Why is my mandarin tree not flowering?

[elsie2023]

 

I have a grafted mandarin tree which has been in the ground for almost 3 years. It has never had any flowers. I feed it with blood and bone and citrus fertiliser however it didn’t make any difference. 

Could it be the rootstock overtaking the grated mandarin tree? I do see a graft line at the bottom but there are 2 identical trunks.

[MitchellMc]

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @elsie2023. It's marvellous to have you join us, and many thanks for your question about Mandarin care.

Could you please gently pull the soil back from the base a little bit without disturbing the roots and take a picture of that area of the trunk? We are looking to discover a definitive graft line and determine whether suckers are growing out from under it. Some of the branches do look like they could be from the rootstock.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Mitchell
 

[elsie2023]

 

 

Thanks! Please see photos attached 

 

[EricL]

Hello @elsie2023 

Thanks for sharing those extra photos of your mandarin tree. It's clear that a graft was created along the body of the root stock. But I agree with you as it is difficult to tell which is the root stock and which is the mandarin as they do look identical. From what I can recall grafted mandarin will usually take 2-3 years before first harvest. 

How often do you water the mandarin tree? What brand of fertilizer did you use? Any other information you can share about your mandarin tree would be very much appreciated.

Let me call on our experienced members @Noelle and @mich1972 for their opinion on the graft.

If you have any other questions we can help with, please let us know.

Eric

[elsie2023]

Thanks Eric for you reply. I water the tree 1-2 times a week and feed it with cow manure/blood and bone/Osmocote citrus and fruit slow release fertiliser in winter and spring. The leaves sometimes are curl so i sprayed with the leaf curl treatment. 

The other thing I can think of is sunlight. It gets approximately Ave. 5 hours of direct sunlight. Is that too little for a mandarin tree?I also read somewhere saying mandarin takes 2-3 years to fruit but does it mean it won’t flower for 2-3 years at all? I saw some young grafted citrus trees with fruit already…

[elsie2023]

A photo when it was bought - it came with multiple branches 

 

[Noelle]

Hi @elsie2023 

I suspect, in the third of your photos (the one with the stake at the front left of the trunk), that the left hand stem is coming from the rootstock, not from the grafted mandarin variety. Would you agree @mich1972? Normally, grafted plants are cut back to one main shoot once the graft has 'taken', so any other stems arising from that area are most probably from the rootstock.

The common citrus rootstocks are very vigorous and have a tendency to take over completely from the grafted variety if allowed to remain on the plant. Any shoots that appear from around the graft area should be removed as soon as they are noticed, even those above the graft.

It will take at least 2-3 years for a newly planted citrus tree of any sort to establish in its new home and start to bear flowers. The first few 'crops' may be very small but by the time the tree is 5 years old, it should be producing a reasonable crop for its size.

[elsie2023]

Thanks Noelle. Interesting update this morning - I look closely and find both trunks have thorns! Not too many but is that an indication that both are rootstock?

 

 

see photos below 

[EricL]

Hi @elsie2023 

Those very large thorns are not encouraging. Usually, the foliage of a mandarin tree displays fine spikes. However, if the spikes resemble thorns, the foliage appears sparse, and the stem is dark green, it could indicate that the rootstock has outgrown the grafted plant. 

Let me call on @Noelle and @mich1972 for their opinion on those large thorns.

Eric

[Noelle · Accepted solution]

Hi again @elsie2023 

Those long thorns are very typical of citrus rootstock, I'm sorry to say. If they are present on both branches (trunks) of the tree then I would definitely suspect the rootstock has taken over completely and you have lost the mandarin.