hard dry satsumas
 

my satsumas are dry and hard about half way up from the bottom and those that aren't are not sweet at all. the tree looks nice and healthy, the fruits skin is thin and peels easy.

its a young tree about 5 yrs old and 4 ft tall making about 25-30 satsumas each year (planted in golden meadow)

I was wondering if this is from lack of watering or just something that happens sometimes?

its at some property I don't visit very often except for grass cutting so I kinda just left it to fend for itself and did nothing to it (no regular or even occasional watering at all) so I dont think it got as much water as I think it would have liked.

also, beyond the normal care instructions, is there anything you can do to help make the fruit sweeter or is it purely pot luck if its sweet or not?

When I planted mine I was told it could take 5-8 yrs. to be good. First year it froze and resprouted above graft and 5 years later produced big easy to peel fruit dry as a dessert. following year same. following year same. following year I dont know cause I cut it down. If it dry or unsweet next year I'd cut it down . Naval orange better than satsuma for me anyway.

Ours are just small this year. They arent quite ready but if we dont start eating them now some will surely go to waste. They are still kind of green but are sweet and good to eat. The tree is 20+ years old and have never seen the dry fruit you are explaining.

One of my trees has 2 branches that has large dry satsumas every year. The rest of the tree has smaller sweet satsumas. Its the weirdest thing. I never fertilize or water my trees but I do keep mulch under the trees out to the canopy edge. Every year they are so full of satsumas the branches bend till they touch the ground. Now my lemons are small this year and about half the lemons as last year. Last year they were as big as grapefruits too and had about a 100 on the tree. My trees are 20 years old and didn't begin to produce good until they were about 10 to 12 years old.

well they are mostly all turned yellow with just a light green still on some.

I peeled 5 or 6 and there was one that I would call "normal" on the inside and it wasn't sour but I wouldnt call it sweet either, it was just kinda "meh"

I guess its just still young and last year the freeze did make it drop its leaves but it looked like it bounced back fast.

the orange tree planted near it I thought was dead from last years freeze but it finally came back to life after only having 6 or 7 leaves left short of being dead. it survived but didn't make any fruit this year and is just starting to look nice and healthy after being stunted and nearly on its death bed by that freeze.

I guess I just wont get any fruit at all this year, maybe next year will be beter

You fertilizing that satsuma tree any?
I hit ours every other year pretty good. Also, where is thetree with respect to your house or nearest structure? All of the citrus trees I plant are placed on the South side of the house or a fence or some typr of structure to block the North wind as much as possible.

I bought a place in Hackberry, LA with two old satsumas. They had not been pruned or taken care of at all since Ike. I pruned them and we have about 20 satsumas from both trees. What should I do over the winter? Fertilize? What type? I am just learning so any help is appreciated.

I hit them with 13-13-13 about a foot away from trunks and circled them with handfuls to see a visible ring on top of the ground. I did this once a month in jan, feb, and march and nothing after that.

as to where, its out in the yard by nothing so its completely in the sun exposed to winds on all sides but im surrounded on all sides in a sub division so there is a 24' wide concrete driveway about 15 ft to the north of it and the house is on the other side of that but its raised 4 ft off the ground.

the ground is mostly hard clay but before planting, I dug a 3ft by 3ft hole to plant it in and filled it with potting soil fertilizer mix before planting the tree. the only other point to mention is im about 2 ft above the water table so at that depth the hole was beginning to slowly fill up with ground water which I "assumed" would be more then enough to supply all its watering needs.

this is a good read: http://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edib...ertilizing.htm

just google fertilizing fruit trees as there are often a few things to pick up from each different site you find on it. take them all into consideration and follow what you feel is best for your trees and yard

I put out 13-13-13 in late Feb or March after you see the tree putting out new growth.

Sprinkle the fertilizer out near the "drip" line by the outer limbs. I put out 4 to 6 cups depending on the size of the plant.

Then in May or early June........ I put out about 1/3 of what I put out in the early spring. Do not fertilize after June.

Watering is important if there is no rain for 2 or 3 weeks during the summer. If it is dry when the fruit is just starting to grow..... the plant will "drop" a lot or all the fruit. Some dropping of fruit is normal. When the plants are flowering, a hard rain can really hurt how much fruit will be produced that year.

I will "thin" out some of my smaller grapefruits, but not on other types of fruit.

The year after pruning isn't a good producing year. Fruit is from second year growth. Next year you should have lots of fruit.

I just went pick some more satsumas this weekend and took a picture of the tree.

This tree is around 30 years old. Before this picture was taken we had already picked around 300 of them.

Wow..... that is one tree!

looks like its time for some serious pruning there lol.

went check mine this week to see if they got sweet after the two light freezes and pick all of what was still left on the tree, little thing was full but its small so it only produced about 30 this year, and them damn thieves stole every last one off my tree. I dont stay at the property so no telling who did it or when but did they have to take evey single last one! :pissed:

this happened a few years ago when the tree first started making fruit and for the next two years I cut all the fruit off so the tree could mature better but also because if I couldn't have any, thinking I'll be damned if I would supply the thieves with fruit. I thought they got the message and would leave em alone this year. I guess I think too much of my fellow man.

Oh that suxs. I picked my trees last week and got 7 13 gallon trash bags of satsumas and a 48qt ice chest of lemons. I still have a bag or 2 on the tree. I picked them before the hard freeze we were suppose to get. I should know not to trust the weathermen. I got paranoid because last year I lost over a 100 lemons from a freeze. I kept a bag and have been giving them away. Tomorrow I am making satsuma jelly and marmalade. I will post picks later.