Satsuma problem

8 years ago

I planted this tree in spring of 2015. A young tree. The following year we had a great crop! Last year it bloomed beautifully and then all the flowers fell off. After talking to my garden center it could have been that we didn't water it enough - just a guess.

This year is worse. It threw maybe a dozen flowers and dropped most of them. A few days ago it had 6 teeny tiny fruit. This morning two are left. I watered it diligently, fertilized according to the experts, it gets full sun and is even enclosed in my veggie/fruit cage to orotect it from squirrels. The flowers didn't feeze - they didn't come out until weeks after the last freeze.

What gives? Is a Satsuma a variety that doesnt produce reliably every year? If that's the case I will dig it up and plant it in another spot outside the cage and let the squirrels and Giant swallowtail catterpillars at it. Of course it would probably bear heavy loads of fruit every year then!

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Comments (2)

bea (zone 9a -Jax area)
Original Author
8 years ago
Since I posted my problem I found several old posts about the same problem as well as some articles published addressing the issue. The consensus seems to be that citrus trees will often bear heavy one year and rest the next and mandarins are more prone to that,

That's all well and good but this is the second year of flower drops.
Glenn Jones(9b)
8 years ago
Satsumas often have on years and off year and they get better with time.not being reliable till after there 10. the droping can be a sign of a couple of problems 1 that got me this year and just couldn't figure out till I saw it happing with my own eyes. earlier this year when mine started to bloom all the flowers were following off are so I thought. i was standing next to the tree and trying to figure out what was going on when I noticed more than normal large ants running all over it. I watched a ant go down a branch and cut the bloom off. It wasn't harvesting it let it fall. That freaked me out I have never seen that happen and when I checked my other citrus the same was going on. Now I don't usually use pestasides but right then I nuced them.

The other possibility is a need of micro nutrients.give it some foliar feeding spray.
bea (zone 9a -Jax area) thanked Glenn Jones(9b)
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