Why Our Grafted & Quick Bearing Mandarin Trees?

Mandarin fruit trees produce small, orange citrus fruits that are easy to peel and have a sweet but tangy taste. The fruit of the Mandarin tree is eaten fresh, used in salads, candies, zest, and the skin can be dried and used as a spice for cooking.

Our Mandarin plants are a tangelo hybrid resulting from a cross between a Clementine and a Minneola Tangelo. The result is a very juicy, sweet, easy-to-peel citrus that is the smaller size of a tangerine, with the rich flavor that equals or exceeds many larger oranges.

The trees have beautiful, dark green leaves, very few thorns, and are considered easy to grow.

Our Mandarin plants thrive in warmer weather, or in a container on a deck, or indoors. The Mandarin Tree will reach a mature size of between 8 and 10 feet tall, and 6 to 8 feet wide. Trees grown in pots tend to be somewhat smaller.

Citrus Tree Care
If you are planting your Mandarin Tree in the ground, be sure to allow room for the tree to increase in size as it matures. Select a location that is at least 8 to 10 feet away from any other tree, building, or structure. Plant in a location that gets at least 5 hours of sun per day if possible. The more sunlight your tree gets, the more blooms and fruit it will produce.

The Mandarin Tree does not need to be pruned. However, you can prune your tree to keep it at a desired size. Prune in late fall before blooms appear. Throughout the year, water once per week or less, depending upon soil conditions and drainage. Mandarins must have well-drained soil, never stand in water, and will do better in drier conditions. In fact, their drought tolerance is one of the advantages to growing this tree.

Fruit & Harvesting
The Mandarin tree blooms in spring, and the fruit can be mature and ready to eat as soon as October. Fruit can last on the Mandarin Tree for up to 4 months, so you could have fresh, sweet citrus from this tree until February.

The fruit is ready when it is deep orange and sweet tasting. Do a taste test to know for sure. Mandarins have a thin, very easy-to-peel skin, so unless you are picking a single fruit to eat right at that moment, you must be cautious to not tear the rind as you pick each fruit. When harvesting Mandarins, use hand clippers and carefully clip each fruit from its branch.

Other Advice
The Mandarin tree is self-fertile, and will produce fruit as a single specimen. However, you can dramatically increase the amount of fruit by pairing it with a second Mandarin Tree for cross-pollination. If you are growing your tree exclusively indoors, or indoors for the colder months, you can pollinate the blooms by hand with a sterile cotton swab or a small paint brush, by lightly touching multiple flowers, to simulate the activity of bees and other insects.

It is said that more mandarins, tangerines and tangelo hybrids die from over-watering, than under-watering. Before watering check the soil, and only water your tree if the soil is dry down to at least 2 inches. Properly draining soil for a container-grown Mandarin is essential. Amend potting soil with perlite and sand to help the potted tree drain, and only water when the top few inches have fully dried out.

HOW LONG BEFORE THIS TREE PRODUCE FRUIT?
This depends on the type of tree and the propagation method used to produce the tree. Below is general information regarding the time it takes for your tree to produce fruit.

GRAFTED TREES
They typically produce fruit in 1-2 years. They are copies of matured trees.

AIR LAYERED TREES
They typically produce fruit in 1-2 years. They are copies of matured trees.

TREES PROPAGATED BY CUTTINGS
They typically produce fruit in 1-2 years. They are copies of matured trees

TREES PROPAGATED BY SEEDLINGS
They typically produce fruit in 6-7 years. There are many exceptions to this rule. For example: Papaya: 1-2 years, Sugar Apple: 1-2 years, Custard Apple: 1-2 years, Soursop: 1-2 years

Nature Touch Farms is your source for buying rare plants and fruit trees. Our online selection of rainforest tropicals, exotic fruit trees and fruit trees can bring the tropics to your back yard, greenhouse or garden.

Check out our wide selection of other tropical plants, subtropical plants and temperate climate plants.

DISCLAIMER
We do take every possible care to grow healthy plants and send these out in the variety as labeled.
We are very careful with packing and handling our plants, however it is the responsibility of the purchaser to promptly unpack, plant and care for the plants appropriately once they arrive.

Please read cultivation notes for each variety carefully, as Nature Touch Farms will not be held accountable for the care of plants once they leave our premises.

Images are for reference purposes only. Actual product may vary in shape or appearance based on climate, age, height, etc.

Dispatch
We will dispatch your plant order as soon as possible.
Please note the plants are individually wrapped, prepped and packaged to ensure safety in transit and this takes time.
During busy periods, plant orders can take up to 7 days to process, so please notify us of any dates we need to take into account when sending your plants.

Visit our store to explore the other amazing exotic plants and fruit trees that we have available.