We have a calamondin tree here at Our Little Chateau that always has oranges on it. Flowers come and go all year round even in the winter. We get a lot of questions as to why and how we get our indoor calamondin tree to fruit all year long. Since we have gotten the tree no one has ever seen it without fruit. After we posted the tree again and it still had fruit in it in the winter it got 75,000 views. We now have no reason to not see what all the fuss is about. So after all of the questions and messages we have decided to write everything we do with our tree down. This blog is a guid to what we do and you can do to keep the calamondin tree fruiting all year around.

Don’t Be So Fast To Repot

Don’t be so fast to repot your calamondin tree. If the tree is busy growing roots it wont have the energy to grow fruit. The bigger the pot you use when repotting will effect how long it takes the plant to fill that pot with roots and will insure a longer wait time before you get oranges again. After the roots grow then the branches will grow and once those are finished then the fruit will grow. In the end you will get more fruit you just won’t know how many months or years before you will get.

Repotting

If you decide to repot you need a well draining soil. One that can hold moisture but quickly release any extra moisture that could harm the plant. For best results a citrus potting mix will work best and give the plant some nutrients as well.

Sun

The amount of sun the plant gets is key to fruit production. You want to sit the plant in a window that gets the most amount of sun during the day. A south facing window is the best place for calamondin trees. Our calamondin tree is in a southwest facing window and has like wild since we moved and placed it there.

Watering

Letting the soil dry out a few inches on the top insures the calamondin will not get waterlogged or root rot. We only water our calamondin twice a month but watering will also depend on how big or small your pot is. Smaller pots may need to be water more while larger pots will need to be watered less. When you water the plant make sure to fully soak it through. We let our tree sent in a small puddle over night and empty it the next morning, sometimes there isn’t anything in the morning to empty as the tree soaked it all up.

Feeding Your Tree

We feed our tree once a month with organic liquid citrus plant food. It has no added dyes or chemical we simply add it to the water stir and water the tree with it. We try not to soak the tree during this feeding so that it can soak in all the plant food without it washing away.

Cleaning

We clean and dust the leaves off every other month some times once a month if they get extra dusty. All we use is a microfibre cloth to wipe them and sometimes water if needed. Some people may tell you to use oil or vinegar but that can actually damage the plant. Vinegar can burn the leaves while oil can block the process of photosynthesis and prevent the leaves from breathing. A dry microfibre cloth and water will work just fine. If you live in an area with a lot of sand or clay dust you can wait until it’s time to water your plant, sit it in the shower and on the lightest setting possible give your plant a shower. This will wash off the leaves and water it at the same time. Think if it as what rain does to trees outside.

Pest Control

We had some trouble with aphids a while back due to a strawberry plant with got from a local nursery. Aphids and other tiny pest don’t actually like calamondin trees as the leaves are to hard for them to bite but the new baby leaves can be effected until the grow bigger. The best thing to do it to take a small soft paint brush and brush them off of the leaves as soon as you seen them on. Once the leave are big and strong you won’t see any small pest on them. Be careful not to use neem oil as it can fry, damage, and kill the leaves and also the for the same reason listed above with the oils.

Rotation And Shaking

We rotate our tree once a month to insure all sides get sun. If you don’t rotation your house plants they can become weaker on one side and start to develop a lean that could eventually lead to a break, or half of the plant dying. We also shake our tree which helps to release any fruit that can’t fall because it is wedge is somewhere we can see or remove old leaves before the rot. It also helps to make the trunk stronger as wind will also shake the tree in nature. Please note that the shaking is very very gentle and light like a light summer breeze. A violent shake could shock the plant and cause it to stop producing fruit. The baby also likes to gently rustle the trees leaves very gently from time to time all of which would happen in nature except it would be birds, squirrels, and other animals not babies. It is also sitting next to our back door and skylight so when those are open it gets a nice breeze.

Harvesting/Picking Fruit

We honestly try not to pick the fruit unless we need to or unless we know for sure it is done or want something fresh. We let the fruit mostly fall off on its own and quickly put it in the refrigerator or freezer. If you have a calamondin tree you know the fruit rots very fast, placing it in the refrigerator slows the process so it last a longer about a week or two and the freeze keeps it as long as you need it to. For fresh fruit we make sure it’s ripe which minds it feel soft not to firm and if it gently twist off it’s ready to eat or use. If it doesn’t gently twist off we leave it alone.

Pruning

I guess at this put it would be no surprise when I say we don’t prune our calamondin tree. We haven’t really found the need to abs by not doing so we get more fruit (literally the tree always has fruit and flowers on it). So unfortunately we have no tips for pruning but in the wild trees only get pruned by strong winds and feisty animals. We have had accidents too which have knocked off some pieces here and there but thats about as much pruning as it has gotten.

We hope this tips help you and tree we would love to hear about your calamondin tree in the comments below and what you do to take of it or how you prune it for those would like to. Thank you for reading our blog.