Seed Grown from Tangelo is 1.5 years old and fruiting

Tree grown from tangelo seed is 1.5 years old now! I posted this elsewhere and was having doubters call me a liar or faker which is quite annoying when I love the little tree so much. Time to see what the Permie crowd thinks. I wouldn't have known this was possible if it didn't happen to me so I understand the skepticism but can't appreciate being called a liar about my plants.

It's quite unbelievable, so I can imagine people have doubts. Year ago I have planted Yuzu an Chinotto citrus from seeds. After a year the plants are struggling, fragile and are only 10 cm tall. The seed you planted must be some mutation.
May I ask you where are you located and what soil you have?

Cristobal Cristo wrote:It's quite unbelievable, so I can imagine people have doubts. Year ago I have planted Yuzu an Chinotto citrus from seeds. After a year the plants are struggling, fragile and are only 10 cm tall. The seed you planted must be some mutation.
May I ask you where are you located and what soil you have?

I'm on Kauai the oldest of the Hawaiian Islands so our soil more broken down on the geological time scale compared to most other areas on the planet. I potted it with a mixture of my native soil, my home made slow compost with bio char, and some Mother's Earth performance soil along with a bit of citrus tone fertilizer. But then I left it in it's 10 inch diameter pot for its entire first year or it'd be bigger I think, I planted a seed from a Meyer lemon around the same time but got it into the ground with an Ellen White inspired planting method early on and at this point it's nearly 4 ft tall and actively growing bigger. Sorry to hear your own citrus from seed isn't going so well. My first two attempts didn't go well either, 1 just stayed 6 inches tall for like a year till I just let the weeds and it fight it out and it lost. The next time I tried I planted like 6 seeds for safety but one of my moms farm workers thought it was something he had planted and did a horrible job transplanting them without me knowing, they all died. I should mention that on this third attempt I also planted another meyer lemon seed as well that got neglected in it's pot the same as the tangelo seedling and is about the same size with a very similar branch structure but without any fruits or flowers, now that it's finally in the ground it's starting to actively grow bigger.

Hi George, your tangelo tree looks amazing! I believe your home made potting soil gave it a good start and the tree will continue to thrive living in ground too. I tend to see healthy seedling trees bearing earlier than expected.

I grow a few citrus tree both from seeds or store bought plants. I found out they are quite sensitive to the soil conditions. One seedling yuzu grows modesty to 1.5 ft in the first season and 7 seedling flying dragons of the same age are only toothpick size. The first one is potted and the latter are in dense clay. I also have a potted key lime. It was quite stunted when I bought it. After I changed it to bigger pot with home made compost added, it is several times bigger and loaded with fruits. I transferred a flying dragon to a pot to see if I can revive it.

Anyway, Hawaii is a great place for growing tropical fruits. Looking forward to seeing more pictures of your trees.

Holy smokes the fruit are still on there hidden by all the new foliage but need more time to ripen, but there's flower buds growing on almost all new branches. I really didn't expect that because research had told me not to expect a secondary flowering for a few years. Guess it's just another experience that goes to show me that sometimes it's better try things my own ways.

It does not look like a Tangelo. Tell me if it tasted like one. 1.5 years from seed, if it's a true Tangelo would be amazing. I grew blood orange from seeds (4 trees) and no fruits. It have been 7 - 8  years. It's 6 - 7 ft tall.

Gop Xrock wrote:It does not look like a Tangelo. Tell me if it tasted like one. 1.5 years from seed, if it's a true Tangelo would be amazing. I grew blood orange from seeds (4 trees) and no fruits. It have been 7 - 8  years. It's 6 - 7 ft tall.

Yeah I don't believe they are a true Tangelo but rather some sort of hybrid that originated from a seed in a Tangelo. I've yet to taste them yet because my mom and one of her workers were picking them when they started to turn partially yellow because they thought they were lemons. I've got some almost ripe now to try but still gotta wait, there's also baby fruit on the tree and new flower buds as well right now.

Very cool! Look forward to the results.

The tree has tripled in size in the past year. However, there's noticeable chlorosis in the younger leaves and that can affect fruit setting. Can you pinpoint which immobile element is low and fertilize accordingly?

Since I saw your post and picture I was thinking about your tree occasionally. In my opinion you have a perfect climate plus this seedling is some outstanding mutation. You should plant more citrus and also preserve and sell the seeds from your tree. In the meantime all my seedlings died, except one Chinotto orange that is maybe 5" tall. Location...

May Lotito wrote:The tree has tripled in size in the past year. However, there's noticeable chlorosis in the younger leaves and that can affect fruit setting. Can you pinpoint which immobile element is low and fertilize accordingly?

Since this picture has been taken I've gotten fruit set on almost all branches you see, the leaves have darkened and fruits are all bigger than marbles with maybe 16 in total. Now there's multiple branches sending out more blossoms as well as a few new branches so it seems to want to be an ever bloomer to some degree. I toss all kinds of stuff on this thing like plant tone organic fert, hefty layers of aged municipal compost, my own homemade compost with crushed charged biochar, nice layers of leaf mold from a tarp that sits under our jack fruit trees and forms leaf mold over time, banana stocks, albesia logs, lychee leaves, jackfruit leaves, bamboo leaves, papaya tree stalks, and anything that makes sense at the time and I have around. I don't put all that stuff on at once but those are the things it's been fed around it in it's lifetime so far. It was also planted over a couple of medium sized lava rocks so it will be harvesting minerals from those over time as the roots do their thing.