The light smell of tangerines creates a mood, reminds you of childhood, and brings the New Year into your home. By growing this plant, unusual for the Middle Belt, you can constantly bathe in a delicate cloud of subtle aroma, creating a unique aura of comfort and well-being. However, like all citrus fruits, it requires attention and care. It is important to know the peculiarities of watering, how to pinch and prune a tangerine tree, and when to replant.
Why do you need to pinch tangerines?
On window sills, in rooms, on the veranda, single-stem crops often, instead of comfort, create a feeling of loneliness. Sometimes they just don't have enough space.Considering that a full-fledged tree growing on the southern plantations of the world can reach four meters in height, at home they try to limit the growth of its length.
Indoor tangerines are best shaped like low bushes that form beautiful crowns. This will help the plant develop without concentrating its strength in one direction, make its appearance attractive, and free it from dried “bald” branches.
Experienced gardeners also recommend trimming the tips of the tops, removing branches growing inward, and thinning out very dense areas for normal formation of ovaries and then ripening of fruits.
They also try to pinch out excess and early buds so that the plant can develop evenly, giving each part vitality and energy.
Required Tools
Before starting the operation, it is better to prepare and disinfect the instruments in advance.
Choose garden shears, pruning shears or a sharp knife for budding.
Important components of the process include means for treating an open wound of a plant (garden pitch, tree resin, natural drying oil paint).
Timing for pruning tangerine trees
It is advisable to prune at home at the end of February, beginning of March, when the plant is actively growing and developing.
However, the procedure is sometimes carried out in the fall. At the same time, artificial lighting is added as much as possible.
The first pinching is done when the tangerine produces its fourth, fifth or sixth leaves. At this moment, the tree has already reached twenty to forty centimeters.
On each new branch, after the appearance of the fourth leaf, the tips are removed.
The crown is formed in the first three to four years. Then the process continues, but not so often.
Tangerine pruning technology
After the appearance of the fourth leaf, the owner of the exotic indoor plant, while forming the crown, tries to carefully remove, cutting off above the bud, part of the branch stretching upward. The wound is treated with garden pitch or tree resin and covered with plastic wrap or tape. Let the cut heal. As a rule, the plant is left undisturbed for three to four weeks. Then the film is removed.
Along with the excess length, strong shoots growing from the root itself are removed from the tree, taking away strength from the rest of the plant.
They also try to trim branches directed inside the crown or strongly inclined to the side or down so that the tangerine does not look neglected.
After a month, new shoots are carefully examined. Weak branches are removed. Stronger ones are left so that the plant continues to develop correctly.
To open or close the crown (with very spreading branches), use a bud cut, taking into account the rule for choosing an external or internal bud, respectively.
The main trunk is pinched and trimmed. Three or four branches are left from the side branches.
Further care
In the summer, the tangerine is taken out onto the veranda, trying to provide it with the opportunity to bask in the gentle rays of the sun. Watering is done carefully so that drops do not fall on the flowers, twice a day. Fertilizer is added periodically.
In the colder winter period, the plant is transferred to a room with a temperature of twelve to sixteen degrees, giving it the opportunity to rest. This is the time of rest for the tree. Water it twice a week. No fertilizing is provided.
As the tangerine grows, it is replanted, giving it a freer pot that matches its size. This is done by the transfer method.If replanting is not possible, two-thirds of the soil is renewed.
First-year plants sometimes produce buds. They are carefully removed so as not to waste the tree’s strength. If necessary, part of the ovaries is left.
Initially tangerine tree placed in such a way that it receives enough light, but cannot get burned and shed its leaves.
Pinching the ends of the shoots, pruning the upper part of the tangerine, together with watering and fertilizing appropriate to the time of year, allows you to create a beautiful, strong tree-bush, pleasing not only the eyes turned to it, but also bearing delicious aromatic fruits.
