Citrus variety 'Gold Nugget' becoming more appealing for Florida growers

The Florida Nursery, Growers & Landscape Association Citrus Nursery Division held a meeting in Apopka recently. Part of the sidebar discussions among attendees included the amazing health and vigor of the ‘Gold Nugget’ mandarin.

NVDMC originally brought the ‘Gold Nugget’ to Florida in hopes of finding an alternative to the ‘Honey Tangerine’ for the late season. As is typical with new mandarins in Florida, all of the early trees were grafted onto ‘Cleo’ liners. The trees grew well and looked decent, but did not produce enough fruit to be commercially viable.

As HLB continued to wreak havoc on old-line varieties, the ‘Gold Nugget’ seemed to hold its own. The worse everything else looked, the better the ‘Gold Nugget’ looked. The oldest planting of ‘Gold Nugget’ mandarins was at Conserv II. At the time this article was written, the front-end loaders were closing in on the block, but the trees were still standing. A small group of nursery owners drove out to see the trees. The trees remained dark green with a thick canopy, despite 14 to 18 months without irrigation, pest control, or nutrition.

NVDMC recently converted its ‘Gold Nugget’ contract from trial only, to also include dooryard and commercial production. This variety is a natural fit for dooryard growers. The jury is still out on its commercial utility in Florida, but more growers could be working with it soon.

source: growingproduce.com

Publication date: 6/21/2017

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