Orange vs tangerine how to#

But theyвЂ™re as mature and colored as theyвЂ™ll ever get there. If found in a grocery store in the U.S., theyвЂ™d never sell. (As an aside, let me acknowledge that IвЂ™m using вЂњ mandarinвЂќ and вЂњtangerineвЂќ interchangeably in this article even though a citrus taxonomist would rightly point out that theyвЂ™re not synonymous.) What causes the rind to turn orange, then, if not overall fruit maturity? Let me show you some вЂњmandarinasвЂќ that I bought on a recent trip to Costa Rica. So the rind color is something of an indicator of maturity, but its not directly linked to how sweet the inside is.

Gold Nuggets from this tree donвЂ™t taste sweet until March at the earliest. But they were still pretty sour on this date. Here is a photo I took of my tree on January 15. Take the Gold Nugget mandarin, for example. However, itвЂ™s true that some varieties turn orange long before they taste sweet. So once theyвЂ™ve changed color, you can consider giving them a pick and taste. No sweet oranges or tangerines that I know of will be ripe in our climate before theyвЂ™ve turned orange. Part of the maturing process of oranges and tangerines in Southern California is that they eventually fade their rind color from green to orange. So letвЂ™s get nuanced, botanical, even maybe philosophical. We had been surfing during that terse exchange, but we donвЂ™t have to shout in between waves here. But then I remembered thatВ for some people gardening is full of rights and wrongs he was afraid there was a correct or incorrect time to pick his tangerines. My first thought was, itвЂ™s obvious, you pick them when they taste good.

Orange vs tangerine how to#

A friend asked me how to know when to pick the tangerines from his tree.