New Mandarin Questions

[BahamaDan]

Hi all,

So on Monday I went to the store that had the 50% off potted plant New Year Clearance Sale this week, and wanted to pick up a Navel Orange but of course they had all been sold barely 2 hours into the first day of the sale lol. One of the workers said he didn't think they had any more in stock but that they were bringing out more citrus Wednesday, so today I went there again today and there weren't any Navel Oranges ( frown emoticon ) but for the first time they had Satsuma Mandarins! I had never seen these here before, and have no idea how they do in my climate besides probably still being green when they ripen, but they seem like a fair substitute for the Navels, and the little tree is loaded with fruits, so I got one! I'm 99.9% certain it's an Owari although the variety isn't labeled; it's from California and likely to be the most generic variety sold which I understand is Owari. Not sure what this rootstock tag means? 'SOR' might be 'Sour Orange' but not sure what 'FOW' means.

Here's a body shot:


Some of the developing fruits:




Even has flowers:


Ambiguous tag:


Anyone else growing mandarins, especially in containers, and if so how? I'm interested in a cultivation regime, especially for those in more southeastern regions or warm climate areas. Do you think I could up pot it? I'm thinking a 5 gallon to start with. Also any ideas on the rootstock? Never seen a tag with that label before. I'm not even sure which nursery the tree is originally from, but I like it so far 

Feel free to confirm whether the tree does look like an Owari!

Dan

[brian]

Looks great, congratulations.  Owaris are excellent, much better than navel oranges in my opinion.  I have an Owari growing in a container (and about thirty other citrus varieties) and it seems happy in the container though in your climate you might get even better results in the ground. 

Pull it out of the current container and check to see if it has circling roots.  If so, untabgle the roots and repot it up to a container a couple inches larger.  If the roots aren't visible on the edge of the soil/rootball it is probably fine in terms of pot size. 

Must be nice living in the Bahamas.  Good luck.


EDIT - my care regimen is: soil mix 50% mulch, 40% peat moss, 10% perlite.  Planted in RootMaker containers.  Repot once yearly into slightly larger container.  I fertilize with Osmocote Plus slow release pellets about 4 times a year, and occasionally use a foliar fertilizer spray.   I water as often as I feel like, every couple days if it hasn't rained.

[SonnyCrockett]

FOW SOR = "Frost OWari, Sour Orange Rootstock"?

That's my guess anyway. 

[laidbackdood]

i read somewhere that citrus need to go down below 10C during winter to help the acid in citrus convert to sugars....hence places like fiji etc who never go below that ...are not suitable for ripening citrus fruits........I am sure i am right but sure if someone know more.......they will chip in....ideal is hot summers and cold winters and that is why the US grows the best washington navels i reckon....very sweet...........I am always on the look out for them.....when i know its winter time in the U S.

[brian]

Yeah you may want to research cold requirements.  I don't know much about that as my region has *plenty* of cold weather.

Wikipedia says Bahamas exports citrus, so they must be able to make something of quality...

"....Export-oriented orange, grapefruit, and cucumber production occurs on Abaco."

[achetadomestica]

I have 2 owari satsumas in Florida 9b. My tree's fruit ripens in August/September. The fruit softens and slightly turns a different lighter shade of green when they are ripe. The first year I waited until they turned orange in October and they were almost inedible. This year one of my trees had ripe fruit in September more ripe fruit in December and currently it has around a dozen half grown fruit. Basically everbearing and it should be flowering soon. The other tree had fruit ripe in September this year only. Both trees are about 25 feet apart and get the same water/fertilizer/temps? Now that I know when they are ripe they are very good to eat with a little bit of tang. Usually they are seedless but once in a while I get 1-2 seeds. I would prefer to put the tree in the ground but I am not sure how it would do in the Bahamas. Also my 2 trees are growing slowly.
Mike

[Tom]

I think your citrus will do better in the ground. Your fertilizer will not leach out as quickly as in a pot. In a pot it helps to fertilizer more often and to use less. Every time you water the pot water washes out fertilizer. A time release fertilizer also helps for in pot citrus. I'm always afraid of burning my citrus in pots so I usually use organic fertilizer and time release for potted citrus. Organic fertilizers are usually not as strong as non organic fertilizer. The lower strength of organic makes it less practical on a large scale because it is more expensive but organic is safer. Oscomote is an example of a time release fertilizer. Liquid fertilizer is water soluble and in the correct amount gives a great shot in the arm for any citrus.  Tom