Calamondin Plant Care

With the Calamondin tree, you get an ornamental display and enjoy the citrus growing on them if you do not mind eating a sour fruit.

Yes, the Calamondin orange tree can grow as an indoor plant for ornamental purposes. It is a small-stature tree grown for its fragrant flowers. Still, it bears small sour edible fruit.

As with most citrus species, you can force them to bloom by holding back the water. When the leaves wilt, you provide these citrus trees with deep watering.

Where Does Calamondin Come From

The orange tree is cold-hardy and a hybrid between a kumquat and mandarin orange. The tree comes from China and is cultivated throughout Asia, India, Malaysia, and the Philippines.

Sometimes gardeners call the orange tree a Citrus mitis or Citrus x citrofortunella mitis. But the common name is Calamansi or Calamondin.

As an indoor fruit tree, the Calamondin is one of the best to grow. You can develop the plant from cuttings or seeds.

When the perennial shrub blooms, you get a lot of star-shaped flowers and small orange fruit when taken care of properly. You can also expect your Calamondin trees to bear fruit in the second year.

The flowers are white in appearance and followed by fruit. As the fruit ripens, it changes from a deep green to an orange.

The best part is that you need not pick the fruit and leave them there. You can replace your lemon or use the fruit in marmalade, iced tea, and chiffon pie.

Citrus Trees Care

Calamondin Plant Care

As mentioned, the Calamondin tree can grow as an outdoor plant, but it makes excellent indoor fruit trees. The yellow-orange fruit with flowers fills the home with a fresh citrus fragrance.

Botanical Name: Citrus x citrofortunella mitis

Common Name: Calamondin orange or Calamansi

Family: Rutaceae 

Plant Type: Perennial evergreen shrub

Native to: Asia, India, Malaysia, Philippines

Maximum Size: 3 to 6 feet tall

Watering Requirements: Cold and drought tolerant

Light Requirements: Outdoors full sun and indoors indirect sun

Preferred Humidity: Moderate

Preferred Temperature: Average room temperatures

Soil or Potting Medium: Soil-less, peat moss-based potting mix 

Fertilizer: Organic fruit-tree fertilizer

Propagation Method: Cuttings and seed

Vulnerability: Root rot

Toxicity: Edible fruits but toxic to canines

Recommended Potting Mix for Citrus Tree

Grown indoors as potted plants, the Calamondin citrus grows well in acidic soil. Still, it would be best to be watchful in using the right potting mix for your container plant.

An enormous container has enough room for the roots to grow and fill with some potting soil, perlite/vermiculite, and organic compost. You can enjoy a miniature orange in your home.

Providing your Calamondin (sour, believe us) with well-drained soil is the best thing you can do for this rare plant. With the water flowing through the drainage holes, it prevents root rot.

Lighting Needs for Your Orange Tree

calamondin lighting requirement

Where possible, give your Calamansi container plants direct sunlight year-round for at least four hours each day.

We recommend turning your tree Calamondin a quarter every week to provide equal growth on all sides.

When it is warm, you can move your Calamondin plants outdoors for some bright light to help boost growth in the growing season.

Another beneficial thing before we forget is to place your tree as a south-facing window to expose it to full sun during the summer for blooming.

Watering Citrus Plants

When you grow Calamondin, (yes believe us, these oranges are as sour as a lime), it needs water but not too much.

You can do daily watering in warmer months but check that the ground is not soggy. We suggest letting the soil dry out before watering. Then, in spring and summer, you can do regular watering.

But in winter months, wait until the soil dries out an inch before watering again.

Recommended Temperature & Humidity for Citrus Plants

Now, your orange trees can grow indoors and love warmer temperatures between 65-75°F/18-24°C year-round. Your Calamondin tree is also drought tolerant of handling temperatures in summer up to 80°F/27°C. But remember to check the ground for your watering frequency.

Another great thing about your plant is it can handle winters with a temperature of 50°F/10°C. Still, we recommend not placing it near an air conditioner or a heat vent during the winter months. This is because your Calamondin orange tree does not like cold air blasting on them.

