It was a tough year to be an Owari satsuma tree in central Alabama

This basket of oranges is the total harvest from Bob's Owari satsuma tree this year, in contrast to the 67 oranges we picked last November.

I can only speculate as to why there were only 10 satsumas.   The first idea that occurred to me was that the tree was merely "tired" as a result of last year's bumper crop.

My second thought was related to the delay in our spring warm-up; spring was about two weeks "late" this year.  Although the tree was covered in blooms, they were later than normal; perhaps we missed contact with the best polinators. 

Related to that idea, summer arrived right on time which meant that the tree had very little transition time between pollination and fruit onset.  Did the infant oranges die off in the rapid rise in heat and humidity?

I will probably never know what exactly went "wrong" for the satsumas.  To add insult to injury, we had an early hard freeze this fall, forcing me to harvest before the oranges were completely gold.  I had read that they can be considered ripe once they begin changing color but it was scary to pick all 10 of our satsumas while they were still partially green.

Regardless of all the challenges to growing citrus in our backyard this year, I can report that partially gold satsumas, fresh off our own tree are fabulously delicious!