Indoor tangerine tree is cultivated as often as orange or lemon. True, for these purposes it is best to choose dwarf forms or plants from the unshiu varietal group. All fruits of this group do not contain seeds, and their skin is very thin and practically devoid of bitterness. Therefore, such a crop can be consumed without preliminary purification. Learn how to care for indoor tangerines and try growing a citrus tree on your windowsill.
Mandarin belongs to the Rutaceae family. Homeland – Southeast Asia.
Mandarin got its name because its exquisite fruits were the privilege of Chinese emperors – mandarins. Mandarin also plays an important role in the ancient oriental art of Feng Shui. The tangerine tree symbolizes good luck in obtaining money, and also has the ability to activate existing savings.
A beautiful small tree that blooms and bears fruit every year will certainly delight the eyes of the owners and surprise guests with an exotic view.
There is very little information about the origin of the mandarin. It is believed that his homeland is China or Japan. It was brought to Europe from Southeast Asia only in the last century, but it quickly spread throughout the Mediterranean. Now tangerine plantations are especially large in Japan, China, countries of Southern Europe and South America. More than 6 million tons of mandarin fruits are harvested annually. In terms of production volume among citrus fruits, mandarin ranks second after orange.
Tangerines grow on low trees with a spreading crown. Their leaves are very smooth, shiny, green at any time of the year. The fruits ripen quite quickly, they can be harvested already in November. Mandarins provide the largest harvest of citrus fruits. In favorable years, 5-6 thousand fruits are harvested from one tree per season.
In the subtropical regions of the Russian Black Sea region, tangerines can be grown, but there is no free area for laying large plantations here. Mandarins are found only in the individual gardens of local residents. This citrus comes to Russian cities mainly from neighboring countries: Abkhazia and Adjara.
Below is what a mandarin tree looks like and how to grow a houseplant at home.
What a mandarin tree looks like (with photo)
Mandarin is a perennial evergreen tree with a compact, well-leafy crown. In indoor conditions, it grows up to 1 m. Leaves are leathery, dark green, lanceolate. The flowers are white, with a wonderful aroma, with a diameter of 2,5-4 cm. It blooms in the spring, the fruits ripen in the fall
As shown in the photo, the fruits of the mandarin tree are spherical, slightly flattened, with a diameter of 4 to 8 cm, with a thin orange skin that easily separates from the pulp:
The peel is rich in glands that abundantly produce essential oil, the trickles of which are easy to see when the peel is crushed. The pulp is sweet, yellow-orange. The weight of one fruit is from 30 to 100 g. Fruits are without seeds or with few seeds.
Outwardly, the tangerine tree looks like a lemon, only their leaves are slightly dull at the top. The main difference lies in the structure of the fruit. They are flattened or slightly pear-shaped, yellow, orange or orange-red (tangerines). The peel of the fruit is easily separated from the pulp, which, in turn, is easily divided into slices. The pulp is rich in sugars (up to 7,4%), vitamins C and P. It is the earliest of all citrus fruits grown in the room.
Mandarin (Citrus reticulata) also called the noble citrus (C. nobilis) for its delicious taste.
But still, the main difference between mandarin and other relatives is the property of the peel to easily lag behind the fruit. In some varieties of fruits (plump tangerines), the peel does not touch the pulp at all, since there is a layer of air between the peel and the pulp of the fruit. The selection of tangerines has already in ancient times turned into a “conveyor line” in agriculture. There are so many varieties of tangerines that some have been described as different types of citrus. The variety of varieties of cultivated plants is called polymorphism in science. The polymorphism of mandarin is explained by the importance of this citrus in agriculture in various eastern countries, especially in China, where mandarin is the main citrus crop (tangerine variety). In Japan, the varieties of the Satsuma group that have conquered the world have been bred, of which the Unichiu variety, the seedless tangerine, is loved in Russia.
Although mandarin is traditionally considered a New Year’s fruit, it is indispensable in spring, during the period of vitamin deficiency. Indeed, tangerines store more vitamin C than, for example, apples and potatoes.
Tangerine peels make good tea – not only tasty, but also healthy, since even the dry tangerine peel contains essential oils. These essential oils act like inhalation, forcing you to cough up and have antimicrobial effects. Tangerine peels are dried, crushed, mixed with tea (1 tablespoon per 200 g of black tea) and the resulting mixture is used as regular tea.
When describing tangerine, it is worth noting that its peel contains many essential oils that are used in the food industry, in medicine and cosmetics.
Unshiu indoor tangerine variety
A large group of varieties is united under the name “unshiu”, which means “seedless”. Scientists assume that these most frost-resistant citrus fruits were selected more than 500 years ago in Japan from plants imported from China.
It is a small tree with a spherical crown and drooping branches without thorns. Leaves are hard, dark green, slightly corrugated, elongated, with a sharp tip. The petiole is long, grooved. Flowers are white, small, appear in May. The fruits are mostly flat-round, weighing 50-80 g, without seeds, since they are formed without pollination. Ripe fruits, if not removed from the tree in time, coarse and fall off. The peel is dark orange, rich in oily glands, easily separated from the pulp. The pulp is juicy, soft and tasty. From one unshiu tangerine tree, you can get 30-50 fruits, which are formed on last year’s and new branches.
