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dixiegrrrrl

(60,011 posts)
Wed Dec 12, 2012, 05:13 PM Dec 2012

Just ate the first Satsuma orange of the season, from our own tree.

Learning when to fertilize was key to get good production out of our dwarf Satsumas this year.
We have maybe 20 -25 oranges this season, the small trees are only a few years old.
The trick is also to know when to pick..the skin has to be sort of "loose".
There is a town about 50 miles further south called Satsuma, at one time it was a very lucrative crop, till a major freeze destroyed most of the trees, way back when.

Anyhow, the flavor is fantastic, nothing like store bought, and the orange peels have an incredible strong aroma.



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Just ate the first Satsuma orange of the season, from our own tree. (Original Post) dixiegrrrrl Dec 2012 OP
Congrats! Gormy Cuss Dec 2012 #1
2 things dixiegrrrrl Dec 2012 #2
Oh! I hope that the Satsuma wasn't the cause. Gormy Cuss Dec 2012 #3

Gormy Cuss

(30,884 posts)
1. Congrats!
Wed Dec 12, 2012, 10:08 PM
Dec 2012

We're about a month away from picking our Robertson navels. There was a heavy fruit set on all of our citrus and we should be harvesting oranges for months. I'll admit though that I still have not figured out what combination of events gives us a good year vs. a bad!



dixiegrrrrl

(60,011 posts)
2. 2 things
Thu Dec 13, 2012, 12:42 PM
Dec 2012

I may be wrong...but...I think certain fruits set heavy every other year.
I know I read that about pecans, seem to remember reading it about fruit trees.

2nd thing:
Woke up this morning with a swollen lip, from a big hive, which is the place on my body that I break out when I eat
strawberries. A few years ago raspberries joined the list of allergens.
and now....
I ate that Satsuma yesterday, the only orange I have eaten all year.

Gormy Cuss

(30,884 posts)
3. Oh! I hope that the Satsuma wasn't the cause.
Thu Dec 13, 2012, 04:37 PM
Dec 2012

That would be a shame.

On fruit set with my trees, some of it is an alternate-bearing year thing normally but the fruit set this year seems to be a product of hardly any frost last winter and well spaced rains (this is in an inland valley in CA, cold Zone 9.) At least that's my best guess. I have five trees of different varieties and all of them went crazy this year. That's never happened before. I'm not complaining, mind you.

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