It is very simple to go to a specialty store and buy a ready-made tangerine tree and take care of it, although in this case too the plant may not produce a crop or die. But what if you challenge yourself and go for an experiment - grow mandarin from an ordinary seed? Moreover, planting material is free. You can start the experiment with your children, it will be very interesting for them to grow a real tangerine at home. This is real magic.
So, we will consider growing mandarin from seed at home. It is important not only to obtain seedlings and grow a full-fledged plant from them, but also to receive the treasured harvest of home tangerines.
Evaluate your strength
We will not build castles in the air. Keep in mind that the flowering of the tangerine tree will not even come in the first year after planting - the experiment will turn out to be long, but very exciting.
Moreover, the plant itself is evergreen and very pretty.
While you are waiting for the harvest of the first home-made tangerines, you will enjoy a beautiful tree.
Decide for yourself whether you are ready to work hard to achieve success, and the experiment was a success?
Are you ready to patiently wait for the first harvest? If so, then you are waiting for an interesting process of growing mandarin from seed at home. Let's get started?
Choosing bones for planting
Perhaps everyone chooses pitted tangerines in the store so as not to spit them out, but simply enjoy the juicy and sweet fruits. Only to grow tangerine at home will need fruit with seeds, usually hybrids. By the way, it is from them that plants that bloom and give edible fruits are obtained.
The bones are large, beautiful, dense. Thin, soft, withered, deformed or blackened in some places will not work. For planting, we take at least five pieces - not every one of them will sprout, we do not want to waste time in vain. If the future trees are planned to be planted, then we need at least ten seeds.
Important: professional gardeners came to a common opinion - without grafting, tangerines are small, green and not as tasty as we would like.
For vaccination, it is enough to buy one twig of the finished cultivated mandarin. The graft quickly takes root on a well-rooted tree.
How can you easily choose the seeds for planting: pour water in a small container and put the tangerine seeds in it. Those that drowned are ideal for landing. The remaining water on the surface can be thrown away, they are empty and barren.
Preparing the ground and the pot
Proper preparation of land and capacity is the key to the germination and future health of our plant. Mandarin does not like acidic soil, so the earth should not contain peat.
You can buy finished land in a specialized store. You need neutral ground.
To prepare the soil yourself mix the following ingredients:
- 2 parts of rotted humus;
- 2 parts of deciduous forest land;
- 1 part sifted river sand.
Note: if there is no humus, take non-acidic soil and sand.
For growing the first seedlings, ordinary cups for two hundred milliliters, small peas or any containers with a depth of at least 7-9 cm are suitable. Do not forget that you need to make drainage holes.
Expanded clay of small fraction or pebbles is laid out at the bottom. This is necessary for the drainage effect. Then we fall asleep prepared soil. If you observe all of the above, the root system of tangerines will have the necessary access to air and moisture level.
Plant tangerine seeds
With planting, we do not tighten, the faster the seeds removed from the mandarin fall into the soil, the higher the probability of seedlings. Prepare the soil and container in advance, eat a few tangerines, select the seeds and plant them immediately. Landing is carried out to a depth of 4 cm, lightly sprinkled with earth and sprayed with a spray gun. The first shoots should appear in about 3 weeks.
If it was not possible to plant immediately, just soak the bones for several days. How is this done correctly? We take a flat plate, wrap the bones in a damp piece of clean cloth and put in a plate. Wrap in a plastic bag, while not tying, and cover. You can just wrap the edge under the plate. Thus, we created a greenhouse effect. After 3-4 days, we plant bones in a container.
You can still stand the bones in gauze. Fold it in several layers together with the bones inside, fill it so that it is well moistened, and place in a saucer. We put everything in a warm place. Add water as it dries. After 2-3 days, you can plant.
Very interesting trick: put the seeds in a pot to any houseplant. You can forget about them. What will be your surprise when one day you find in a flower - sprouts of tangerines.
Note: there is a special hydrogel. It already contains all the necessary nutrients. It is important that the mandarin bones are among the mass of balls of gel, and not on the surface.
We are waiting for the first shoots and begin to care
Now we turn on our patience - no one can say for sure how much time will pass before the first sprout appears. This usually occurs from 2 weeks to 1 month.
