I don't know about the shasta golds but I think the sumos are great. I think that the age of the fruit has a lot to go with the flavor, so if it has been a long time in shipment and in the store, then the flavor will suffer. You cannot judge by the flavor of store bought fruit. You really need to taste the fruit fresh from the tree to make a valid judgment.

I heard only good things about Shasta and I wanted to plant it in my backyard at some point but I decided to go with one more fig instead.

I have heard multiple good things about the sumo. I have heard its not a finicky tree and the fruit is delicious. It is on my wish list!

I read so much raving about Sumos that I bought a few this winter. All were pretty sour and not very good. Must not have been lucky enough to grab fresh ones.

I planted a Gold Nugget a few years ago and this year was the first time we had fruit on it. They were nicely colored by January and I started eating them, even though I knew that GN ripens later than that. I thought they were good but not great, about on par with a decent store bought mandarin. Luckily I didn't eat all of them that early because now in March they are excellent, much, much better than any store bought mandarin I've had.

Their peel is pretty tight which makes them a little harder to peel than many mandarins. They are sweet but not the super sweetness of a Kishu or Satsuma. To me the best way to describe it is mandarin mixed with a little flavor of the best tree ripened navel orange. And you have to have eaten a tree ripened navel orange to understand that comparison, they are a universe apart from even the best store bought navel.

I have the following mandarins and in order of my favorites they are as follows.

Okitsu Wase Satsuma- this one wins the taste tests look at reviews

Gold Nugget

Kishu

Yosemite Gold

Tahoe Gold

Oooooh!! These lists make me happy because my gold nugget has 4 fruits on it!

At work today, someone brought in a mandarin. It was on the small side with orange/red tinted skin. The skin was tight but easy to peel. The membranes were not tough, it was seedless and there was very little stringiness inside. The taste was great - it was part sweet clementine with a just a bit of tang. He said it came in a halo bag. Anybody know what it might be? Fina sodea and nules Clementine are both supposed to have that red hint in their skin. Here is a picture of the skin that I took after eating.

Why not look at an arctic frost an orange frost varieties. I know that one of them if not both are meant to grow in ground on their own roots.

Steve

According to Halos website, the one I ate today, was a W. Murcott Afourer, which is different from a Murcott.

Now that I’ve had it, I want to makes sure I don’t just get super sweet mandarins, but something with a hint of tang as well.

I’ll google attic Frost now - thanks.

Just read some more and the W. Murcott Afourer is only seedless in isolation (can I put netting to keep the bees out of this one trees?). Then I kept reading and according to the NYTimes, the Tango is the seedless version of the W. Murcott Afourer.

Since I already have a tango, I’m back to getting a shiranui and GN. Maybe I’ll look into another Satsuma?

Attic and Orange Frost are both Satsuma varieties. They sound good.

Ya, the Sumos really depend on condition. Here in Japan they are genetically called Shiranui, but to earn the name Dekapon they must be of a certain quality, harvested at the right time, and actually stored for a specific time under certain conditions.

they are in season locally now, and I could actually show you how different the shiranui grades physicsly look (and price).

Hello Alanna so glad that you were able to find the Shasta but feel bad that it wasn't that great for you . My tree produce's some pretty wonderful fruit , they taste sweet & tropical and the membrane not tough at all and peels easily . Some think Shasta as the best of the Golds not including Gold Nugget which is unbelievably good . Of my very best tasting citrus are Page

Minneola's

Moro

Valencia

Navel

Shiranui

I didn't put them in order because I love them all , they all pack the sweetness I crave .

I am still waiting to try my Gold nuggets and Boukhobza blood orange and Kishu. I have a Tango and not to fussy about the fruit yet maybe as it gets older. My Satsuma very blah watery. I really like the Orri mandarins that are out there now really really good .

Brian

I just looked up Orri and they look and sound fantastic. It appears they're not available for sale here - tightly regulated. More than 31K trees were destroyed in Spain to control the market - Can't somebody send me one???

There are just too many varieties! I cannot narrow it down. Plus, it's really hard to choose based on internet descriptions.

I'm definitely ordering a GN and Shiranui. I was seriously considering a Yosemite Gold (because Shasta is so hard to find). Now my maybe list is: Pixie, Nules Clementine, Fina Sodea, Yosemite Gold, another Satsuma - perhaps a LA Early, but the Orange and Artic Frost sounded good too, I just didn't see a good place to order them. I want to speak with Harris Citrus and Mckenzie to see what varieties they recommend. But really any time somebody tells me about a good variety, I immediately want that too. What am I going to do with 10 mandarin trees and 10 lemon trees? I don't have room for what I have now! I need a greenhouse...

I forgot about the Sugarbelle - don't I need one of those too?

Found a Shasta Gold at Safeway here in Oregon today. They're wonderful- very sweet and juicy. Even better than the Sumos I've been scarfing down.

Clementine Fina that I tasted ( from the store), were very good, not tart, I like them.

The Dekopons that I tasted last August, were cured, as Nice Guy mentioned above the way they cure them, by touch they felt like the fruit was in a "bag", that's how I would describe the feel of the fruit inside it's peel. Easily peeled them and they blew my mind with sweetness and taste :) It was my first try and I fell in love with that fruit.

Sure, i’ll see if I can take a video in stores.

Last week I found Shasta gold and sumos at Shoprite. Today I saw ruby tangos and golden nuggets in Walmart. The GNs didn’t look great, hard and pale. The ruby tangos looked beautiful, but they were expensive and I didn’t want to buy a whole box. I’m really impressed by how much variety there in mass market mandarains. So many more choices beyond cuties and halos. Still not as good as growing your own...

I agree Alanna! My kids eat a lot of fruit so I am always looking for variety. I find that meijer and kroger offer so many different types of citrus. I can go in anytime I want and buy a bag of meyer lemons! (which is good for me, because I havent been able to grow one yet haha). Last year I found gold nuggets at kroger and they were bigger than baseballs. I am always finding a new variety to try.

Cory, here’s a video from 2 shops nearby. 5 different pricings ranging from about 80 yen - 400 yen each. Notice the names change as well, generic “shiranui” to higher grades “Daimasaki” and “Odama”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haFxIef9BQk&feature=youtu.be

Shasta Gold (container) and Golden Nugget (in ground) both producing delicious fruit for me. Okitsu Wase first fruits were terrible. That was 2 years ago and they took a year off - we'll see how they are this year. Page (2 container trees) delicious.

A very tasty surprise was the Avani Tardivo (container). Might have to put that one in the ground.,

Does GN prone to alternate bearing? Can it be avoided?

I will have my first GNs this year.

Yes you can. Thin the fruit to 1 fruit per 30 leaves.

My container GN has produced fruit 3 years in a row now and is full of buds right now.

Thanks Theniceguy for taking the pictures. The individually wrapped ones didn't seem to have as large a knob/neck, but it is a little hard to see it on my phone, so maybe that is not really so. The video moves pretty fast. It is a little hard to tell the different sizes too. Thanks for your efforts taking the pictures though. I enjoyed looking at them.

Cory