Friday Gazette: February 6, 2026
UCR’s Famous Tango Mandarin Now Open to Home Growers—With Caveats
Those seedless Cuties you pack in your kid’s lunchbox? UCR scientists helped create them. Now anyone can plant the trees—if they can find them.
UCR’s famous Tango mandarin can finally be planted without royalties after its 20-year patent expired, but backyard gardeners face a months-long wait.
Why it matters: Riverside residents who want to grow the sweet, seedless mandarins that became Cuties and Halos won’t see affordable trees for 6-12 months—and must leave the county’s quarantine zone to buy them…