Jake Price and Mary Sutton of University of Georgia Extension recently wrote an article about alternate bearing of satsumas in Georgia. Edited excerpts follow.
Satsumas tend to alternate bear, which can be a problem in commercial production.
The freeze at the end of 2022 contributed to the majority of satsuma trees in Georgia having a light crop in 2023. This helped set up trees for big crops in 2024. With such a big crop last year, what can we expect from satsumas in 2025?
Tracking yields from 12 trees at the Owari research trial in Valdosta on two rootstocks, X-639 and US-812, it appears that following a very high-yielding year, the production the following two years is about half. Therefore, we can expect a lighter crop load this year.
In the trial, yields from rootstock X-639 in 2021 averaged 573 pounds per tree followed by an average of 249 pounds in 2022 and 266 pounds in 2023. In 2024, yields were up to 491 pounds per tree. If six of the 12 trees had not been pruned for a pruning trial, the yields would have been closer to 2021, since pruning did reduce yields.
Following a big year on US-812 rootstock in 2021, production was down around 40% in 2022 and 2023. Perhaps Owari on X-639 is more prone to alternate bearing than Owari on US-812 because the yield numbers do not appear to fluctuate as much on this rootstock.
Looking at bloom counts conducted this spring, it appears that the crop load on X-639 will be down significantly compared to 2024. Bloom counts on US-812 were much higher compared to X-639.
Another factor to be aware of in a lower-yielding year is the fruit size. Trees with a low crop load tend to have large fruit. In some cases, this fruit can be too large to market. Research, such as pruning trees and thinning fruit, is currently being conducted to hopefully reduce the alternate bearing pattern so yields and fruit size will be more consistent from year to year.
Source: University of Georgia Extension
Share this Post
Sponsored Content