Mandarin is an evergreen plant that belongs to the Rutov family. The specific Latin name for mandarin is Citrus reticulate. Like orange, lemon, lime, grapefruit, it belongs to the genus Citrus. The life form of this plant is interesting - it can be a shrub and a tree, reaching a height of 5 meters.

Like other representatives of the genus Citrus, mandarin has long been grown in greenhouses, greenhouses, and winter gardens. Despite its size, tangerines at home can be grown on a balcony or on a windowsill. Currently, breeders have bred many varieties of dwarf and low-growing tangerines for home cultivation, the maximum height of which is 0.6-1.1 m. Indoor tangerines may not belong to dwarf varieties, then the plant needs to be heavily pruned and shaped.

Indoor tangerine is a very effective pot plant. And not only because of the bright, aromatic and mouth-watering orange fruits that can last for several months. Sometimes the plant delights only in its flowering, because the delicate white mandarin flowers exude an amazing aroma. In some varieties, flowering begins in spring and can last all year round. Indoor tangerine, grown in the form of a bonsai, is a real work of art.

Indoor tangerine fruits are tied without artificial pollination, usually ripen at the end of the year. Often, a potted indoor tangerine is bought in a store with fruits already hanging on it. Despite the fact that they are very appetizing, they are not worth eating. Indeed, to achieve such a high decorative effect, plants receive high doses of fertilizers. The tangerine has beautiful leathery and corrugated leaves.

Popular tangerine varieties for growing at home

Unshiu- Japanese variety, the most unpretentious, begins to bear fruit for 3-4 years, grows up to 0.8-1.5 m in room conditions. Branches well. Blooms profusely in spring, forms fruits in late October-November. Pear-shaped fruits lack seeds.
Kovano-Vasa, Miha-Vasa, Miyagawa-Vasa- dwarf tangerines of the Vasya group - suitable for growing on a windowsill, height 40-80 cm. Orange-yellow fruits ripen for the first time in the second year of cultivation, abundant flowering. Like all dwarf varieties, they do not need crown formation.
Shiva Mikan- early compact fast growing variety. Small fruits, no more than 30 g
Murcot t - the fruits of this compact mandarin variety are very sweet, ripen in summer, taste very sweet, therefore the name of the variety is translated as "honey".
Clementine- a hybrid of mandarin and orange, bears fruit at home in the second year. One adult domestic tree per year produces up to 50 medium flattened orange-red fruits, very fragrant, with a shiny skin. Plants of this variety with numerous seeds are called montreal.

Mandarin: home care

Lighting tangerine at home

The first step in successfully growing an indoor tangerine is choosing a location for the plant and proper lighting.
Indoor tangerines, like those grown outdoors, need good lighting with some direct sunlight. In low light, the plant slows down growth, throws out a small amount of flowers or does not bloom at all. With a severe lack of light, the leaves of indoor tangerine become faded, new shoots are elongated, thin and painful in appearance. Therefore, it is better to grow the plant in the eastern, southeastern and southern windows, shading from midday direct rays. In summer, the plant can be taken out onto the balcony, gradually accustoming it to the street.
In winter, with a short daylight hours, the indoor tangerine should be exposed in the most illuminated place with direct sunlight. But sometimes even this is not enough: artificial lighting is needed. For this purpose, an ordinary phytolight is suitable, which can be screwed into a chandelier or table lamp. It is necessary to transfer the plant to supplementary lighting gradually. With a sharp change in the length of daylight hours, it can shed its leaves.

Content temperature

The optimum temperature for indoor tangerine in the summer is + 20-25 ° C. During the period of budding and flowering, so that flowers do not fall off, it is better to keep the plant at a temperature slightly below + 20 ° C. In winter, to ensure a relative dormant period, mandarin is kept at + 5 -10 ° C. A plant that is rested over the winter will bloom and bear fruit better.

We advise you to read: Why are tangerines useful?
What to cook from tangerines "
In search of the sweetest and juiciest tangerines "

How to water and spray tangerines at home

The indoor mandarin, like its wild ancestors, is adapted to withstand dry periods. As a last resort, the plant will shed its leaves to reduce the amount of liquid that evaporates. A common problem when growing tangerines at home is over-watering, which leads to the development of fungal diseases.
The amount of water for irrigation of indoor tangerine depends on several factors:
- the size of the plant;
- the size of the container in which the tangerine grows;
- ambient temperature;
- the duration of daylight hours and the intensity of illumination.
The larger the leaf surface of the indoor mandarin, the stronger the evaporation, and the more it needs watering. Temperature also affects the rate of evaporation: the higher it is, the more the plant loses moisture. The length of daylight hours directly affects the amount of moisture that evaporates. Stomata - formations on the underside of terrestrial plants, which serve for gas exchange, open during daylight hours.
Watering indoor tangerine should be carried out in the first half of the day, when the plant has activated life processes. When the temperature drops, watering is reduced, until it stops for several days during a period when the temperature in the room is only + 12-15 ° C. In this case, the tangerine is watered with a small amount of water, only to maintain life.
Mandarin at home needs regular spraying of the leaves. Strongly dry air has a negative effect on the plant and is often a prerequisite for its infestation with spider mites. If the indoor tangerine blooms, then you need to make sure that water does not fall on its flowers.