At the same time, we are not just waiting, we monitor the soil moisture and the air temperature in the room. The optimum temperature ranges from + 20 ° C to + 25 ° C. It is not recommended to create a mini-greenhouse from cling film or bags. If you immediately accustom a plant to greenhouse conditions, then they will have to be maintained, care will become more difficult. And so our future tangerine will become more unpretentious and will grow well in room conditions.
We transplant correctly
If you planted seeds in a common container, rather than individual pots, when the first shoots appear, a transplant is necessary. Inspect the seedlings, we need only the strongest seedlings. It happens that two sprouts appear from one bone. Then you can leave a stronger one or separate them and plant them in different containers.
Our task is to ensure the development of the root system by plants. Once the containers are filled with roots, transplant into a more spacious pot.
Important: do not immediately plant in a large pot. In most cases, waterlogging of the soil occurs, the plant may rot or become ill.
The transplantation of young tangerine trees is carried out every year in a container wider and deeper as the root system develops. Plants bearing 2-3 times a year are transplanted each time into a pot, 4-6 cm larger in diameter.
When the mandarin tree reaches maturity, reaches its maximum height, do not transplant anymore. Just remove the top layer of the shallows, falling asleep fresh, enriched. The procedure is repeated once every several years.
Mandarin tree formation
The first pinching is done when the mandarin grows to 30-40 cm in height. Thus, the plant gives lateral shoots of the first order. Remember that flowers and fruits appear on branches of 4-5 orders. We continue to remove the tips of the shoots after the fourth leaf, weak shoots and growing inside the crown. This process takes approximately 3-4 years.
You can also go on a more complex and interesting path - the inclination of the shoots. We take the wire, carefully attach one end to a twig, and fix the other to the edge of the pot. It turns out that the twig grows almost parallel to the soil.
How to care for tangerine at home
Tree care varies by plant age and purpose. The following are key points that require strict compliance:
- Young tangerines (up to 5 years old) need regular watering, spraying and maintaining a large amount of light. First we need to provide a beautiful green crown.
- It is important not to flood the plant, but simply to keep the soil moist, often spray and keep in the light. And in the summer we protect from the scorching sun, shading the plants, and in the winter we put lamps.
- When tangerine begins to bloom, in winter we maintain a temperature in the range from + 10 ° С to + 12 ° С. The earth may even dry out a bit. So we give the tangerine a rest before flowering.
- By spring, the temperature gradually increases to + 16-18 ° C, the formation of buds will begin.
- In the summer we provide moderate heat, the temperature does not exceed + 25 ° C, otherwise you risk provoking the falling of flowers.
- Spraying is carried out carefully so that water does not fall on the flowers.
- In order for the crown to form beautiful, turn the pot with a tree once every two weeks by 10 °. So the leaves stretching towards the sun will grow evenly and beautifully.
- Mandarin fruits ripen for about six months, so in winter we put lamps. Even if the temperature is not above +12 ° C, the fruits ripen with the help of special lamps.
Important: if, during ripening, the fruits of the mandarin burst, watering is insufficient or not regular. Also the cause may be a lack of nitrogen.
Feeding Mandarin
Small plants do not need to be fed, we just transplant them into new containers. And mature trees need to be fertilized from spring to autumn. The easiest way to buy fertilizers for citrus is in the store.
If you plan to transplant mandarin, do not fertilize it three days before the procedure and two weeks after.
In winter, tangerine trees do not require top dressing. But during flowering and fruiting we give more phosphorus and potash fertilizers.
What to do if leaves turn yellow
Sometimes the crown of a tree begins to suddenly turn yellow, dry and fall off.
What could be the reason:
- If the plant is an adult - this may indicate an old plant.
- There is also a lack of lighting, try rearranging the pot.
- If the room is dry, spray regularly.
- If the leaves dry from the tip, the soil is too wet. There may also be a too large pot, transplant into another container with fresh soil.
- If the crown turns yellow from the bottom up, the mandarin does not have enough nitrogen.
We hope that all of the above will help to grow a beautiful, healthy and fruitful plant. Growing tangerines from seed, waiting for the first flowering and tasting delicious fruits is expensive.
