Planting such an exotic fruit on their windowsill seems an impossible task to many. We are constantly afraid that a citrus family needs unique care, which will absorb all of our time and finances. Indeed, some of these plants require careful supervision, but tangerine is not particularly relevant. This fruit is completely unpretentious and hardy enough for our climate. Therefore, after reading this article, choose the best cultivation method for you and feel free to start planting an overseas fetus. And how to choose and grow a tangerine from the stone at home, we will tell below.
Choosing a place for mandarin
If you do decide to grow a tangerine, the first thing you need to choose a place for an evergreen tree. Room mandarin can grow both on the windowsill and on the balcony. Today, breeders bred a lot of dwarf plants, but ordinary mandarin trees can be given the desired shape.
You will be interested to read about growing citron and calamondin at home.
Place for planting a tree at home, is selected as well as on the garden. Plot must be well lit with little direct sunlight. When there is insufficient light, the mandarin will slow down its growth and may not bloom at all. Therefore, to grow a tangerine, choose the southern part of the room, but so that at noon the tree can be slightly pritenit.
Temperature
For room content of mandarin is necessary to maintain a certain temperature. In the summer, the optimum temperature indicators for growing a tree should be + 20… + 25 ° C. When the plant begins to bloom or buds appear on it, it is advisable to prevent them from falling off flowers, lowering the temperature not above +20 ° C.
In winter, to improve the future of flowering citrus Mandarin better leave without much movement. The temperature during the winter period can vary from +5 ° C to + 10 ° C. Observing such temperature regimes, you can easily grow tangerine from the stone at home.
You can grow tangerines not only in indoor conditions, but also in open ground.
Lighting
Lighting Mandarin is a very important moment in its growth. With insufficient light, the tree is lagging behind and there is a great risk of modest flowering. In summer, a young mandarin can be gradually put up in the open air, so that the plant gradually gets used to the environment. But at noon you will have to hide it from direct sunlight.
In winter, when the light day is rather short, the mandarin should be set to the brightest place in the room. It happens that a young tree may lack coverage. A phytolamp comes to the rescue, which is screwed into an ordinary table lamp or a chandelier. Start off highlight mandarin need to graduallyotherwise, with a sharp change in the length of daylight the plant may lose foliage.
Important! Mandarin should not be surrounded by poisonous plants. If you have these on the windowsill, keep them away from the citrus plant.
Air humidity
Mandarin does not tolerate dry air. Therefore, to maintain sufficient humidity, it is recommended to put containers with water around the container. With increasing temperature, the plant must be further moistened, sometimes several times a day. In winter, it is better to apply spraying, but only as the soil dries.
The choice of dishes or container for planting
It is recommended to choose dishes for planting mandarin based on its size. Remember, for the best growth of the tree it will need to be replanted every year. Do not immediately choose a large pot, as too much space can lead to rotting of the roots.
The best containers for mandarin are small wooden boxes or pots made from natural materials. When planting, do not forget about good drainage. Pebbles, expanded clay, remnants of broken ceramic dishes and even foam plastic are excellent for this role. Mandarin does not like stagnant moisture in the soil, which can also lead to rotting of the roots.
Important! Every week, inspect the shoots, as well as the trunk and leaves of the tree for infection by bacteria or pests.
Mandarin soil
As with outdoor cultivation, indoor tangerine dislikes sour soil. Therefore, choosing a ready mix for planting in the store, pay attention to the acidity of the substrate.
If you do not trust the purchased substrates, you can independently prepare the soil for planting. To do this, take the turf and leaf land, river washed sand and some wood ash. Observe the proportions 1: 1: 0.5. From these components the easy, passing air which the mandarin loves so much turns out air.
Planting, reproduction and transplanting mandarin
When home growing citrus mandarin, there are several ways to reproduce it: cuttings, grafting, and the most popular method to date - bone. But how to plant and grow a tangerine from a stone, so that the tree will bear fruit?
First of all, it is necessary to understand that when using this method, the result is expected no earlier than after six years. An even more complicated breeding method is grafting, since when it is used, it is extremely rare to grow mandarin at home.