How to feed tangerine at home

Full-fledged tangerine care at home is not possible without additional mineral and organic feeding. The soil in the pot is quickly depleted and washed out during watering, and recreational processes practically do not occur in it, unlike soil in nature.
For feeding, you can use soluble or dry fertilizers. In the spring, with an increase in daylight hours, the feeding for indoor tangerine is increased. It is in the early spring period that vegetative and generative buds begin to develop intensively, at which time the plant requires additional nutrients.
At home, mandarin is fertilized, like all other indoor plants, that is, in the morning. The ambient temperature should be at least + 18-19 degrees.
For feeding, soluble fertilizers are often used. They can be used to water the plant, and in a weaker concentration, spray its leaves. For feeding indoor tangerine, any complex mineral fertilizer containing phosphorus, nitrogen and potassium is suitable - the main elements necessary for plants.
Dissolve fertilizers in soft or settled water at room temperature. The main thing is not to increase the dose. If the instructions say: 1 cap of the product per 1 liter of water, do not think that 2 caps will make the solution more useful. This will lead to the opposite effect - chemical burns or toxic poisoning of the plant.
You need to feed the tangerine at home during the period of intensive growth (from March to September) 2 times a week. Less often, but not more often.
Dry fertilizers that are applied to the soil and gradually dissolve, giving the soil trace elements, must be applied even more carefully. Their advantage is that by introducing them in the spring, you can forget about feeding for a long time. However, they can be quickly used by the plant, and it will be difficult to guess about it. The introduction of an additional dose of fertilizer will lead to the above-mentioned overdose.
Organic fertilizers are also needed to grow tangerines. To do this, you can dilute infused cow dung in a ratio of 1/10. The best option would be to use organic fertilizers in combination with mineral fertilizers for soil fertilization.

Additional care for tangerine at home

To form a lush tangerine tree, pinch the tops of its branches.
Caring for a tangerine at home also involves removing dried leaves or stretched twigs.
On young flowering plants, flowers are partially removed so as not to deplete them and to allow several fruits to ripen. One ovary can be left for 15-20 leaves of an adult plant. The less fruit remains on the tangerine, the larger they will be.
Fruit-bearing branches of indoor tangerine are tied, tied to a support, otherwise they may break from the severity of the fruit, and the plant will not have an attractive appearance.

© "Site about plants"

There's no way I can root a stalk from your mandarin(many ask for a "piece"). Doesn't give roots - and that's it! I tried it in perlite, in sand, and in citrus soil - the result is zero. The leaves on the twig gradually wither and fall off. I know that you can propagate by vaccination, but it hurts too hard. Is there an easier way to get a successful result?

Simplest method of propagation of mandarin - cuttings... I succeed with 70% success, although mandarin, indeed, from citrus fruits is not the easiest to root. I put the cut aloe leaves in the refrigerator for a week. Then I take it out, let it warm up for two hours, cut it across into pieces of 2-3 cm and lay it out on a tray with one cut up.

Next, I cut the cuttings (into 3 buds) from annual non-lignified branches. Large leaves can be cut in half. At the same time, I carefully observe sterility! The cut should be even, at a slight angle, and it is not at all necessary that it passes under the kidney. In this case, the branch must be held in weight so that the living cells do not compress and the bark is not damaged.

A carelessly made cut leads to rotting of the tip and death of the cutting. Putrid microflora is formed precisely on torn sections and in a dirty substrate. You can take younger green cuttings, but they need to be cut off with a heel. Immediately stick the cut cuttings into the aloe pulp up to half a piece and leave it overnight, placing it in a container under a tight lid so that the moisture does not evaporate so much.

I steam the substrate, cover the plantings with a transparent cover, try to keep the soil slightly moist, be sure to periodically open the stalk for airing and spraying. I keep a mini-greenhouse in a bright place, but not in direct sun.

Also try propagate the tangerine by the method of air layering... So, too, you can immediately get a young tree ready to bear fruit.

The operation is best done in spring or early summer. A branch with a fairly long straight section is chosen, in which a bark ring 1-2 cm wide is cut with a sharp knife. Then this place is wrapped with a piece of polyethylene, fixing it below the cut.

The resulting funnel is tightly filled with moist sphagnum, it is possible mixed with sterile sand. Then the polyethylene is fixed on the branch above the site of the operation. The root formation process usually lasts from several weeks to several months. Care must be taken to ensure that the moss does not dry out. Moisten it if necessary.

The resulting roots will be visible through the bag. When they grow up enough (it will take from two to five months), the twig is cut off first under polyethylene, and then, after carefully shaking off the moss, the excess part is removed to the roots - After that, the new plant is planted in a loose nutritious soil in a small pot, gently watered and covered with a bag or put in a greenhouse. Sprayed periodically.

