Citrus in Pots

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This is a photo of a page mandarin orange bush we have growing in pot. I had this plant growing in the ground for years, but it always looked unhappy. It grew very little and had yellowing leaves and few fruits, despite repeated applications of fertilizer. It was growing in a spot where it had root competition from larger bushes.

After I transplanted it into a pot, it started growing, greening, and blooming. It was full of fruit, and we have been enjoying them for the past month. They have a very good flavor. I purchased this particular variety, page mandarin, because some people have written that it is one of the best mandarins. The flesh of the fruits are a bit chewy like most mandarins, but they are much more tender than some other varieties like Satsuma.

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These are current photos of our potted Oroblanco citrus. It has grown very well in the past two years since we bought it, even though its pot is small compared to the size of the plant. It is full of fruit this spring. It has about 15 Oroblanco fruits, which is a lot of fruit for a plant this size. As you can see from the second picture, each fruit is big, about the size of large grapefruit. Last year, our Oroblanco produced a few fruits, but they were sour, bordering on inedible. So far this year, the fruits have been sweet and tasty. The flavor is dramatically better than last year. Perhaps the warm weather we’ve had this spring has been the cause.

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This is a current photo of our potted Washington navel orange bush. It has grown rapidly since I transplanted it into a pot a few years ago. It was loaded with fruit about a month ago. I’d estimate this small bush had over 2 dozen oranges. We have already eaten about half of them. They usually just fall to the ground when they are ripe. Its oranges are very large in size, but the flavor is not quite as good as the much older navel orange bush we have growing in the ground in another part of the yard.

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May 07 2013 11:59 pm | Mandarins and Oranges and Oroblanco