Tangerine tree flowering

8 years ago

We have a 10 year old tangerine tree I planted from a grocery store fruit. Never intended for it to fruit or anything, as it's potted and spends 4-5 months out of the year in the house. About 5 years ago though it flowered heavily (didn't produce anything). It flowered a little less the following year, less the following, and hasn't flowered at all for the past two.

What might be going on that it used to flower but doesn't anymore? I've read they need a certain number of leaf nodes or something to produce, but it's grown considerably since that first year so that number has certainly gone up. Any thoughts?

We just brought it in yesterday to protect it from the cold, but just for size reference....

Featured Answer

Jason (Zone 10b, San Diego)

8 years ago

You may want to try posting this in the citrus forum, there are some good, knowledgeable people there who could probably help you. The citrus sub-forum in the Tropical Fruit Forum has some real experts too.

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Comments (9)

pwr_wrx
8 years ago
Do you feed it anything throughout the year?
trpnbils thanked pwr_wrx
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trpnbils
Original Author
8 years ago
Nothing citrus-specific, which is probably the issue. For a couple of years we used liquid miracle gro just because we had it for our other plants, but then last year we used a fruit tree fertilizer spike about the size of a railroad spike that we got for our outdoor fruit trees. Never saw so much new growth coming off of this thing, but I have a feeling it may be putting so much into vegetative growth that it isn't flowering.
pwr_wrx
8 years ago
Try Jobes citrus 3-5-5 fertilizer. I've read amazing reviews about it and its lower on nitrogen so won't encourage as much green growth and more flower and fruit production.
trpnbils
Original Author
8 years ago
Thanks - what time of year would you recommend applying?
pwr_wrx
8 years ago
I think spring time would be good but since u keep it inside maybe apply it now. Technically organic fertilizers take a while to break down so applying now would be good.

Check out the California gardening channel he has lots of good info.

https://youtu.be/9PO-EnDjEfs
trpnbils
Original Author
8 years ago
Sounds good - I'll check it out. It's outside most of the year, but has to be inside from mid-November through late March usually. We moved this year and are renting a house again....we swear once we buy a house again we're going to be putting a greenhouse in as well.
pwr_wrx
8 years ago
Greenhouse is the way to go. I'm about to pick up the harbor freight 10x12 soon. With a little extra work on it, its supposed to be pretty good especially for the price. But if you have the money you can always get the good ones and not have to put in the extra time and work
Parker Turtle
8 years ago
Citrus kept inside in colder climates generally take substantially longer to reach fruiting age, since growth is slower and the environmental conditions are not ideal.

I would expect at 10 years a tangerine in a pot that big would be expected to fruit in the next year or two. But realize citrus needs higher temperatures to fruit than it does to grow. You might need a greenhouse or something.

Being kept inside, the plant is probably getting less warmth and light than you think. (and too much warmth without humidity is not good)