Satsuma is one of the sweetest citruses out there. Plus, it’s easy to peel and easy to grow. It’s a perfect fruit to add to your orchard or citrus grove.
If you’ve grown small, sour, seed-filled mandarins that pull apart when you try to peel them, then growing satsumas will be a delight.
Cool weather doesn’t bother satsumas, and as a reliable performer, your harvests will just get bigger every year.
If you love satsumas or you just want an easy-going citrus tree for your garden, keep reading.
What is Satsuma?
The satsuma orange (Satsuma unshiu) is originally from China, but the name comes from the area of Japan where most of the parents of modern cultivars originated.
It’s a semi-tropical evergreen that is more cold hardy than most citrus trees, and it doesn’t have thorns like some citrus. Lime, I’m looking at you.
Hardy in USDA Growing Zones 8 to 11, if you’re willing to put in a little extra work to protect the tree during prolonged freezes, even those in Zone 7 can succeed at growing satsumas.
The fruits are not only sweet, juicy, and pretty much seed-free, but they are a reliable source of immunity-boosting vitamin C.
Satsuma is parthenocarpic, which means it develops fruit without fertilization. This provides the fruit with minimal or no seeds. It also means you don’t need pairs for pollination. The flowers of a satsuma have both male and female parts, making it a reliable cropper.
It is also one of the first citrus to ripen for picking in many areas, so you don’t have to wait and wait to dig in. There’s so much to love about growing satsumas. Let’s talk about some of the best options for the home grower, next.
8 Best Varieties of Satsuma
There are over 100 varieties of satsuma. Here are some of the best for home growers:
1. Miho
This is a slow grower that you can plant in the garden, but it’s also perfect for container planting, where you can keep it pruned to your desired size and shape. It was bred out of ‘Okitsu’ and released in 1963.
It can grow up to six feet tall in a container. In the garden, ‘Miho’ will grow up to 12 feet tall and six feet wide.
The fruit is somewhat oblate and sweeter than the standard fruit. It also matures slightly earlier.
2. Big Early
As the name says, this satsuma is larger than others and is ready earlier than many other cultivars. It has a thin rind and sweet juice.
It is a reliable cropper ready for harvest around late September to mid-October.
Bred by Satsuma grower Bonnie Childers out of an ‘Armstrong Early’ parent, it reliably tolerates temps into the 20s.
3. Owari
This is a common satsuma and may even be the one you buy in the store. It’s the parent of many spectacular cultivars and is one of the most common to find commercially. If you’re growing satsumas, this is a name you’ll be coming across often.
‘Owari’ is a late cropper with fruit that is medium in size and sweet. The fruit is usually seedless, but it might have up to six seeds. The tree will grow between 10 and 15 feet tall.
4. Brown Select
‘Brown Select’s’ form is relatively compact, and the branches are less droopy than many other satsuma cultivars. A child of early-producing ‘Kimbrough,’ the fruit should be ready around October to late November or later.
The rind of this Louisiana-bred cultivar is slightly bumpy compared to the other satsuma, and they are extremely sweet, medium-sized, and easy to peel. The fruit holds well on the tree if you’re the type who doesn’t get out right away during the harvest season.
5. Silverhill
For an even sweeter than normal satsuma, try ‘Silverhill.’ The fruit is slightly flatter than other satsumas. This is a reliable, vigorous tree with upright growth.
‘Silverhill’ was bred by botanist Walter T. Swingle in January 1931, after he noticed a tree that wasn’t as injured by a surprise Alabama freeze as the other ‘Owari’ trees around it were. The result is a tree that can tolerate colder temperatures than other cultivars.
It has been compared to ‘Frost,’ another cold hardy cultivar.
6. Early St. Anne
Like ‘Big Early,’ this satsuma is ready for harvest about a month before the later ones. You could be plucking fruit as early as September. The fruit is medium to large and has thin skin that is easy to peel.
‘Early St. Anne’ was bred from unknown parentage by Louisana State University’s citrus research program. The fruits are medium-large and oblate and have an excellent tangy, sweet flavor.
7. Kimbrough
If you are looking for a high-yielding satsuma, this cultivar should be your choice. ‘Kimbrough’ is larger than many other cultivars, and it produces more of them. They are juicier and easier to peel than other satsumas, too.
‘Kimbrough’ is late to ripen and the fruits might not be ready until November. The orange skin has a reddish tinge to it.
While the tree looks similar to ‘Owari,’ it is more cold-tolerant.
How to Propagate Satsuma
Satsuma are relatively slow growers. When you buy a grafted tree, it is likely several years old already. Your best bet is to purchase one of those if you’re eager to enjoy fruits soon after planting.
If time is on your side and you are looking to grow a satsuma from the start, you can take a cutting or plant one of the few seeds from within the fruit, but again, it will be several years before you see any satsumas.
Lastly, a satsuma grown from seed won’t be the same as the parent plant.
Cuttings
During the summer months, take cuttings about six inches long from a branch with an active growing tip. Make the cut at a 45-degree angle.
Leave the new green tip and new leaves attached, but remove all of the lower leaves from the rest of the cutting. Dip the end of the cutting in a rooting hormone like Bonide’s Bontone II rooting powder.
Plant the cuttings in good quality seed-raising soil. Insert the bottom third of the cutting into the soil and press lightly around the base to firm it into place.
