Where are you?

California, bay area

Too early. Tangos and murcotts just reached their peak around February 15th. Gold nuggets won't be ready until April.

Evan

Thanks Evan. That must be why I can't find any GN or Tango trees too. I thought I found GN trees and the fruit at the grocery stores around this time last year.

yep, my GN's are just entering the harvest time range. Good and juicy now, but I know they will be better in a few weeks.

Just In case you are interested, Payless @ San Jose has both tango and gold nugget trees available last weekend that I went. They were on sale too

Wow - from Payless! Do their tags indicate the rootstock? The GN I have is on C35 rootstock and is a winner. I'd love to find another one - on C35.

BTW: on the fruit.... If the GN fruit you harvest or pick is dry and not juicy, it may have been hit with a freeze. My smaller GN fruit on higher branches is damaged and dry while the large fruit is heavy and juicy. When you buy... they should feel heavy.

Molewacker do you have any extra to share? :-)

Keep_on_gardening. Thank you for the tip. San Jose is in the quarantine area and I can't take it out. I am still (slightly) outside the quarantine. I gave up all my citrus last spring when I moved out of the quarantine. Looking to replace them. I am tempted to pick up one and leave it in my office and get some grow lights.

Sorry, I don't know the rootstock. But the supplier is Frantz, maybe you can find out?

A friend in Seattle said she tried the GN that I keep raving about a month ago. Now I am thinking that it must have been a mislabeled. Possibly a tango? She said it was so sweet and juicy. Lots of water content.

Looking at the pic, it looks too smooth.

Gold nuggets can be smooth depending on the amount of pruning the tree has had. Those Look more like a gold nugget than a tango to me, at least the 2 fruits with the stems. Tangos are more flattened, Gold Nuggets have a more pronounced neck similar to pixie.

Evan

Keep on - which location Payless? If from Frantz, you can look for the tag at the soil line. They only grow it, not propagate so usually leave the propagators tag on it. If the tag is still attached you will see a 6 digit code....usually decipherable. For example Meyer on C35 is IMMC35, Moro on Flying dragon is MBLFDG, and a Persian Lime on Carrizo is PERCZO - George

It's the San Jose King road location, but I didn't pick up a GN though. I will check out the code next time I go since I'm still looking for a Pixie.

I dropped by Payless and had plenty of dwarf tangos, no GN. The selection of tangos did not look happy. I called frantz directly and they have the tango in semi and the GN in standard. I called a few nearby nursuries and one guy confirm that they are not carrying a large selection because of the citrus quarantine.

George u can call frantz and find the rootstock info. I may be desperate enough to drive to Frantz. The trees are $35 each.

For George - is that flying dragon?

Oh no, I'm sorry! I would call Gods Little Acre in San Jose if you are still in the area, they have the best citrus selections around the area, but they are a bit pricy though.

I called just now and they confirmed theyhave gold nugget in 5gal and 15gal available. You can search their number and call to see the rootstock and price.

Besides the page, all the mandarins seem a bit...small at Payless.

I thought about Gods little acre, but I was on my lunch break. I hear they have a nice selection of Avocados too. I've been trying to stay away from that place. I really liked the tango and GN that Costco had last year from Frantz. So the dwarf tango was a bit disappointing.

Have you tried calling God's little acre for the pixie?

oh wow, thanks. I will see if I have time tomorrow to call. I can make a quick trip to SJ on Saturday vs a 2 hour one way trip to Frantz.

I don't want to buy a pixie from gods little acre because they are on the pricier side, especially when I am only using it as a back up plan for my frost damaged GN.

how pricey is pricier? Armstrong in Dublin quoted $40 but they may or may get it until april/may. Capitol Wholesale said they can special order GN and quoted $43. Frantz quoted $35 but it's a 2 hour drive. If OSH can get it, it will be around ~$26. I can't even get a hold of Menlo Growers. I am leaning towards the semi-dwarf and standard option.

Maybe you should ask if OSH can special order it for you? Of all the big box stores, I found OSH to be the easiest to talk to someone.

If I remember correctly, it's about $43 for 5gal, which isn't bad considering the $26 tree from OSH is only 3.5gal (I think). Since the GN that I'm trying to replace isn't dead yet, I still have time to browse around hoping to find a good deal. :-)

I live in the bay area as well. I have also found many citrus (not just these two varieties) bought at farmer's markets and grocery stores to be often dry and tough. The fruits from my own citrus that I grow here in CA are always juicy and tasty. There are also a few select citrus growers (e.g. Frog Hollow Farms) whose citrus are also consistently juicy and delicious. I truly believe that these dry fruits are due to suboptimal growing habits. I would imagine that under watering the trees is the main issue, however there may be other issues as well such as fertilization habits. Regardless, California citrus done correctly are absolutely delicious, but unfortunately, many growers clearly do not treat their trees in ways that produce high quality fruit. I understand there are pressures to reduce water consumption and others, however in the long term the growers are doing themselves a disservice by producing a highly inferior product.

-Brett

As brettay said... ! When choosing fruit, they should feel heavy (dense).

As for the tag above, yes: TaNGoFlyingDraGon.

