara Cara is definitely my favorite; it is not really a blood orange; the flesh is pink to dark pink and the flavor is distinctive. The first time I tasted the CC, I didn't even know what it was; but I knew at that moment I had to have it.

If you're looking for a good orange to eat out of hand, I agree with John - Cara Cara if fabulous. Lovely, sweet, juicy, seedless and the bonus is the flesh is pink-tinged. It is not a blood orange (as in anthocyanin) but a pigmented orange (as in lycopene). Moro is interesting because it IS a blood orange, and can get VERY dark. If you have cool evenings, it will color up well for you. You say you have a "tangerine", which is really a mandarin, so you do already have one :-) If you're after another nice mandarin, I would suggest Gold Nugget, as it is a "late" mandarin, and might extend your citrus crop for your family. If really depends on what you want for flavor, and what you and your family likes :-)

Patty S.

I'm with patty, either a gold nugget mandarin, a tango mandarin or maybe a seedless kishu. Your kids will love the kishu mandarin.

Evan

Thanks for all the suggestions! I actually found blood oranges and kumquats today so we got to try them for the first time. I got four blood oranges, two with dark red coloring on the peel and two with a lighter blush in case of a flavor difference. We tried the dark colored ones and I did like it, it was interesting to taste both sweet and bitter? in the same fruit. It did have the distinct berry taste I read about. I think my husband was disappointed with the taste but my kids thought it was great. The kumquat was new to us too. I'm not sure what variety it was but I loved it. I ate the ones that were all orange (some had a hint of green) and it was interesting that the fruit was a bit lemony and the peel was sweet. They also seemed to be more sour by the stem and sweeter at the end, but maybe it was just me. My littlest loves anything edible so they both were a big hit for him but the verdict is still out on my 11 year old and husband.

Patty S.-I had heard rumors that a tangerine was a mandarin but wasn't sure. I'm not positive about the varieties I have. Everything except my Meyer lemon and the new one I'm picking out have come from a nursery with horrible reviews on the garden watchdog site. The plants themselves look healthy and my experience with their customer service was good but the order processing time was forever and they don't seem knowledgeable about the plants themselves. The dwarf venous orange in particular I cannot find any information on.

Steve-You have beautiful plants! You said you got 60 feet of twig growth between October and may!?! That has to be across all your plants, not just the tangerine, right? Or is it adding all the new growth from one tree together? I do have the sun on my side here and would LOVE to put a greenhouse against my wall like you. Unfortunately I am renting and probably won't be allowed to build it. I will ask just in case. My yard is the perfect size to turn into a greenhouse. Even just one half of the yard would fit many plants. They might veto real glass but I'll have to ask about the clear pro-panels? Or plexi-glass attached to wooden frames. My kids would love a warm spot during the winter too.

How good are figs? I think I've only had them in fig-newtons but I love those.

Alix

The growth I mentioned is on the sweetlee tree shown above. The other in ground sweetlee put on about 25 feet. It is amazing how many feet of growth shows up with about 40 growth spurts taking off, and it happens 3 times. a few inches here and there adds up fast but the tree is only 2 feet taller. the other sweetlee did not branch out but put on almost 3.5 feet in height. My Meyer lemon trees put on at best 15 feet for the better and 5 feet for the slower. they had only a few shoots growing but they grew up to 3 feet for the longest and an inch or 2 for the slowest spurts. My containerize sweetlee put on no growth all winter. In march it put out about 30 spurts that grew at most 6 inches but most were under 3 inches. The tree gained 4 inches in height.

The lightest mix (pounds) that can hold the water needed in your area combined with the largest pot as the plant grows that big should serve you well. It is much easier to get 10 pounds of small fruit than 10 pounds of large fruit from a tree that is north of its natural growing area.

Steve

If your into unique fruit there is always the rare New Zealand lemonade. Can't buy the fruit. Period.

Pip313-I have heard of the NZ lemonade tree and am interested to grow one. Have you eaten them? Four winds does have them for sale so I may eventually get one.

I've gotten 6 baby citrus trees this month (at $5 each I couldn't say no) and will have two more by the first week of June. I like to think I have a green thumb but this is my first foray into growing citrus so I think I may try to hold off a bit and see how I do. I think all my trees are probably years away from producing fruit(one is a seedling, the rest are cuttings), which I don't mind but my family wants fruit ASAP. This next tree will be from FWG, be grafted and will hopefully fruit within a year.

In trying to track down new varieties to try in order to decide I found sanguinelli blood oranges and kumquats and since I enjoyed both I've planted all the seeds from each and will see what comes up. Hopefully that and the other citrus, plus my veggie garden will keep me busy enough to stop spending money on plants until fall. :)

I think I am going to go with a cara cara even though I've not yet tasted one. Does anyone grow them in containers here? Any tips? Many people recommended mandarins and that opened up a whole new world of choice. Is a citrus garden ever complete? How do you stop when there are so many different ones to try?

Four winds is sold out I bought the last 4 out of 6 and they only listed them because I kept bugging them. They aren't planning on selling anymore for around 6-9 more months.

No I haven't had any but I read a lot of Australian reviews. It's really Australian not from New Zealand.

As far as stopping, I have 14 live in Michigan, in an apartment. So idk

Pip313-you're right they are out, 6-9 months does give me time to save up and decide if I should add more. I will be in the same boat as you soon, I live in an apt. too and will probably have to downsize my houseplant collection to fit all the citrus during the winter. I don't mind as long as I have happy green plants inside though. Here in Albuquerque winter is very brown, dead, and depressing as far as outdoor plants go. This last winter I had to sneak in the last few plants because I began getting complaints that our dining room table disappeared and no one could see out the windows. Who needs to look out windows or use a table when there are so many fabulous green plants to look at? :)

Does FWG ship year round? I may not be able to hold back if they do. There are at least five different mandarins, two more oranges, the NZ lemonade, and Meiwa kumquat I want to get. Is it worth it to get the one year trees and wait longer or pay double for the 3 year old ones? All of mine will live in containers if that makes a difference. Also if the fruit is near ripe or ripening does the indoor/outdoor transition during spring/fall set it back, slow it down, or make the tree drop fruit?

I prefer 3 year old.