Finally my mandarins are here! Rejoice! Why am I so happy? First, these are so easy to peel and the fruit is just so sweet. My variety has seeds and so I tend to be careful when giving them to kids, but the seeds are small and sometimes soft, so I don’t worry too much.
Last year my harvest was appalling, there was enough fruit for the squirrels and maybe a remnant for me. This year, I vowed to take a more active interest in my trees – meaning, increase the amount of time I spent caring for them. Refer to my guava post.
My mandarin tree is located on the east side of our property and there is a little too much shade on the south side/east side corner. I cut down some problematic bamboo trees (more on this later) and am still working to cut through the root system of the bamboo for two reasons: 1. provide shade 2. provide space for the mandarin roots to grow. The sun did wonders for the mandarin, and I increased the water ritual, now I do a deep watering once every 2 months on a low trickle, ensuring that the slow trickle gets to the deep root system instead of running off.
I also identified this tree as a mandarin and have been going back and forth regarding the tangerine/mandarin naming convention – find out more about this lovely citrus tree by clicking here and reading this pdf from the yuma county coop extension.