Yes, do water it if you don't get an inch of water in a week, or you'll have dry tangerines. Dancy is an alternate-year bearing plant. It has a big crop one year and a small one the next. I've heard of people who got nice crops every year, but from what I was taught and my own experience, it's usually alternate-bearing. P.S. They are also notorious for dropping fruit if they have too many for the tree to support, so don't be sad.

There is a Citrus forum here & it's fairly active...

Thanks, I thought I would post it here since I live in FL, my mistake! I just checked there and not a single post is from FL on the first page...mostly northern growers and California.

Dancy is the "Christmas tangerine," the one we always got in our stockings growing up. They are ready by Christmas, but they are sweeter after some cold weather.

Have been enjoying some delicious Dancy this year, they finally started ripening up right after Christmas (thanks DG!)...will pick the rest this week.

Beautiful, puglvr. I'd grow it just as an ornamental, even if the fruit were poor. (And I've never had a good tangerine grown locally, alas, Not in S FL.)

WONDERFUL! It's a bit persnickety, as citrus goes, but when it's good, it's very, very good. Missing my Dancy tree now, and all the yummy fruit.

Your Dancy is very nice

Thanks all!! I've been waiting many years to finally have my very own tangerine tree, a very long time coming Lol...I'll enjoy it while it last!

Good for you Puglvr... My tangerines do well without additional watering but they never really get really sweet like store bought..maybe I need to water them with sugar water.

Thanks Oasis...Lol, I have to agree that mine are not super sweet either. But to be honest lately I haven't had any really sweet tangerines from the stores either :o(...seems like they might pick them sooner than they should?

I'm still enjoying the few I have, I hope next year will be better or at least as good as this year...

Great looking tree Oasis :o)...mine is only 3 years old so I'm hoping it will produce better with age (unless the greening gets it :o(...how old is your tree?

It was here when I purchased the house 5 years ago and was pretty much the same size then so its been here a few years. One side of the tree has some dieback but I'm thinking its lack of vitamins since I don't fertilize, I'll try to do better and put it on a fertilizer regime for 2017..

Fertilizing is definitely a good idea. I usually start late Feb. thru late Oct. I fertilize appx. every 6 weeks in half the recommended dosage. I was told fertilize more often in "less" quantity is best for the tree especially since mine is only 3 years old.

I found that constant feed was the way to go with my citrus. After doing it the way the "experts" said, and getting very little or no fruit, someone told me to just toss a couple of handfuls of fertilizer around the tree once a month, and that would fix it, and it did. I had been doing that with the Meyer Lemon anyway, so no problem to do it with the others. VOILA! Had a bumper crop for the next few years. Sadly, the cold got the fruit when it was young or before it ripened two of those years. I finally gave up on the Valencia and just kept the ones that could stand the cold, or that bore before it got cold. My best producers were Hamlin, Key Lime and Nagami Kumquat. My Meyer lemon never did much. The Dancy gave me a decent crop every other year. If I had room, I'd plant a Dancy here.

Here is some info on why trees produce dry fruit. Sugar water won't help your citrus, but water itself will. They are not actually drought tolerant.

http://www.cloudforest.com/cafe/gardening/why-some-citrus-become-dry-and-pithy-t3755.html

Thanks DG!! That website is very helpful...I agree that fertilizing "less" and more often with the added extra water my Dancy received during the dry spells seem to help a lot with my fruits this year. I will keep doing the same thing this coming season and hope for another good crop...

It's nice you are still growing citrus. I had to cut down four trees due to citrus greening. Shame too, since I remember them producing some really nice big fruit. I only have a small lime, lemon and a satsuma orange left. They are doing ok, and I'm hoping they aren't infected as well.

I bought a Dancy from a big box store last spring. Got only one fruit and it was dry and tasteless! It was like eating sawdust but I was till super excited to eat a fruit I grew :-)!

Puglvr1 - seeing how well your tree has done after three years gives me hope for mine.

I read some old posts of yours about battling with citrus leaf miners on your young citrus plants. How did you deal with that issue?

Hi vml68, CLM is an ongoing problem for me...when my citrus were young and newly planted I sprayed the new growths with Neem oil and used a product with Spinosad and though it did not prevent them from returning it kept the tree growing...I would spray it when I saw the very first signs of new leaves emerging. I use Monterey Garden Insect Spray and Captain Jack’s Dead Bug

http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/article/NE/20150806/FEATURES/150809806

Thanks, Puglvr1. I will give it a try.

I have a kaffir lime that I bought a year and a half ago and it has barely put out a few leaves since then and all of them are infested with CLM. I have a Bearss lemon and a satsuma with the same problem and they are not looking good either.

Best of luck...I hope it helps :o)