How To Grow A Tangerine From A Bone At Home

How to grow a tangerine from a bone at home

Surely you have seen citrus trees with fragrant flowers and fruits in someone of your friends. And I want to grow the same on my windowsill, but we doubt: will it work? If everything is more or less simple with lemons - many successfully grow them at home, then about tangerines, not everyone is so sure of a positive result. But we really want the bright fruits of this tree, the symbol of the New Year, to be right at our fingertips, on the windowsill!

Content

1 Mandarin from the bone: how realistic is it to grow
2 From seeds in a tree: we plant correctly

2.1 Choosing the soil and preparing the landing site
3 Caring for the plant after planting
4 Growing a fruiting tree: grafting rules
5 How to grow a tangerine at home (video)
6 How to protect a plant from diseases and pests

Tangerine from a bone: how realistic is it to grow

Mandarin is quite easy to care for, but in the early stages it will require care, attention and patience from you. If you do not have the desire or opportunity to deal with it closely, it is better to buy a seedling in a flower shop - an already grafted tree, ready in a short time to bear fruit.

Under natural conditions, fruiting mandarin is obtained by grafting. You can do it too. But first you need to grow a tree. Many have a tangerine indoor tree, but it rather performs a decorative function and does not bear fruit. At best, small, inedible fruits sometimes appear on it.

We will tell you how to properly grow and plant a tangerine to enjoy its fruits right at home.

Tangerine trees grown from seed will produce a rich harvest with proper care.

First, free up more space for the future tree. It is desirable that this is the southern side, rich in light and warmth. Any poisonous plants are bad neighbors for citrus fruits, so it is better to breed them in different windowsills, and ideally, in different rooms.

Where can I get the material for planting, that is, seeds? It's very simple: in the tangerines themselves! When buying these juicy sunny fruits for your loved ones, do not throw away the seeds afterwards, but collect them.

From seeds in a tree: planting correctly

First, we need to prepare the seeds. If you have already grown seedlings on your own, then you know that they need to be soaked for a while so that they swell.

Take a small piece of gauze, moisten it with water and wrap the tangerine seeds in it for a few days. Do not add too much water, or the bones may rot. It is better that the gauze is slightly damp, and you will moisten it if necessary. By the way, experts recommend using not just water for these purposes, but a weak solution of potassium permanganate. Thus, you will disinfect the mandarin seeds.
If you don't feel like the hassle of gauze, buy a hydrogel from a specialty store. It retains moisture well, so it is used by both amateur and professional flower growers. The hydrogel will serve you instead of gauze: place the mandarin seeds inside the mass so that they do not dry out, and leave for a few days until the seeds hatch.

hydrogel

Hydrogel for seed germination
You may not need to prepare the bones in advance. Many growers grow tangerines by simply placing the seed in the soil without germinating it before. After that, the soil should be watered regularly. If you have extensive experience in growing indoor plants, then you will be able to assess the degree of soil moisture and prevent the sprout from dying. The first leaves will hatch later than the germinated seed, but the sprout will be just as strong.

mandarin seeds

Mandarin seeds

Choosing the soil and preparing the landing site

Our tangerine needs a good, high-quality soil in which the tree will grow in the same way as it would grow in natural conditions. Therefore, peat is categorically not suitable: it has no nutritional properties, it dries quickly and often turns sour. Unfortunately, peat is found in almost all ready-to-use soil mixes sold in stores. Therefore, it is better to prepare the soil yourself. You will need:

1 part sand;
1 part rotted cow dung;
1 piece of leafy land;
3 parts of sod land;
some clay.

If you live in a city, you can buy neutral nutrient soil in the store, for example, "Biohumus" or "Rose". Due to their properties, these mixtures are well suited for growing citrus fruits. You can also make a simplified version of the soil mixture yourself: ordinary soil, some ash, organic fertilizer and superphosphate.

Choose the right soil for your mandarin

Prepare a pot for the future plant. The grown seedling will need a capacity of 4 liters or more.

Be sure to put the drainage on the bottom: crushed nut shells, pebbles, pebbles, shards. Fill the pot with soil. Plant sprouted or dry seeds to a depth of about 4 cm. It is better to plant several seeds at once (about a dozen).

