Frost Owari Satsuma Mandarin Budwood

Citrus unshiu.

Owari Satsuma is the most common of the many Satsuma mandarin selections grown in the United States, although other selections are being introduced. Because of its many fine qualities, Satsuma has been the focus of extensive efforts to extend its season of availability. Owari Satsuma trees are cold-hardy, productive, and vigorous-growing, but mature to a small size with a spreading and somewhat drooping character. The fruit varies in shape depending upon the conditions where it is grown, but it is most commonly oblate with a smooth and thin orange rind that is easily peeled. The flesh is bright orange, tender and juicy, seedless, and mild in flavor. The Owari Satsuma is considered to be a mid-season fruit, with its season of harvest being December to January in most areas of California. The fruit itself does not hold well on the tree, but it stores well after harvest.

Fruit medium in size, medium-oblate to subglobose; sometimes slightly necked; seedless.  Orange-colored but commonly matures in advance of good coloration.  Rind thin and leathery; surface smooth to slightly rough; easily separable.  As maturity passes, the neck, if present, increases in size, the rind roughens, and its looseness increases, becoming baggy.  Segments 10 to 12, with tough carpellary membranes; loosely separable; axis hollow.  Flesh orange-colored; tender and melting; flavor rich but subacid.  Season of maturity earl November-December.  Fruit holds poorly on trees after maturity and must be picked promptly but stores well.

Tree moderately vigorous but slow-growing; medium-small, spreading and drooping; very productive.

Rootstocks of accession: Carrizo citrange, C-35 citrange.

Season of ripeness at Riverside, California: October to December.

Prepared by the Givaudan Citrus Variety Collection at The University of California Riverside.