Green Satsuma Question

14 years ago

Years ago, I can remember getting satsumas from Louisiana (Plaquemines Parish) that had green skin even when the fruit inside was ripe, they were bigger than a tangerine, and the skin was almost totally detached from the fruit inside, the easiest citrus to peel ever.

Is there a certain variety of satsuma that ripens to orange on the inside while staying green on the outside, or is this something that just happens sometimes with most any type satsuma? The satsumas they sell in the grocery stores now look more like tangerines, with orange, thin skin that isn't as easy to peel.

Thanks!

Sherry

Comments (6)

fofoca
14 years ago
My understanding is that all citrus need some cool temps to get their "true" color. In the tropics they usually stay green even when ripe.

Of course each variety has its own requirement for coolness. Maybe that kind of satsuma needs more chilling than usual? Perhaps some Louisianan can chime in here.
john_bonzo
14 years ago
Yes, any early variety of satsuma (in your climate) will have green skin when ripe. Early Satsumas: Armstrong Early, Seto, Miho, anything with "wase" in the name.
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MissSherry
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks! I guess the temps had been consistently high when I ate those satsumas, even though, as I recall (and my memory may be wrong here) it was around Christmas time when we ate them.
Sherry
fpanga_aol_com
13 years ago
I have this kind of Satsuma tree. Fruits are large, green peel even when ripe, detached skin but fruit is not juicy and although not sour, it is neither sweet. Tree is prolific. I am just giving it sometime (maybe 2 years) to improve and I'll be ready to replace it. It just makes me feel bad to
chop off a tree that has started to produce plenty. I wish that before then, I'll find other use for it.
cebury
13 years ago
Fely: I realize you didn't ask for help, but have you tried thinning? It may be required for prolific, especially alternate bearing trees.

Try thinning after it's natural fruit drop occurs when it sheds many of them at around 10-15mm in size. If the tree fruits in clusters, leave only 2 fruits per cluster with no fruit touching. If the tree doesn't fruit in clusters (likely), only allow one fruit per 5 nearest leaves.

Rather than give an estimate like "leave 1 fruit every 8 inches", just look at the leaves nearest to it. Each fruit will pull nutrition from the nearest leaves, therefore the better/healthier the nearest leaves, the better the fruit. So don't allow more than 1 fruit to pull nutrition from a given set of about 5 leaves. E.g. If a branch has 20 leaves even spaced and its fruits are evenly spaced across it, then leave 4 fruit.

You need to remove at minimum 20% of the fruit to make a noticeable difference in fruit size -- but if you remove more you get a difference in quality.
mrtexas
13 years ago
Don't waster your time thinning satsuma fruit. The only thing that cures puffy watery fruit is time. Try a minimum of 5 years old and better at 10 years.

Here is a link that might be useful: mrtexas