While the seedlings harden, keep the pot in a warm place, where the temperature is not lower than +20 degrees, and monitor the humidity.

Plant care after planting

After the first shoots appear, start feeding them every 2 weeks with organic and mineral fertilizers. First, the sprout must be watered, and then a fertilizer must be added to the moist soil. In specialized stores, you can find fertilizers designed specifically for the care of citrus trees, in particular, tangerines.

Tangerine sprouts grown from seed

Every spring, the indoor tangerine needs a transplant. Do this carefully, keeping the soil intact around the roots.

When the tree is 8 years old, a transplant can be done every 2 years.

Keep the tangerine pot on the south side of the room, with good lighting. The air temperature in winter should not drop below +15 degrees. Spray the plant every week as tangerines need high moisture. It will be useful to constantly keep dishes with water next to the tree.

In summer, especially if it is very hot, the mandarin needs frequent abundant watering up to several times a day. In winter, water should be watered as the soil dries 2-3 times a week with water at room temperature.

Active feeding of fruiting citrus fruits should be carried out from April to September. This will make the fruit sweeter.

Growing a fruiting tree: grafting rules

In nature, a mandarin that has grown from a seed bears fruit after about 5 years, but it will be a wild game with tasteless fruits. Grafting tangerine will speed up fruiting and give you the opportunity to get full, tasty fruit. You need to graft the plant in April, early May or August, when the sap flow is especially active. In other months it is unlikely to be successful.

A positive result directly depends on how quickly and accurately you do all the manipulations.

Before you start grafting a tangerine tree, prepare the following:

stock, that is, a plant that you have grown from a seed, with a trunk thickness of about 6 mm;
scion - a fresh eye or stalk taken from a fruiting mandarin from a branch up to 2 years old;
budding garden knife;
elastic tape;
garden var.

On the stem of the stock at a height of 10 cm, make an incision in the form of the letter "T": horizontally 1 cm, vertically 2-4 cm.

Prepare the scion: remove the thorns and leaf blades. Carefully cut the bud with a small layer of wood and insert into the cut.

Mandarin budding scheme

Carefully tape the area where the “operation” was performed.

After grafting, place the plant under a jar or plastic bag. Thus, you will create the necessary microclimate and humidity.

Not earlier than in a month you will be able to see whether the vaccination was successful or not. That is why you will need several specimens of mandarin seedlings in order for at least a couple of them to be grafted successfully.

As soon as you see that the grafted bud has sprouted, begin accustoming the sprout to the air outside the jar. Gradually increase the airing time and remove the winding over time. After another month, when the new shoot has strengthened and grows well, carefully cut the stem of the rootstock obliquely 3 mm above the base of the shoot. Cover the cut with a garden pitch.

Place a stick in the pot, on which you fix the tree for its vertical growth. After that, don't forget to water, feed, and spray your mandarin.

How to grow a tangerine at home (video)

How to protect a plant from diseases and pests

Among the pests dangerous for home tangerines, most often we are faced with:

aphid;
flies;
red ticks.

To combat them, there are special biological products, for example, the so-called green soap. You can also make your own infusion of garlic or onion peel. They are equally good at coping with insects and do not allow them to reproduce, creating an uncomfortable environment for their life on the plant.

It is better not to use chemical agents: in an enclosed space it will be harmful for both you and the tangerine.

As soon as you notice signs of pests or diseases on the plant, give it a bath, thoroughly rinsing it completely. For example, place a pot of citrus fruits in a sink or bathtub and roll it thoroughly out of the shower. Apply the prepared solutions. Regular spraying will not help in this case.

Carefully care for your tangerine to avoid pests and diseases

An excellent environment for flies to emerge and reproduce is wet ground. Therefore, do not pour the tangerine and loosen the soil more often so that the top layer dries out.

Waterlogging of the soil can also lead to black leg disease and the death of a homemade tangerine.

As you can see, it is not difficult to grow a real tangerine from ordinary seeds at home. All that is required of you is desire, attention and love for flowers.