Coorg Mandarin (Kodagu)

Coorg Mandarin (Citrus reticulata), grown mainly in Karnataka's Kodagu, Hassan and Chikmagalur districts, has traditionally been raised as a shade-tolerant secondary crop inside coffee plantations — a directly-fetched Wikipedia article and a directly-fetched Krishi Jagran feature both confirm cultivation there for over 150 years, though the exact date of introduction is unclear: one account traces it to central India roughly 300 years ago, another to the British-Raj era, around 160 years ago. Sources also disagree on the GI-tag year — Wikipedia says 2006, while the directly-fetched Krishi Jagran feature says 2004, filed by Karnataka's Department of Horticulture specifically to protect and revive the variety — both are reported here rather than picked. Fruit is greenish-yellow with tighter skin, a sweet-sour taste and a longer shelf life than the looser-skinned, sweeter Nagpur Mandarin. Cultivation has collapsed severely: from roughly 24,000 hectares in the 1960s to under 2,000 hectares in recent decades, with yield per plant falling from over 50 kg to about 10 kg, per Wikipedia. The Krishi Jagran feature traces the decline to an outbreak of greening/citrus-decline disease by the 1980s, compounded by stem borer, Phytophthora leaf fall, powdery mildew, root rot, poor-quality planting material and shallow-root damage from soil disturbance in the coffee intercrop; the Citrus Die-back Disease Station at Gonicoppal and the Regional Fruit Research Station at Chettalli (now ICAR-IIHR's Central Horticultural Experiment Station) have researched the decline for four decades, with National Horticultural Mission-backed revival efforts ongoing.

Plant typePlanting material
MaturityBearing from year 4–5 (grafted plant)
Yield potential80–110 q/ha at full bearing
Disease resistanceSusceptible to citrus greening — the same nursery-quality caution applies
SoilLoam
SeasonAll seasons

Actual yield depends on sowing time, soil, irrigation, weather, seed quality and crop management.

• Karnataka
• Kerala

• Nagpur Mandarin (Nagpur Santra)

  Grafted planting material, not true seed. The GI-tagged mandarin that gives Nagpur its name in every mandi in the country — worth buying only from a certified, greening-tested nursery.

  Open crop guide

• Khasi Mandarin

  The GI-tagged mandarin of the Khasi and Jaintia hills — grown on hill terraces where neither Nagpur nor Coorg Mandarin is the local crop of choice.

  Open crop guide

• Kinnow (mandarin hybrid)

  A very high-yielding, juicy mandarin hybrid that dominates the north-west (Punjab, Rajasthan) fresh trade. Not yet individually researched for a detail page.

  Open crop guide