I have noted also that Costco has been shipped nearly all lime trees the past week or two. they have many Persian limes that are flying the "Bearss" banner. If you look at the bottom of the trunk, at the soil line, you should see the propagator's tag. I grabbed several PERsianC35's "PERC35" - I love the fruit, and although indistinguishable from Bearss... is supposedly free of Woodpocket.

Brett - I just had to google Frog Hallow Farms after you mentioned it. I didn't see GN specifically listed in their product description. Do you go there to buy GNs? Now that I think about it, I've never had good oranges at the farmer's market. I see tons of it but I've tasted better citrus from grocery stores when it's in season. 99 ranch sometimes have bags of GNs and those were not the best but they were better than the ones from the farmer's market. I used to buy really good GNs from Raley's in Milpitas, but they closed down. Sometimes Safeway in Milpitas carries specialty citrus. I tried the (ojai) Pixie from Melissa's and we didn't like it as much as the GNs.

George - I am so tempted to pick up a meyer's from Costco. I miss having fresh meyer's. It's just too productive and I don't use that many lemons. I've seen flame grapfruit, yuzu, some navels at Costco but not nearly enough mandarins. I'm going to try contacting Menlo Growers again. I'll try to remember to ask about rootstock for you.

junk4us, sorry I didn't mean to suggest that Frog Hollow Farms produced gold nuggets. I don't believe they do. I was using them as an example of one of the few citrus producers that sell consistently high quality fruit.

-Brett

Brett - my bad, I misunderstood. Did you graft your shiranui budwood yet?

Yes I grafted the Shiranui about a week and a half ago. Even though my rootstocks were growing it wasn't easy to peel away the bark for t budding. I'll take the paraffin off in a week or so. Fingers crossed. Did you get some budwood too?

I ordered budwood but missed the march cutoff. Not sure if I will get it next month. Hope your graft takes.

I grafted 6 buds of Shiranui total to sour orange rootstock: 2 per plant on 3 plants total. Even though the rootstocks were growing the bark did not "slip" easily. It was tough separating the outer bark from the cambium. I took off the parafilm today and it appears that 100% of the grafts took. It's a miracle!

-Brett

Hey Brett, congratulations! I hope the rest goes well.

Yes! Congratz! I may need help if I get budwood next month. Now if my grafts take, that would be a true miracle.

On another note, I found GN at Safeway. It wasn't at its peak but still good. They did not last long in my house.

I picked up my GN from Menlo Growers. Mike is super busy. Took him a week to get back to me. I wouldn't recommend going down there unless you are looking for something specific and can't find it anywhere else. The GNs were located on another property about 10minutes away, further down on Leavesley. I got 2, one on C35 and I believe the other one is on a standard. I think I am done looking for this season.

Congrats! What's the size you got and how much for each (if you don't mind)?

5g for $35 each.

Thank you! I will have to look them up.

I believe the 15g were about $75. My phone was low battery so I couldn't take any real good pics. But oh wow, it smelled like heaven there...all those blossoms.

If you go, I recommend you let him know beforehand so he can make sure the trees are on the main property. Then again, I got to choose from several that were in the hoop rows. It wasn't a nursery set up where you can go and browse. Well you can browse, but there's no help other than Mike at the main house who called other people to help. No areas were labeled. I walked past those same people and they ignored me other than to ask me to move out of the way so they can spray.

Good to know, thanks for the suggestion. I will call Mike and schedule a time before I go. Only if I have a truck, I would definitely go for the 15g. For $40 extra, I can save myself from years of waiting...

Agree with Evan. Buy the smaller tree. Smaller trees adapt better after being planted and will catch up with the bigger tree.

Thanks Evan and Brett, did not know that before. Thought bigger is always better, guess that shows how inexperienced I am at gardening, opps

Mike at Menlo Growers and his staff have been very helpful to me when I was gathering the varieties to plant and its a great place to visit (with an appointment). Keep in mind he also has other trees, figs, persimmon and more... bring your big truck!

Out of the 2 GN trees I bought last year, one held on to a fruit. I was not expecting much since it was late season and barely planted in the ground. Well, my SO found it on knocked off on the ground. From what I hear, it was pretty good. could have used some more time to ripen if it didn't fall off the tree. Glad someone in the family got to enjoy it. :( really. i.am.glad.to.wait.another.year.if.i.am.lucky.it.holds.on.to.fruit.again.

Junk4us, thanks for the update! How much did they grow last season , any pictures?

My GN in a 1/2 wine barrel that is a 4 foot tree gave me 50 plus delicious mandarins this year.

I picked up a Yosemite Gold last week and already have a Tahoe Gold. If I run across a Shasta at a nursery I will buy it.

sunshine - it did not grow much. A few inches taller and some lateral branches. I'm starting to see some blooms and new growth so hopefully it will grow more this year. My other GN is not doing well, even after I changed the location.

Nick - the entire family is looking forward to when my little GN will be productive. I did run into shasta last year, but had to restrain myself. As it is, I don't know where I would plant it.

I'm in the same boat not much room to put another tree lol. I do have one option on the side of my house to extend our fence 8 feet out and 30 feet in length to match my neighbors. I might do that this summer. :)