Why is my Mandarin tree not fruiting?

[MrsW]

All of my Citrus & lemon Myrtle trees are fertilised with Charlie carp, Coffee grinds & banana skin water.

They also get epsom salt in water twice a year

They are watered every second morning with tank water (unless we have rain) 

Mulched with sugar cane mulch & chicken manure from my home chickens (after sitting for 1 month)

I have questions for 2 different citrus trees.

1) My mandarin tree fruited last year after waiting 2 years so the roots can take hold.

It was cut back after fruiting as was very straggly. We left the centre branches and a few from the sides, but most sides were cut back. This year NO flowers or fruit.

Is it because of the cut back?

Does it take a few years to recover? 

The leaves are bright green & look good.

2) All of my citrus trees (including the mandarin tree) are 2-3 feet high, but my blood orange tree was planted at the same time as my other citrus tree and is only 1 foot high, It has 4 oranges on the branches. Is this height normal?    

When do you know if the Blood oranges are red inside?  The skin is a beautiful yellow but don't want to pick if not red inside.

[MitchellMc · Accepted solution]

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @MrsW. It's wonderful to have you join us, and many thanks for your question about fruit trees.

It is certainly possible that the pruning has affected flower production this year, especially if it was a hard prune back into "old" wood. If these straggly branches were the ones producing fruits, then you'll likely see a reduction in fruit production until new branching is established. When was the cutback done on the plant? If there wasn't enough time for the plant to produce new growth over the warming months, then you've likely set it back for this year.  As long as the leaves look healthy and the tree is growing well, it should recover and produce fruit in the future.

Your blood orange might just be taking a little longer to establish than the other plants. If these are grafted plants, the stock the blood orange is grafted onto could just be slower growing. I would suggest that a 1-foot (30cm) high plant should be prevented from fruiting as a substantial amount of energy will be directed to the fruit instead of plant growth. In this very immature stage, it needs to be concentrating on growing, not bearing fruit.

The squeeze test will give a good indication of whether the fruit is ripe. If they are hard, then they're likely not ripe; when ripe, they'll have a little give to the surface. If there is any green or orange to the skin, then this is also a good indication that they are not ripe.

Let me ask a few of our gardening enthusiasts @Noelle, @mich1972 and @LisasGarden if they have any thoughts.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Mitchell
 

[Noelle]

Hi @MrsW 

Mitchell has given you excellent advice. Remove the fruit from the blood orange to allow the tree's energy to go into growing.

Take care with pruning citrus - this can sometimes encourage the trees to bear good crops only every second year as they put their efforts into growth immediately after a hard prune, rather into regular flowering and fruiting. Biennial bearing is a common problem when citrus are pruned after a good crop.

[mich1972]

100% agreed with @MitchellMc   and @Noelle  with the information provided. Would love to see some pictures of your wonderful edibles when you get time @MrsW 😊🐝