Proper cultivation of tangerine trees and shrubs at home. Ways to grow and reproduce a citrus tree at home.

Mandarin is a shrub that is always green all year round. Comes from the fruit family and the citrus genus. The form of life is a shrub, in the form of a tree.

Home tangerine is subject to plant in greenhouse and home conditions: windowsill, balcony, greenhouse. Breeders have bred a huge variety of this plant. A tangerine like this is an effective pot display.

Photo: tangerine tree at home

Homemade tangerine has very tasty and aromatic fruits, they grow on the tree for more than two months. Such a plant attracts and gives pleasure, both with its flowering and the unsurpassed smell of its own flower.

The bonsai mandarin is a rare and skillful piece. Mandarin fruits grow without pollination, the stage of maturity begins at the end of the year.
The most famous and beloved varieties for growing tangerines in the house include:

• Shiva is a Mikan. Early and fast growing species
• Mirkot is a compact variety with sweet fruits ripening in summer
• Winshiu is an unpretentious plant from a Japanese variety, branches well and bears fruit in the third year
• Clementine - the variety bears fruit for the second year already, at home. Refers to a hybrid of mandarin and orange. The fruits have a shiny skin, are slightly flattened, and their number per crop reaches five dozen.

How to plant a tangerine at home?

Ancient China was the first to start cultivating mandarin duck. Today, such a plant can be purchased in flower shops.

• If the purchase of a plant occurred in such a store, it is better to transplant it immediately. To do this, buy a substrate specifically for citrus fruits, where the acidity is 5.5 -7. It is also possible to make your own soil. To do this, it is necessary to mix sod and leafy soil with manure humus and river sand, where the proportion looks like this - 1: 1: 1: 0.5
• Look closely at the pot in which the plant was brought from the store, its next residence should be no more than three centimeters earlier. All these actions will actively stimulate the tangerine to grow.

One of the first steps belongs to the choice of the Mandarin residence in your apartment.

• Proper lighting is one of the most important keys to your pet's growth. This rule also applies if the tangerine is planted in open ground in a country house or greenhouse. Direct sunlight should hit the plant, but without much persistence. Sunlight will give the leaves juiciness and greenness, the lack will only lead to fading and thin new shoots
• The window on which the tangerine will be grown should be located on the east or south-east side. If the growing season is summer, it is necessary to gradually accustom the plant to direct rays, sometimes take it out to the balcony or street
• If the time of the initial cultivation is winter, put the tangerine in the most illuminated place, if there is not enough light, get artificial lighting. It is possible to use a photo of a light bulb for this purpose.
• The optimal temperature regime for indoor tangerine remains + 25 degrees, if the period of budding and flowering passes, keep the temperature regime around twenty degrees
• The rest mode in winter is observed at the level of five, ten degrees. A plant that is perfectly rested in winter will bear fruit and flowers much better.

Tangerine from a bone - reality

When growing a tangerine from a seed, it will require attention and patience from you only at the first stage, then this culture is easy to care for. Prepare a habitat for the plant. Which excludes the presence of a variety of poisonous neighbors.

A southern room without a neighborhood would be ideal. We take the material for planting from store tangerines. The number of seeds should be as large as possible, since most of the next shoots will die from the disease and will not survive the grafting stage. Growing tangerines from seeds takes place in several ways:

• We take a piece of gauze of a small size, irrigate with water, wrap the bones. Water should be kept to a minimum to avoid rotting seeds. Experienced experts suggest using a solution of potassium permanganate for this process to disinfect seeds
• For the absence of problems with gauze, it is possible to purchase a hydrogel in a specialized store. Its peculiarity is its excellent ability to retain moisture. Looks like a certain mass, into which the mandarin seeds are cured for pecking and the appearance of sprouts

It is possible to plant the bone immediately, in open ground. Most growers do this. If you have a lot of experience in growing plants and flowers, you can easily make sure that the bud does not dry out. The leaves will hatch here later than all types of cultivation, but the sprout will be very strong

Caring for indoor tangerine at home

When you see the first sprouts of your pet, you need to start feeding for the next two weeks. It must be carried out with the help of specialized organic and mineral fertilizers. Care consists in watering and irrigating the sprout and the constant addition of fertilizers.

Spraying the tangerine should be done every week to keep the tangerine high in moisture. It is also possible to keep dishes filled with water next to the tree. Especially when the summer is hot, the plant needs moisture. In winter, watering should be done two to three times a week, depending on the drying time.

Plant feeding - tangerine should be carried out between April-September, especially if it is a fruiting citrus. This will ensure the sweet taste of the fruit.

How to plant mandarin at home?

Photo: tangerine plant

Full-fledged, delicious mandarin fruits can only be obtained as a result of proper care and grafting. Grafting begins in May-August. Since the sap flow is especially active at this time.