At the same time, a mandarin vaccine is considered one of the tested options. At home, it is grafted onto orange, lemon or grapefruit seedlings. In addition, many gardeners are interested in how much grows mandarin? This citrus tree is very durable and with proper care will live for more than thirty years.
Mandarin roots are actively growing every year, because of what plant needs annual transplant. After 5-6 years, transplanted less often - once every two years. Transplantation should be carried out in the spring, before the active growth of the rhizome, and each time a pot or pot is selected slightly larger than the previous one. Best for Mandarin will be transshipment method of transplantation: try not to destroy the formed earthen room.
Important! Rinse the roots of the plant can not. Only at their infection rinsing is allowed.
Vegetative breeding method
As we mentioned above, the reproduction of mandarin at home, using conventional planting cuttings - is almost impossible. Therefore, to grow a fertile tree, Mandarin cuttings are grafted on any other citrus plant.
To do this, you need a bush aged from one to two years and a stalk of your choice of mandarin variety. We take a citrus sapling and at a distance of 10 cm above the soil make a T-shaped incision. Then, slightly pressing down the tip of the knife, we get a recess into which we insert our cutting.
After that, you need to coat the place of cutting with garden pitch and rewind PVC with film or tape. After vaccination mandarin, you must put them in a greenhouse, or simply cover them with a plastic bag. You can air once a day, making sure that the eye has not appeared after vaccination.
The cuttings are usually grafted for a month, after which the greenhouse is removed and the electrical tape is weakened. After rooting of the tape can be completely eliminated. Growing a tangerine in this way of reproduction, you have every chance to get sweet and juicy fruits.
Did you know? For the best growth of mandarin, sprinkle its leaves daily with warm water from a spray bottle.
Seed method
The easiest method to grow a tangerine is to plant a bone, and you already know about it. Therefore, in advance, buy several fruits that have been properly stored, without freezing and direct sunlight, and select a dozen of them from the seed. Then rinse thoroughly with running water and place on a window sill or other flat surface to dry.
When the seeds are dry, they need to soak for further germination: take cotton fabric and wrap bones in it. For several days, the cloth should be wet, but not float in water.
After the seeds swell and sprout begin to peek, they can be transplanted into the previously prepared soil. As soon as you plant a mandarin seed and the seedling grows a little, it must be transplanted into a container with a volume of about 4 liters.
Important! Be sure to take several grains at once for planting, as part of the mandarin seeds usually do not sprout.
Plant Care
If you no longer have questions on how to plant a tangerine, then it remains only to provide him with the right care and wait for the fragrant fruit. For good tree growth Do not forget about enough moisture in the summer. Give us more light, but shine in the sunshine, because mandarin leaves can easily get burned.
Some varieties of indoor tangerine can bloom up to a whole year, but to ensure their comfortable growth, tear off most of the flowers and ovaries. If you do not want to give the mandarin tree a special look, then you only need to remove dried or strongly stretched branches.
In the process of growing mandarin, it can affect various diseases and pests.
Watering mandarin
With the arrival of spring, it is necessary to water the mandarin copiously, wetting the whole earthen room, and if you properly build the drainage system, there will be no stagnation of moisture and it will not harm the plant. On particularly hot days, water the tree with a warm shower, and in the process of preparing for wintering, in the autumn, watering should be reduced. When growing in a warm room, water it as the topsoil dries.
Did you know? If the leaves on the tree began to curl, this means a lack of moisture in the soil.
Fertilizer and dressing
All fertilizers and dressing for mandarin, it is desirable to make after watering. In the summer, the tree requires fertilizer once every two weeks, and with the arrival of autumn - once a month. A good top dressing for tangerine tree is a bred cow dung.
You can also combine various mineral fertilizers, although in each garden shop you can easily buy ready-made special formulations. To increase fruiting, there is such a method of feeding as "fish ear": a quarter of a kilogram of unsalted fish, boiled for about half an hour in two liters of water, then add cold water, filter and use together with fertilizer.
After such simple manipulations, your southern tree will not only delight with its appearance, but will also begin to bear delicious fruits. Agree, it is much more interesting to put tangerines grown at home on the New Year's table, with which you will undoubtedly surprise all the guests who have come to you.
