Mandarin Orange Tree Help

Discussion in 'Citrus' started by RaiseFire, May 17, 2009.

  1. RaiseFire

    RaiseFire Member

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    Location:
    China Spring Tx USA
    I recently bought a Mr. Mac Satsuma Mandarin orange tree about a month ago. When I bought it, it had lots of small oranges on the tree. I just lost the very last orange left on the tree today. I left it in its original pot for a couple of weeks and when I noticed it was losing its oranges I transferred it to a larger pot about 3 to 4 inches bigger. When I did that I used Miracle Grow's citrus soil and the loose soil that was left from the tree mixed together. It gets about 5 hours of direct sunlight and faces west , SW. I live in an apartment so thats all I can get. I water it whenever it feels dry a couple of inches below the surface which is about 2 times a week whenever it doesn't rain. I live central TX where we get rain about once a week right now with the humidity staying around 60%. Its been cloudy for weeks now with a day or two of sunshine with temps around 80-90 degrees F. I try to fertilize it every time I water. I use Nutri Star citrus fertilizer (12-10-10). Any ideas on what could have been the problem that caused my oranges to fall off? Any tips on how to make it create a lot oranges?
    In the pic,the leaves in the pot arn't from the orange tree but from another I just finished trimming.
     

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  2. Millet

    Millet Well-Known Member 10 Years

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    It is very normal for a tree the size of your tree to drop anywhere from 95% of the fruit to 100 percent of fruit. A citrus tree flowers many more blooms than the tree will every be able to set fruit. Therefore approximately 99.5 percent of citrus flowers fall from the tree, without ever producing small fruit. Of the small fruit that a citrus tree sets, approximately only 2 percent will remain on the tree until maturity. This is true even for large mature trees. Your young tree will bloom again in the spring, if it obtains the proper amount chill hours over the winter, and will again set and drop the majority of small fruitlets. Normally a tree the size of yours will keep and mature only 2 or 3 fruit. All citrus varieties, only retain the amount of fruit that the tree is capable of bring to maturity. If you really want to learn about growing citrus, read and read and read the postings on the forum. Take care. - Millet (1,342-
     
  3. Laaz

    Laaz Active Member 10 Years

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    I agree. A tree the size of your would be bent over almost to the ground if it held a single fruit. I have about 20 different satsuma trees in my yard that I grafted. They don't usually hold any fruit for the first 2 years, and then will start to hold fruit the third year. Every year they will start to hold a few more fruit. You pretty much want to main trunk to be about a inch or more in diameter before you allow it to hold some fruit. Some people will not let their trees produce any fruit for 5 years, but I have had no problems letting them produce in their third year.
     

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