Soak the soil with water and add more soil if it settles too much. Insert a toothpick or piece of wood near the cutting to hold up the plastic, and place a plastic bag over the container. This helps retain moisture.
The soil temperature should be in the range of 70-75ºF. Use a warming pad if necessary. The cutting needs direct sun for at least six hours per day.
Over the next six weeks, regularly check to make sure the soil isn’t drying out. Moisten as necessary. At the six-week stage, loosen the plastic bag to let in some air, but leave it on.
In about two months, if there is new, green growth on the cutting, remove the plastic bag completely.
Don’t be surprised if the starting container is sufficient for at least a year. Once you have lots of new growth, transplant the cutting outside or into a big, permanent container if that is where the satsuma is going.
Seeds
Like with cuttings, growing satsuma from seed is a long process. The resulting tree won’t be the same as the parent tree. If you’re feeling adventurous though, follow these steps.
Find a seed. Some fruits can have one or two in them, or you can purchase seeds.
Plant the seeds in a pot with seed-raising soil. There are some citrus-specific ones available. Push the seed into the mix ever-so-slightly and barely cover it with a sprinkle of more mix. Spray well with a spray bottle.
Put a plastic bag loosely over the pot and place this in direct sunlight where the internal temperature should be around 70ºF to 75ºF. Check every couple of days to ensure the soil remains moist.
After around 60 days, the seed should have germinated. Remove the plastic bag and keep the soil moist until the seedling is about three inches tall.
Move the pot outside where it will get morning sun. Keep this growing location until fall when you can transfer it to a bigger container and move it inside over winter.
Keep moving the container outdoors in the spring and bring it back indoors before winter for the next few years.
When it is well-established and has several branches, transfer it to its final spot in the garden, if you’re growing satsumas in the ground. Otherwise, plant in its permanent pot.
How to Care for Satsuma
Satsumas love sunlight, as do most citrus trees. Ideally, you want the tree planted where it will get sun all day, or at least 10 hours worth.
Satsumas require reasonably consistent warmth, though they are more cold-hardy than other citrus. To get the best fruit, areas that provide cool winters and hot and humid summers are best.
A mature tree can take temperatures as low as 14ºF as long as it is not for too long. If you have a young tree, consider frost and cold protection like mulching or invest in a trunk wrap.
To get the sweetest satsumas, winters that sit around 25ºF to 35ºF are best.
Fertilize with a citrus fertilizer in late January to early February, or when you notice new growth begin to appear.
Soil pH should be around 6.0 to 7.0.
Growing Satsumas in Containers
Satsumas don’t mind containers at all, and the benefit is you can move them indoors if you live in an area with icy winters.
Use a minimum 20-gallon container filled with citrus potting mix. Repot every five years or so, or when the roots start to come out of the bottom of the container.
Once the tree is mature and in the largest container you want to use, remove the tree every five years or so. Trim the roots back two to four inches and repot in the same container with fresh citrus potting mix.
If you keep repotting in a bigger container, you won’t be able to move it in the winter, so trimming the roots is a good way to keep a tree small. That’s actually how they do it in the art of bonsai.
Pruning Satsumas
You don’t need to do much in the way of pruning when growing satsumas. When they’re young, give them some shape. As they age, the only real pruning you should do is to remove dead, damaged, or diseased branches.
If there are branches that rub against each other, remove one of them.
Prune the lowest branches (those less than 20 inches from the ground) to stop any low-hanging fruit from touching the ground. Any growth that emerges below the graft union should be removed, as well.
Best Companion Plants for Satsumas
Any citrus tree works well as a companion with satsumas. Around the base or near the growing satsumas, you can plant:
Problems and Solutions for Growing Satsuma
Some citrus trees are constantly plagued by diseases and pests. One of the nice things about growing satsumas is that they’re fairly sturdy. So long as you provide them with proper water and food and improve air circulation with regular pruning, they should be fine.
Satsuma are much more disease resistant than most other citrus, and they can be perfectly healthy while other nearby citrus suffer diseases.
Citrus Scab (Sweet Orange Scab)
This is a common disease you will recognize by the orange or yellow warty scabs that form on leaves, stems, or the rind of satsumas. It is a fungal disease that affects most citrus, caused by the pathogen Elsinöe australis.
If you have a wet and humid summer where the temperature remains around 65ºF to 75ºF, keep an eye out for citrus scab. Symptoms include a light pink or brown scab on the skin of the fruit. You will also see pustules or water-soaked lesions on the leaves.
To avoid it, keep weeds and any big plants away from the base of the satsuma to improve airflow. Prune to allow airflow and water the base of the tree, not the foliage, as the disease can be spread by water droplets.
Make sure you get the tree from a reputable nursery as citrus scab often enters the property by infected trees.
Usually, the fruit isn’t affected inside by citrus scab; it just looks unsightly. But you don’t want it to spread to other orchards, particularly commercial ones, because the disease renders the fruit unsaleable.
You may have also problems with:
Harvesting Satsuma
Most satsuma are harvested before December, generally starting around September, depending on the cultivar you have.
Since the skins are so loose when ripe, snip the fruit off rather than pulling it because you’ll leave some of the skin on the tree and expose your satsuma flesh.
Store in the fridge for several weeks.