The effectiveness of the result after grafting depends on your ability to accurately and quickly carry out the appropriate procedures. Prepare in advance for the tangerine grafting stage:

• Grown plant from seed, the trunk of which is at least six millimeters thick
• Cutting from a fruiting plant, the branch of which is at least two years old
• Garden knife
• Elastic tape
• Garden var

For grafting, make an incision at a height of ten centimeters where the stem of the rootstock is. It should look like a T, horizontally - see vertically -4 cm. The scion is prepared by removing thorns and leaf blades. Cut the bud very carefully and insert it into the cut, with a small layer of wood.

Where the vaccination was carried out, wrap with tape. Put the tangerine in a plastic bag or jar. Only after a month you will burn to determine the degree of success of the vaccination. Take a few seedlings for grafting, because only half of them will be successful.

Train the plant by gradually removing the jar for grafting, then the new shoot will strengthen and begin to grow. Cover the location of the shoot with a garden pitch.

If you follow the rules for growing and fertilizing tangerine, the leaves of the plant will be forever green. Leaves will turn yellow as a result of inappropriate behavior with the pet. Don't exaggerate with chemical fertilizers. If tangerine is not grown correctly, it will become covered with spots, the leaves will fall off.

How to transplant a tangerine at home?

• Transplanting the plant belongs to the correct care of the plant. Such an event is carried out if the tangerine has become cramped in the pot. Early and young plants are transplanted every year
• Tangerine trees from the age of seven years are transplanted every two years. To transplant a plant, you need to take a pot with a diameter of more than five centimeters from the present, so that the roots do not rot. The substrate should be picked up with a slight acidity, the bottom of the pot should be laid out with expanded clay, pieces of foam
• The actual transplantation process is carried out not during the flowering of the plant, but in the spring, during the awakening of the mandarin. The soil is laid by irrigation after transplanting. Do not use fertilizer two weeks after transplanting, and four days before transplanting

Reproduction of homemade tangerine

Photo: tangerine at home

Reproduction of a tangerine plant occurs in two ways: grafting on the stock and rooting of the apical cuttings. This process is carried out at the very beginning of the summer period. It is imperative to use root-forming agents that will stimulate growth. Grafting is the most effective and successful breeding method.

Pruning homemade mandarin

Pruning is done to improve the formation of the crown of the desired shape, to stimulate fruiting. When the tree grows, there is a loss of compactness and attractiveness.

The process is carried out on young plants using a sharp knife and pruner. Branches from the first to the third order are subject to pruning. The fourth should not be touched, as they give fruits and flowers.

Video: How to grow a tangerine at home?

Video: How to plant a citrus tree correctly?

Mandarin comes from southern China and Cochin (the so-called South Vietnam during the reign of France there). Currently, mandarin is not found in the wild. In India, Indochina, China, South Korea and Japan, these are now the most common citrus crops. Mandarin was introduced to Europe only at the beginning of the 19th century, but is currently cultivated throughout the Mediterranean - in Spain, southern France, Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Turkey. It is also grown in Abkhazia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, as well as in the United States (Florida), Brazil and Argentina.

Mandarin is a generalized name for several species of evergreen plants of the genus Citrus ( Citrus) of the Root family ( Rutaceae). The same word is used to call the fruits of these plants. More information about the types of mandarin can be found in the section "Types and varieties of mandarin" of this article.

In many countries, mandarin is traditionally associated with New Years, as the harvest time is in the month of December. In northern Vietnam and China, tangerines are put on holiday tables when celebrating the New Year according to the lunar calendar, however, in the form of a tree with fruits, which can be considered some kind of analogue of our New Year tree.

The word "mandarin" is borrowed into Russian from the Spanish language, where the word mandarino is derived from se mondar ("easy to peel") and contains an indication of the property of the peel of the fruit of the plant to be easily separated from the pulp.

Mandarin description

Mandarin ( Citrus reticulata) - a tree not exceeding 4 meters in height, or a shrub. Young shoots are dark green. Cases are described when, by the age of 30, the tangerine reached a five-meter height, and the yield from such a tree was 5-7 thousand fruits.

Mandarin leaves are relatively small, ovoid or elliptical, petioles almost without wings or slightly winged.

Mandarin flowers are single or two in leaf axils, petals are dull white, stamens are mostly with underdeveloped anthers and pollen.

Mandarin fruits are 4-6 cm in diameter and slightly flattened from the base to the top, so that their width is greater than the height. The peel is thin, does not grow tightly to the pulp (in some varieties, the peel is separated from the pulp by an air layer), 10-12 lobules, well separated, the pulp is yellow-orange; the strong aroma of these fruits differs from other citrus fruits, the pulp is usually sweeter than orange.

Mandarin tree. © Michael Coghlan

Features of tangerine care at home

Temperature: Tangerines are light and heat demanding. Budding, flowering and fruit setting occur best at an average air and soil temperature of + 15..18 ° C.

Lighting: Bright, diffused light. It will be good near the east and west windows, as well as on the north window. Shading from direct sun is needed in spring and summer during the hottest hours.

