Hi folks, I'm a newbie here, coming from GardenGuides. I live near Tokyo, Japan (on the outskirts) and have been getting interested in gardening, both taking care of what's already in my yard and planting new things. I have a kumquat that produced great fruit two years ago and got chewed up by caterpillars last year. Hoping for another harvest and would be happy to receive any hints!

I'm also thinking of adding a mandarin tree to my yard so I'll hop over there to Mandarins as well.

Cantate in Tokyo

Hi cantate7,
Nice to have you here...all the way from Japan wow! Do you bring your citrus trees in during the winter or is it warm enough to have them planted in the ground? Just curious as I have never been to Japan before.:rolleyes:

As for pest problems I had aphid and some other bugs nibbling at my leaves and I did not want to use chemicals because I eat the fruit. So I found one simple thing I do is spray the trees down with a stream of water from my garden hose. I adjusted the nozzel so it was just powerful enough to knock all the buggers right off. I did this twice, a couple days a part so as to make sure all of the little bugs were off.

Another alernative is to use insecticidal soap or horticultural oils.

Good luck!

Thanks Citrus Trees,

My kumquat is planted in the ground. It goes below freezing occasionally so when I bought a lemon tree last fall I kept it inside until March. A lot of people in the area seem to have mandarin, "yuzu" (citron?) and kumquat trees planted in their yard, which is what inspired me to want a mandarin tree. They seem to be able to grow in very small spaces, and the lady at the tree nursery said that if you keep the roots from spreading too much they will put their energy into fruit rather than roots and leaves. Guess that's why I see so many in between two walls, and why they seem to work where none of us has very big yards!

cantate7

Does anybody know what month kumquats flower? Mine is coming back wonderfully after I spent most of June squishing caterpillars. Also, what do the flowers look like?

Thanks,
Cantate

Kumquats are somewhat ever bloming but mostly in the spring. I see the fruit in a lot of grocery stores around Christmas. This would give the approx time of 6 month for the fruit to mature.

Thanks. Two years ago mine had ripe fruit from Nov. to Mar. (leaving it on the tree and eating it as desired; it kept for a long time and was pretty). I just haven't seen blooms yet.

Cantate