Hi,
Our Hickson Mandarine tree is covered in fruit, but it is very sour and can only be used for making marmalade. What should we have used to sweeten the fruit. I don't want the same thing to happen again next year.
we get sweet citrus on all our trees and all we do is mulch very heavily at that. they do need a frost on them or at least a chill to help sweeten them. ours only get available rain water as well.
copper will do the trick. if the trunk is big enough drive a stake of half inch copper pipe say 50 - 100 mm long in to the trunk. copper nails or rivets if the trunk is not large enough yet.
Hi Eve seems it has a lot to do with how much sun the tree is getting at a certain time of the year. Have a read of the link below you may find your answer.Cheers...MM
I recently read the following: HOW TO MAKE CITRUS FRUIT SWEETER Mix 20 grams of Sulphate of Potash in 9 litres of water, stir in well and apply over 2 square metres around the foliage area of the tree.
seriously, copper is the go. didn't suggest you hammer in copper all the way around. just a single spike formed from 1/2 inch copper pipe driven into the trunk or small rivets or nails if trunk too small ie copper appropriate to diameter of tree trunk! check out a few old trees in the older perth suburbs. our 40 year old lemon tree was a great producer until i hastily had it removed when an opportunity came along with earthmoving equipment on an adjoining block. noticed you are from wa, guessed perth, where soils lack copper apparently.
Thank you everyone for your input. We tasted another mandarine yesterday and it is definitly more edible, so it seems that the longer they are left on the tree through the winter the sweeter they may get. I looked on the internet about growing citrus (I should have done that before I bought the tree) and I see that the Hickson is not a good one for our area.
