My Sumo seedling and Shiranui fruit tasting 2021

 A year ago I wrote about my Sumo seedling and how it compares to actual Shiranui  This year I didn't get to tasting the fruits at the earlier time, and I can not confirm that my seedling is earlier.  It might well be earlier, but I only started tasting the fruits in February.  What is really different is the juice vesicles of my seedling fruits. They are always more firm than the ones from Shiranui fruits. The seedling fruit density is at about Gold Nugget mandarin level.

The Sumo seedling and Shiranui fruits vary in shape, rind thickness and the amount of sugar even when collected from the same tree. In the pictures below, two left fruits are from my seedling. The top left is from a tree grown in Vacaville, the graft was made directly onto a citrus rootstock (C-32 or C-35). Low left fruit is coming from a graft made onto Minneola Tangelo tree.  Two right fruits are from the same tree of Shiranui grown in Isleton, CA.

The best fruit here is my seedling grafted on Minneola Tangelo, bottom left.  It had the most complexity and sugar along with the firmer structure than Shiranui fruits. It is possible that the rootstock alone defines the difference here. In my experience, any citrus grafted onto my old Minneola Tangelo produces excellent fruits. 

A few days later we tasted my seedling fruits again. On the left is my seedling from Vacaville tree, and on the right is from graft onto Minneola. Both fruits were excellent. Complex and sweet in flavor and as dense as the Gold Nugget fruit.

I think the real test would be to graft Shiranui onto my Minneola Tangelo and compare the fruits from the same tree and same location.  I have a feeling that my seedling is different. However, I need to get a good amount of both fruit types from the same tree to figure this out.

Shiranui and a Sumo seedling comparison

Here I compare the fruits from my Sumo seedling vs. Shiranui grafts of the wood obtained from CCPP (Citrus Clonal Protection Program)

I grew the Sumo seedling from a seed found in a supermarket fruit in 2014. I grafted the seedling wood onto mature trees in 2015, and the Shiranui wood from CCPP in 2018.

For the second year, they both produced, and they do not seem to be identical.  Most mandarin seedlings are genetically identical to the mother tree. The differences could be due to the:

1. Cultural or environmental conditions, they are from different trees growing in two different locations, 15 mi away
2. The Sumo fruit I bought in 2014 was of a different genetic origin than the wood distributed now by CCPP as Shiranui
3. The seedlings of Shiranui are not necessarily genetically identical to the mother tree.

What is different

My Sumo seedling fruits are significantly earlier than Shiranui.  Its is nice and sweet now right from the tree, but seems to be a bit dry. I should be picking all these in January, and I remember that they were even better back then. Shiranui fruit is not ripe at all. Its pretty sour on February 9 when tasted is right from the tree. In the pictures below, my seedling is on the left.