Watering: In summer and spring it is abundant 1-2 times a day with warm water, in winter watering is rare and moderate - 1-2 times a week and also with warm water. However, in winter, the earthen coma should not be allowed to dry out, as this leads to curling of the leaves and the fall of not only leaves, but also fruits. On the other hand, one should not forget that plants die from excess moisture. Beginning in October, watering is reduced.

Air humidity: Mandarins are regularly sprayed in summer, but if kept in a centrally heated room in winter, they are sprayed in winter as well. When kept indoors with dry air, oranges are attacked by pests (ticks and scale insects).

Transfer: Young trees should be replanted annually. The transplant should not be carried out if the roots of the plant have not yet braided an earthen ball. In this case, it is enough to change the drainage and top soil layers in the pot. Fruiting trees are transplanted no more than once every 2-3 years.

Transplanted before the start of growth. At the end of the growth, the plants are not recommended to be replanted. When transplanting, you should not severely destroy the earthen lump. Good drainage must be ensured. The root collar in the new dish should be at the same level as in the old dish.

Soil for young tangerines: 2 parts of turf, 1 part of leafy soil, 1 part of humus from cow dung and 1 part of sand.

Soil for adult tangerines: 3 parts turf, 1 part leaf, 1 part humus from cow dung, 1 part sand and a small amount of oily clay.

Fertilizing mandarins: In the first half of summer, fertilizing watering is used. It increases the sugar content of the fruit and reduces the bitter taste that is characteristic of citrus fruits at room culture. The plant needs more fertilization, the older it is and the longer it is in the same container. Fertilizers are applied after watering.

With additional artificial lighting, tangerines in winter also need to be fertilized. For tangerines, organic fertilizers (slurry from cow dung) and combined mineral fertilizers are recommended; you can also buy special fertilizers for citrus fruits in flower shops.

Reproduction: Reproduction of tangerines, as well as lemons, is usually carried out by grafting, cuttings, layering and seeds. Indoors, the most common way to propagate citrus fruits is by cuttings.

Calamondin, or citrofortunella (Calamondin) - a fast-growing and well-branching evergreen tree - a hybrid of mandarin with kumquat (fortunella). © Luigi Strano

If you love citrus fruits and decide to make yourself a holiday at home, then you can think about how to grow tangerines at home. Mandarins are usually propagated by grafting or layering (the second method is more difficult). In the first case, you need to worry in advance about the rootstock, for which any citrus plant is suitable - an orange, lemon or grapefruit, grown at home from seed.

Reproduction of mandarin by grafting

It is best to take 2-4 year old specimens with pencil-thick stems. The selected variety is grafted onto them with an eye or a handle. The operation is carried out during the period of sap flow, when the bark is easily separated from the seedling wood, exposing the cambium. Therefore budding can be done 2 times a year during intensive growth - in spring and late summer. To activate sap flow, the plant is watered abundantly a few days before grafting. Then they check how the bark is separated by slightly cutting it above the place intended for budding.

For beginners, it is best to first practice on the branches of other plants, such as linden. To prevent the evaporation of water, all leaf blades are preliminarily cut off from the scion, leaving the petioles (during the operation, they hold the shields with eyes for them).

On the stem of the seedling, 5-10 cm from the ground, choose a place for grafting with a smooth bark, without buds and thorns. Very carefully, with one movement of the knife, first a transverse incision of the bark (no more than 1 cm) is made, and from its middle, a shallow longitudinal incision is made from top to bottom (2-3 cm). With the bone of the budding knife, the corners of the incised bark are slightly pry up and a little "open" it. Then they immediately return to their original position, only they do not press tightly at the top (in this place the peephole will be inserted).

After preparing the stock, without delay, proceed to the most important procedure - cut off the bud from the branch of the scion, which was previously in a plastic bag. First, the scion is cut into pieces, each of which has a petiole and a bud. The top cut should be 0.5 cm above the kidney, and the bottom cut 1 cm below. Such a "stump" is placed on the butt and a peephole with the thinnest layer of wood is cut off with a blade.

Having pushed the corners of the bark on the stock with a knife bone, quickly insert the eye into the T-shaped incision, like in a pocket, pressing from top to bottom. Then the vaccination site is tightly tied with polyethylene or polyvinyl chloride tape, starting from the bottom, so that water does not flow in the future. Garden var can be applied over the tape.

If after 2-3 weeks the scion petiole turns yellow and falls off, then everything is in order. And if it dries up and remains, you have to start over.

A month after successful budding, the upper part of the stock is cut off. This is done in two steps. At first, 10 cm above the grafting, so as not to cause the eye to dry out, and when it germinates, then directly above it - on a thorn. The bandage is removed at the same time. Often old trees are also grafted in this way, but not on the trunk, but on the branches of the crown. The operation technique is the same.

The survival rate of cuttings is significantly increased if the stem below the grafting is wrapped with wet cotton wool, and a plastic bag is put on the tree on top, which creates its own microclimate inside with high air humidity.

