Chinese mandarin / Cherry orange

[spamvindaloo]

Just had some Chinese mandarins delivered yesterday from ocado, they are very small and very, very sweet. According to ocado, they are a variety called nanfeng and also known as miju. I have been googling for them and it appears they are also possibly known as a cherry orange (Citrus kinokuni ex Tanaka).

Has anybody heard of these before? Do you think you could grow them in this country (undercover except in summer) and any idea where I would get them from.

All of my googling just seems to point to them being grown in China and exported, nothing about growing them elsewhere...

[starloc]

It is probably a Kishu mandarin also written as Kyshu

Citrus ID: Fact Sheet: Seedless Kishu

If it is I have never seen a plant in Europe , very popular in the usa

As with all citrus it can be grown in the UK with no problems as long as you are carefull, sweet citrus fruit need a lot of heat in the summer to generate the sugars and will stay green and be sort of ripe...., they get the taste by the bitterness gained in winter months when the cold ( about 5C to 10C ) turns them orange , they need protection from any frost or and freezing weather

[muddled]

are you going to give it a go then spamvindaloo?

actually....strike that. If they truly seedless, how can you?

[spamvindaloo]

are you going to give it a go then spamvindaloo?

actually....strike that. If they truly seedless, how can you?

They are 'mostly' seedless, I did actually find seeds in two of them but even if I got them to germinate, it would probably be a lot of years to grow something which might never fruit and if it did, produce nothing like the fruit I took the seeds from, tempted though as they were very nice.

[starloc]

Most mandarins are good grown from seed, and take a fairly short time to fruit, maybe 5 years as long as they get good care, but no pruning at all till they do and a greenhouse for winter or it delays the eaf node count and delays fruiting, so it needs a big greenhouse

I have looked through some European sites and cant see the plant listed, if it is available in Europe then I would think this company would have it , they have a list on site somewhere.....but need email to order

http://www.giardinodegliagrumi.it/

[spamvindaloo]

Most mandarins are good grown from seed

Hmm.... I did keep those two seeds and I don't suppose they'd take up too much room for the first couple of years....(scurries off to search for 'how to germinate citrus seed' )

[starloc]

Best way is in a folded up bit of damp kitchen roll, in a sealed plastic bag, somewere warm about 25C to 30C, and plant when germinated, they need a very free draining compost such as 50/50 multipurpose and perlite or similar, they want to be quite warm, so store seeds in the fridge for a couple of months before planting and it will be easier to look after as they get established due to sun and compost wants to be warmish 15C to 27C so warmer weather is better to get them going once they germinate