Recently, the interest of indoor gardening lovers has attracted the attention of another type of unshiu – a family of dwarf tangerines from the so-called Vasya group.
Mandarin Kovano-wasse, imported from Japan back in 1930, is considered to be its original ancestor.
Now there is already a whole list of dwarfs that are extremely interesting for home citrus growing. Among these tangerines grown indoors, there are several imported “foreigners”:
Nagahashi unshiu
Sugiama unshiu
Tyahara unshiu
Miho-wase
Okitsu-wasse
Nankan
As well as the forms and varieties bred by our breeders:
Kartuli saadreo
Miagawa-wasse
Abkhazian early maturing
Agudzera
The very sweet, bright orange fruits of these varieties of tangerine houseplants, almost the size of an orange, ripen several weeks earlier than unshiu. The harvests of the trees are surprisingly generous, but the main thing is that when growing at home, these tangerines fit freely even on the smallest window. In nature, the height of these low-growing trees is about one and a half to two meters, and even less on the windowsill – practically does not exceed 40-50 centimeters. Fruiting of a tangerine indoor flower begins in the first – second year of life. A real find for lovers!
Indoor tangerine varieties are also suitable for growing indoors – ‘Cawanowa.se’ and ‘Miagawawase’.
Next, you will learn how to grow a tangerine tree at home.
Growing a tangerine indoor tree: caring for a flower at home (with video)
Growing tangerines under indoor conditions is difficult, since the plants do not experience enough light and heat during the ripening period, they cannot accumulate a sufficient amount of sugars, and their taste decreases. Mandarin is the most cold-resistant citrus plant. On demand for warmth, tangerine occupies an intermediate position between lemon and orange. Demanding for moisture from spring growth to fruit filling.
Lighting. For home care, indoor tangerine needs a bright, sunny room. In the spring, with the onset of warm days, the plant is best taken out into the air. Citrus is sensitive to changes in lighting, so it should not be rearranged from place to place, otherwise it stops growing until it adapts to new lighting conditions.
Temperature. In winter, it should be kept at a temperature of 4-6 ° C in a bright room. When growing and caring for tangerines at home, drafts should be avoided.
Substrate. Sod and leafy land, humus, peat and sand in equal proportions. Sod land can be taken twice as much as leaf land.
The substrate is prepared from sod and leafy soil, humus and sand (2: 1: 1: 1).
Watering. In summer, abundant watering is recommended, in winter it is extremely moderate. It should be watered as the coma dries up with settled water at room temperature. As the overdrying of the earth, the same excess moisture in winter with a lack of light causes leaves to fall.
Humidity. A home-grown mandarin plant requires regular spraying.
Top dressing: From April to September, a weekly top dressing is carried out with a complex mineral fertilizer.
Starting from April and ending with August, 2 times a week, citrus fruits are given weak fertilizing, alternating fertilizing with mineral fertilizers with organic fertilizing.
Transfer. When caring for a tangerine tree at home, young plants are transplanted after 1 – 2 years, and then after 3 – 4 years, old tub plants – every 5 or even 8 – 10 years.
Breeding. Cuttings root hard, in special heated greenhouses, so we recommend buying plants in specialized stores.
Mandarin tree rejuvenation
The life of a mandarin fits into the terms of human life. By the age of 25-30, the tangerine reaches its prime. At 50, he begins to age. He dies at the age of 70–75. But it also happens that a tree dies in its prime. The lush crown suddenly begins to dry, the growth of new branches stops, the fruits become smaller, and they become less and less, – in the end, the tree has to be cut down. Is it possible to save a tree whose very root system is affected by an incurable disease? It turns out you can!
Researcher at the All-Union Institute of Wet Subtropics N.V. Ryndin, together with a gardener-practitioner Henrikhson, made an interesting experiment in the spring of 1934. Having selected thirty trees in the tangerine of the Sukhum Botanical Garden, the root system of which was half-destroyed, N.V. Ryndin performed a kind of rejuvenation operation on each of them.
You need to know that the tangerine, like any other fruit tree, is grafted onto the wild. The wild game here serves as a pump, supplying the life-giving sap of the earth to the cultivated plant. The destruction of the “pump” inevitably leads to the death of the entire plant. The operation performed by NV Ryndin consisted in trying to change the “pumps”.
A new young wild was planted under the diseased tree. The top of the game was cut off, in a diseased tree, just above the affected part of the trunk, an incision was made, the cut off top was inserted into this incision, after which the junction was smeared and bandaged, as with a conventional graft.
The whole calculation boiled down to the fact that a diseased tree, having received such an original prosthesis, will begin to use it first as an additional “pump”, and later as a stem (main trunk).
Thirty operations with sick tangerines were a success. Almost all of the new wilds grafted onto old trees and began to work on them. In the most severe cases, two wild animals were vaccinated at once: later it will be possible to see which “leg” to leave the tangerine, and which “to remove”.
