My Changsha Mandarin is planted outside in 70% coir 30% perlite. It is under a temporary greenhouse tent likely until late February keeping temps slightly above zero but sometimes they spike as high as 20 on a really warm day (in the tent.)

I last fertilized in September with a very deep watering with high calcium fertilizer.

I need to water about monthly or it is getting too dry. The precipitation outside is far more than enough, but of course is not getting in the tent and the media is getting fairly dry.

Do I need to fertilize over winter? I know I don't want N but should I supplement Cal/Mag? How many waterings does it take to remove the built up fertilizer from all the summer/fall fertilizer sessions?

Edit: All temps are Celcius

I’m located in CT and it’s freezing cold (~40° during the day and well below freezing at night), so I had to bring my Calamondin tree in for the winter. She was thriving all summer long.

I made sure to get her a full spectrum, 24 watt grow light (it was recommended to me, the brand is Sansi from Amazon) and she’s got that hanging above her for ~12 hours a day, about ~6-8 inches away.

She’s still dropping fruit like crazy and I don’t know what to do 😣 the same thing happened last winter, which is why I upgraded the grow light, but it just doesn’t seem like it’s doing enough. It looks like her new growth has been stunted as well… she had a ton throughout the summer.

She has a bunch of fruit that has been growing all summer long, I would hate for her to lose those. Any advice?? Do I need to get more than one lamp for one plant?

Although I am pretty sure this is stress flowering from accidental drought, it feels really rewarding to see it flower :)

My question is should I let it fruit or is it still too young and should I prioritise growth for a few years? Recently repotted into a terracotta pot 35cm diameter in sand, pumice, perlite, peat and loamy top soil as I read that long term in a bark based mix is not good.

I have it for 7 months now but it feels like it is just getting worse. Initially i was watering it every day but it was loosing leaves and branches would dry put and die. I changed this to every 2-3 days but it seems to be getting even worse. Can someone advice how to save it?

Hi all, we bought a house about six months ago with a mature tangerine tree. Tonight will be the first frost of the year, and I am realizing I don't know exactly when I need to try to cover my tree. The low temperature here is expected to be ~37°F, but with wind chill the "feels like" temp is going to be ~28°F. We have been issued both a freeze warning and frost advisory. Should I cover my tree, or is that only necessary when the temperature drops below freezing? Thanks!

Has anyone ever tried such a hybrid? I think if someone was really persistent and tries crossing pomelos and kumquat enough times, there might be a chance of a very interesting fruit that would inherit all the best qualities of each.

Pomelos have excellent flavor and texture, large size, no tartness. But their pith and membranes are extremely bitter.

Kumquats are kinda the exact opposite, their pith and membrane is delicious, but they are small and very tart.

If a hybrid combining the best qualities existed I would absolutely love it!

Imagine having a relatively large citrus with the nice crunchy texture and sweetness of pomelo, but unlike a pomelo it's thick pith would also be sweet and delicious!

But I imagine, such a cross might be difficult as they are surely quite distant to each other genetically, and to achieve such a good combiation of traits, it would have to happen a lot of times with a large luck of combining the traits. It could as well result in the exact opposite - a smalll fruit with bitter pith and tart juice sacks.

It might even require more levels uf lucky backcrosses to really reinforce the desired trait, while still luckily excluding the undesired ones. Perhap it might be much easier to achieve with direct genetic engineering. Or using some hybrids instead in the first place, like crossing a mandarinquat with a pomelo.

I’m looking for a tree with really strong flavourful fruit The only varieties available to me easily right now are:

• encore
• miho
• silverhill (I think that’s a satsuma/unshu Milan)
• kawano

Live in a 10b zone