In the future, it is necessary to remove the shoots coming from the rootstock, otherwise they can drown out the scion. The grafted plants begin to bear fruit already in the second or third year.

Green (unripe) tangerines. © Mamoto46

Further care of the tangerine

In indoor conditions, tangerines, as a rule, are stunted and gradually turn into original dwarf trees. During flowering, the fruits are tied without artificial pollination, ripen after a few months, usually by the end of the year.

Their taste depends on proper care of the plants, which must be transplanted annually into larger containers with good fertile soil, taking care not to damage the roots. In addition, the trees are regularly fed with mineral and organic fertilizers. It is best to use an infusion of manure diluted 10 times before use. Sleep tea, which is embedded in the top layer of the soil, can also serve as a good fertilizer.

It is necessary to constantly monitor the humidity in the "citrus garden". A wide dish of water can be placed next to the plants. It is useful for the crown of tangerines to be sprayed daily with water at room temperature.

Illumination is of great importance. The trees should be at the lightest window. In late autumn and winter, it is advisable to strengthen conventional fluorescent lamps over them. They are turned on early in the morning and in the evening, extending the daylight hours to 12 hours.

In summer, if possible, tangerines are best kept outdoors, but where there is no strong wind and direct sunlight. Plants are gradually accustomed to new conditions - in the first days they are carried out only for a few hours, and if it is cool outside, the earthy clod is moistened with warm (up to 40 ºС) water. When kept at home, they are watered almost daily, making sure that the soil in the pot is always slightly damp. It is advisable to use rain or snow water rather than tap water.

Types and varieties of mandarin

Mandarin is characterized by strong polymorphism, as a result of which groups of its varieties (or even individual varieties) are described by different authors as independent species. Fruits of tropical varieties stand out with a particularly great variety.

Typically, mandarin varieties are divided into three groups:

• in the first group - very thermophilic noble tangerines (Citrus nobilis), having large leaves and relatively large yellowish-orange fruits with a large hilly peel;
• the second group is made up of thermophilic and smaller-leaved tangerines, or Italian tangerines ( Citrus reticulata) with rather large orange-red fruits of a slightly elongated shape, covered with a plump peel (its smell in some varieties is sharp and not very pleasant);
• the third group includes satsum(or unshiu) ( Citrus unshiu) originally from Japan, characterized by cold resistance, large leaves and small, thin-crusty yellowish-orange fruits (often green on the peel). It is satsum, which endure short-term slight frosts (up to -7 degrees), that are successfully grown on the Black Sea coast.

Unlike noble mandarins and tangerines, seeds are very rarely found in satsum fruits - therefore, this variety is probably also called seedless mandarin. When grown in containers, its varieties usually grow up to 1-1.5 m. Slender mandarin trees with a beautiful crown of slightly drooping twigs, covered with numerous dark green leaves, especially decorate the house during abundant flowering and fruiting and fill it with wonderful smells.

As a result of crossing mandarin with other citrus fruits, a variety of hybrids are obtained:

• clementines (Clementina) - (mandarin x orange) - with small or medium-sized, flattened, very fragrant orange-red fruits, covered with a shiny thin skin (multi-seeded clementines are called montreal);
• elendale (Ellendale) - (mandarin x tangerine x orange) - with medium to large orange-red seedless fruits with exquisite taste and aroma;
• tangoras (Tangors) - (orange x tangerine) - have large (10-15 cm in diameter), flattened, red-orange fruits with a relatively thick, large-pored skin;
• minneola (Minneola) - (tangerine x grapefruit) - differ in a variety of sizes of red-orange fruits (from small to very large), in shape - elongated-rounded, with a "tubercle" and "neck" at the top;
• tangelo, or tangelo (Tangelo) - (mandarin x pomelo) - have large red-orange fruits the size of a medium orange;
• santinas (Suntina, or Sun tina) - (clementine x orlando) - with fruits that outwardly resemble noble tangerines, with an exquisite sweet taste and aroma;
• agli (Ugli, Ugly) - (tangerine x orange x grapefruit) - the largest among the hybrids (fruits with a diameter of 16 -18 cm), flattened, with a coarse large-pored yellow-green, orange or yellow-brown peel.

Tangerine tree in a pot. © Marco

• Unshiu- frost-resistant, fast-growing, very productive variety. The tree is undersized, with a spreading crown of thin, very flexible branches covered with corrugated leaves. This tangerine branches beautifully, grows quickly, blooms profusely and willingly. The fruits are pear-shaped, without seeds. Under artificial illumination, it grows incessantly.
• "Kovane-wasse"- a strong tree with thick branches; branches reluctantly. This mandarin variety can grow quite large for the size of the apartment. The leaves are fleshy, hard. It blooms profusely. Fruits are medium in size, orange-yellow.
• "Shiva-Mikan"- a compact, fast-growing tree with large, fleshy, dark green foliage. Early, it blooms well. Average yield; fruit weighing up to 30 g.
• "Murcott"(Honey) is a very rare variety with a compact bush. The pulp of this tangerine, ripening in summer, is sweet as honey.

