How interesting that you bring this up now. I have one satsuma and it had a heavy crop last year and it bloomed this Spring. I noticed an aphid infestation on it while it was blooming and got rid of them, but lost all the blooms in the process. It hasn't bloomed again and no fruits. I just bought another satsuma yesterday and it has no blooms on it either, so maybe I still won't get any oranges. But if it's that alternate year thing, next year should be a blowout! My dad used to talk about growing satsuma oranges when he was a boy. His father had orchards down around Beaumont. I sure wish he was here so I could ask him about it. I'll bet he knew and just never thought to mention it. Cheryl

List of most cold hardy mandarins: US 852 (Changsha x trifoliate) very well hardy down to zone 7, maybe even 6b Citrandarin - Satsuma x trifoliate 0-5 degrees (Fahrenheit) Changsha mandarin 10-11 degrees Arctic Frost (Changsha x Satsuma) 10.5-11.5 degrees "Ten Degree Tangerine" (Clementine x Yuzu) 11.5 degrees (some claim has slightly kerosene-like off flavor) Keraji mandarin 12-14 degrees Nippon mandarinquat (also called Orangequat, kumquat x Satsuma cross) 14-18 degrees Natsumikan (more like an Orange of Grapefruit, a bit bitter and can be sour) 15-18 degrees (not sure exactly) Satsuma is pretty hardy, can usually survive zone 8b, often 8a if the climate isn't too far north (This list doesn't include other really sour mandarin-like varieties)

Both mine and my parents' trees fruit are ready to pick and eat at Thanksgiving. Not just a few - the whole tree. Same every year - satsuma is the first citrus ripened and ready. Satsuma is an early citrus. So no, never had the citrus delayed. In fact, the fruit is ready before our first (infrequent) hard freeze which usually arrives in December or January. 2010 was an exception when it came on Sunday night of Thanksgiving weekend. So cold/freezing not an issue for the fruit. As far as cold-hardiness, when a hard freeze is forecast, I sometimes put heat lamps on them and sometimes not. In 10+ years for my tree and 30+ years for parents' tree, never had any part of either of the trees freeze back. I don't overdo the fertilizer. That is why I use a citrus-specific fertilizer (with the minor elements) and apply more often. Many of us believe that more frequent, light applications are better than two or three heavy applications. (I actually use that same theory with all my plants. I apply at one-half or even one-third the rate but twice as often. This works if you like to garden or work in the yard and are out there frequently.) My tree is shaped somewhat like a Charlie Brown tree. Here is my satsuma tree in November 2007: Two years later, my satsuma tree on November 23, 2009. (It has grown substantially in the past year and a half but I don't have a current photo): Another photo from November 2009: My parents' tree. This photo does not do it justice because you just can't see the enormity. The photo doesn't show the perspective and how tall and wide the tree is (20' diameter):

I can't help on the pricing other than maybe mention I paid $28 for each of mine there. (Don't think that was a sale price.) As far as Okitsu's though, I'm happy to brain dump what I've accrued since I recently began scouring Google pretty hard here. Okitsu is very similar to Owari which is sorta the de facto standard Satsuma. They are same ripening season (Nov.), same fruit size, same zipper peel skin, same seed count (technically 0-4 seeds per fruit average, which makes both effectively seedless), nearby pollinators don't change the seedy-ness, and they are similar in flavor. Pretty much "Delicious" by all accounts. Though I found one mention of Okitsu being slightly sweeter than Owari. They grow "up"-ish with whippy branches that tend to bow over from weight of the fruit. They both are notoriously cold tolerant for a citrus, but that's more once established a year or two. Young plants are vulnerable. Desert climate is less their thing, but from what I can tell they will still grow. ( I might need to baby mine a bit, but I'm ok with that.) Now a warning, I did see one source state that Satsuma was not compatible long term on citrange rootstock. It didn't specify which Satsuma so Okitsu may or may not apply. Im also not sure if they actually meant purebred citrange or were including all half bred rootstocks too. (So that would be Carrizo/Troyer, C35, C32, and probably a slew of others I don't know about) The complaint was that the rootstock and scion grew unevenly causing "benching". I'm not sure how true that info is, since I've seen lots of places sell Satsuma's on citrange based rootstock and I've also seen a few research papers listing Satsuma on Carrizo and don't remember those papers mentioning anything about incompatibility. Might just keep an eye on the graft, as I plan to myself. (I'm already cautious about Carrizo and C35 both as they seem to have a dodgey reputation with lots of conflicting info as far as suitability in my Phoenix soil, so I'm rolling the dice myself on these two as sort of an experiment and find out what's what.) Sorry if you knew all that already but even if you did, that info was splattered pretty well all over the Internet and I had to collect it. Hopefully all that being in one place might help others. PS I am a HIGHLY unreliable source of information, but I Google real good. LOL!