Mandarin orange

2.1. How best to keep plants in spring and summer
2.2. Transfer
2.3. Watering and spraying
2.4. Citrus menu
2 .5. How to form a tree from a seedling
2.6. Enemies of our friends
2.7. Citrus plants in the fall and winter months

This is the fastest and easiest way to propagate, but it is not suitable for all types of citrus fruits. It is usually used for breeding lemon and citron. The essence of cuttings is that cuttings, cut from twigs from a healthy fruit-bearing tree, are placed in conditions favorable for root formation. Ready-made seedlings are received in a month and a half. Usually the attempt of some fans to root a lemon stalk in a jar of water, like ficus, geranium or other easily rooting indoor plants. Lemons and citrons take root only in wet sand (sometimes in a mixture of earth and sand) at high humidity, and immediately dry out in water. For a lemon twig to give roots, a whole number of factors are required: heat, moisture, light and air.
In practice, this is the case. First, they prepare a greenhouse. Its size depends on the number of cuttings you have for rooting. If there are one or two of them, then the greenhouse can be arranged in ordinary flower pots, covered with a glass jar on top, and if a dozen, then in a small box, closed with glass on top, and preferably with a removable side wall or in a closed aquarium.
The tested substrate for rooting cuttings is medium-grained river sand. It is thoroughly washed, removing impurities (the water is changed several times, the purity of the washing is determined by the transparency of the water), and then it is poured into the indoor greenhouse with a layer of 5-6 centimeters, leveling and compaction. Some amateurs use a mixture of sand with light (sifted) leaf humus, while others pour drainage from expanded clay or small pebbles with pieces of charcoal into the lower part of the tank, where rooting is carried out, in the middle - a layer of earth, and on top - sand with a layer of 4-5 centimeters. The calculation is simple: after the formation of the first roots, the plant will immediately receive mineral nutrition.
The rooting of cuttings is favored by a temperature of 20 to 25 degrees (but not higher than 30), therefore, under the bottom of a box or pot, for convenience wrapped with an electric bandage, it is advisable to attach a 25-watt light bulb that heats the substrate. Such heating is needed during the cold spring months. In summer, cuttings can take root without heating.
Root formation will intensify if, before planting, the cuttings are kept in a weak solution of one of the stimulants - for example, in heteroauxin (one tablet of the drug per liter of water; to obtain a homogeneous solution, heteroauxin is first diluted in a small amount of boiling water, and then thoroughly mixed). The growth substance treatment should take place in diffused light in a container closed from above, on the bottom of which a solution is poured.

Vaccinations: ordinary budding, budding in the butt, with a handle in the cleft.

Citrus fruits are easily recognizable by the shape of their leaf petioles. Lemon leaves (on the left) are practically round, without "lionfish"; for mandarin - underdeveloped, linear; the orange has medium; the grapefruit has the largest. The exception is, due to their hybrid origin, the leaves of the lemon Meyer and Panderoza, which have underdeveloped "lionfish", but they differ from mandarin and orange in the light green color of the leaf blade.

In cases where the process of processing cuttings needs to be accelerated, they use not an aqueous, but an alcoholic solution of a stimulant: for 1 milliliter of 50% alcohol, take 8-10 milligrams of heteroauxin, and to increase the effect - also 50 milligrams of vitamin C and 20-vitamin V,. The cuttings are kept in such a solution for no longer than 15 seconds.
Now how to prepare cuttings. They are cut from annual branches. The stalk should have 3 to 5 leaves and be 8 to 12 centimeters long. The lower oblique cut is usually made directly under the first kidney or through it, and the upper one - five millimeters above the last. Some guides advise you to cut each leaf in half to accommodate more cuttings in the greenhouse, as well as to reduce moisture evaporation. However, it is clear from the practice of many hobbyists that this should not be done: the nutrients contained in the leaves contribute to root formation. Therefore, it makes sense to remove only the lower leaf blade, which can rot in the sand.
Then the lower cuts of the cuttings are powdered with crushed charcoal (to prevent decay) and immersed 1.5 - 2 centimeters in a wet, only it is necessary to remove the shoots coming from the rootstock in time, otherwise they can drown out the growth of the grafted branch. sand, crushing it around the stalk. It is advisable that the cuttings do not crowd each other and do not come into contact with leaves. After planting, they must be immediately sprayed with water from a spray bottle, covered with glass or a jar on top and protected from direct sunlight. In the future, you need to make sure that the leaves do not dry out, and repeat the spraying daily in the morning and in the evening (water gets into the sand, so it is not necessary to water it additionally).
After 2-3 weeks, callus forms on the lower cut of the cuttings - a tumor-like influx from the cambial layer, and only then from it (sometimes slightly higher on the stem) white plump roots appear. They are very fragile, therefore, earlier than in a month and a half, the seedling should not be transplanted into a pot with soil. Determining the degree of rooting is not difficult if you apply a simple technique: take the cutting by the top and gently pull it up - with good root formation, the roots firmly hold the plant in the sand. Before transplanting, the plant is gradually (over several days) accustomed to the outside air: the top glass or jar is removed first for just a few hours, and then completely.
But we repeat: when transplanting, brittle citrus roots are very easy to damage, especially when they are pulled out of the box, where they grow closely. The removable side of the box helps to some extent to avoid such troubles, although it does not eliminate such a possibility altogether. It is safest to pry on rooted cuttings and pull them out with a small lump of sand with an ordinary fork. You can also use another method of growing seedlings, in which even the slightest damage to the roots is excluded - in plastic bags placed in a box under glass.
Cuttings of lemons are most successful in April - June. In other summer months and at the beginning of autumn, it is also possible, but the rooting process is delayed. In autumn and winter, such plants can die, as they often shed old leaves, not having time to get young ones. And yet, you can save seedlings of late summer and autumn cuttings by placing them under a glass jar or a plastic bag until spring and using additional lighting with fluorescent lamps.
So, cuttings are the simplest way to propagate citrus fruits, but sometimes it also causes difficulties. Here are some more useful tips based not only on personal experience, but also on the practice of other amateurs, as well as on the recommendations of scientists.
For cuttings, the rapid healing of tissues on the lower cut and the subsequent formation of callus are of particular importance, which, in turn, creates conditions for the emergence and development of roots. Actually, the process itself begins with the formation of new tissues in the form of a protective film. After the growth of cells, it bursts and a whitish growth is formed, which is usually called callus - a good harbinger of roots. But it happens that literally on the very first day of cutting the cutting, the cell sap, barely protruding from the wound, can become a favorable environment for the reproduction of microorganisms that destroy the plant that has not yet rooted - it simply rots from the lower tip. Therefore, the sections should be made only with a sharp and clean knife, holding the cutting in weight, so as not to squeeze living cells and not damage the bark. The putrefactive microflora easily multiplies both on torn sections and in the substrate of the greenhouse. Therefore, it is advisable not only to rinse the sand before laying it, but also to ignite it in the oven.
Cuttings, as already mentioned, should be cut from annual branches (4-6 millimeters thick) that are easy to bend. As for young intensively growing vegetative shoots, cut off after the end of the first growth wave and matured, they often form a more powerful root system than one-year-olds, although rooting does not occur in all cases without exception. A simple trick can help here: you need to cut a green stalk from a tree with a piece of last year's fabric - "with a heel".
The preliminary darkening of the branch on the mother plant facilitates the formation of roots, for which a case of two layers of fabric is put on it: the inner one is black and the upper one is white.
Keep in mind: the branches cut from the tree dry out quickly, so they must be cut immediately or skillfully stored: for several hours in a jar of water, and for several days wrapped in a wet rag in a plastic bag on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator. The main thing is to keep the leaves on the cutting - a pantry of food with starch and fats, without which the cutting, if it does not dry out, will spend more time on rooting.
Now about the greenhouse. There should be as constant high humidity and warmth as possible. As a substrate, it is more efficient to use a mixture of ordinary calcined sand with perlite, which is now often used in construction. Such a lightweight substrate has good aeration, sterility, stores heat, constant humidity and at the same time does not retain excess water, thereby protecting the cuttings from decay.
By the way, let me emphasize: rooting citrus cuttings are especially sensitive to temperature fluctuations. Only a substrate temperature that is 4-5 degrees warmer than the foggy "greenhouse" air has a positive effect on them. If the soil is colder, then weak young shoots are formed before the roots, depleted and dry out.
After the emergence of roots, the good development of the seedling is facilitated by feeding it with a weak solution of ammonium nitrate (0.25 percent) and slurry (1:15).
Using the above techniques, you can try to root not only lemons, but also other types of citrus fruits. By the way, according to their ability to take root, they form the following sequence (from the maximum): citron, lemon, orange, grapefruit, tangerine ...
In conclusion, we present the conclusions of the latest experiments by Georgian scientists who studied the features of the reproduction of Meyer's lemon by cuttings at the All-Russian Research Institute of Tea and Subtropical Crops:
the younger the mother plant, the better the cuttings taken from it take root, and vice versa;
the more lignified the cuttings, the lower the rooting capacity, and vice versa;
cuttings taken from different parts of the crown (lower, middle, upper) of the tree, as well as branches cut from different parts of the rooting, are almost the same; the degree of rooting of cuttings with different numbers of leaves was established: maximum - with three leaves, medium - with two, minimum - with one. Cuttings with one or two leaves truncated by half took root even worse;
when cutting cuttings from a branch, the location of the cut is not significant, as previously thought, that is, it can be cut traditionally under the bud (near the node) or between the buds. In the first case, the roots develop, as it were, from the bud and near it, and in the second, along the entire length of the internode.
The experiments were repeated (in April and August) in an artificial fogging chamber. The cuttings were placed in the substrate slightly tilted, their length was 7-8 centimeters, the thickness was 5-6 millimeters, and the feeding area was 5X5 centimeters.