Even a moderate humidity of 40 to 50 percent is excellent, but dry air can cause the blooms to drop, and you will not have any Calamondin fruit. To keep the air moist, you can place your small trees on a humidity tray with water.

You can also mist your tree in the morning but do not mist them in direct sun as it causes burns on the foliage. Before we forget, if your Citrus mitis stands outdoors in cold regions, we recommend shifting them indoors.

The tree is not frost-tolerant, and when the time comes to move them outside, it helps to place your Calamondin trees in the shade for at least a week before placing them in full sun.

Feeding Calamondin Orange Trees

Now, feeding your citrus trees helps to use a citrus-specific fertilizer. Using a slow-release fertilizer helps. You can provide your dwarf orange throughout the growing season monthly.

A full-strength water-soluble feed is excellent to use. Still, you can dilute the feed to a half-strength during the winter months and feed every fifth week.

Propagating Tree Calamondin

Maybe you have the Calamondin orange tree growing indoors and would like to grow them outside. Then you can do this with seeds indoors or stem tip cuttings.

Growing Calamansi Fruit from Seeds

Okay, growing the Calamondin orange from seed is possible. But it’s best to keep in mind that it can take longer to bloom.

The problem is that some of the seeds might not germinate. The best is to use fresh produce fruit to get the seed. Using fresh seeds provides a better chance for your plant to grow.

You can do this indoors at least a month before the last frost. Invest in some sterile soil, and removing a small part of the seed tip boosts germination. Then, you can plant the seeds and water them.

Then cover the pots with a plastic bag and place them in a warm location. The seeds should germinate in about three weeks, and you can move them to a location indoors to receive enough light.

Also, remove the covering when the tree has up to four leaves. Then, as the weather gets warmer, you can move them outside in the partial shade for at least a week.

Once your plant reaches a height of ten inches, you can place them in a one-gallon pot and wait until they are three feet tall to grow outside.

Root Softwood Cutting in Springtime

Or you can bud a graft on a sour orange rootstock. Check out this great article from Texas Citrus.

USDA Growth Zone

Calamondin Plant Growth Zone

Your citrus plant is cold tolerant of growing in zones 8-11 as an outdoor plant. You will find the orange tree fruits last through winter.

Planting and Repotting Calamondin Tree

You can plant your Calamondin orange trees in pots or grow them as an outdoor plants. For planting in containers, ensure it has ample drainage with the correct soil mix as described previously. The best time repot your Calamondin tree is when it is about three years old.

The best time to do this is in spring or the end of summer by doing the following:

  • Pour a layer of gravel, rocks, or clay pebbles to provide free-flowing drainage about two inches thick.
  • Fill the container with your soil mix.
  • Once removing the plants remove wounded, fragile, and dead roots with sharp, sterilized shears.
  • Place your Calomondin tree clump in the middle of the potting medium and fill it up with the ground.
  • Do regular watering for a few weeks but make sure to check the soil that it is not too wet.

When growing your Calamondin orange tree in the ground, you need to ensure it has dry, warm summers and dry, mild winters.

You can mix your garden soil with your potting mix and provide drainage by digging the hole deeper. Then, fill it up with your clay, sand, gravel, or rocks.

Pruning Your Calamondin Tree

It is not a must to prune your Calamondin orange tree. Still, to help with the appearance, you can prune after you repot it in spring.

You can remove the dead wood or any diseased branches or if the branches cross each other. When you clear the middle of your plant, it gets fewer diseases and more flowering with fruiting.

Also, it is advisable to repot your Calamondin tree every two years as an indoor plant and best done at the end of winter to early spring. Please do this after it blooms and has a fruit formation.

Tips for Bearing Calamondin Tree Fruit and Leaves

When your Calamondin tree grows outdoors, you have pollinators taking care of the pollination. But as indoor plants, it needs hand-pollination. To do this, you need to use a soft brush and move it over the middle of the flower as it is not self-fertile.

Calamondin Varieties

Calamondin Limes

calamondin lime

The Calamondin lime tree has tender citrus fruit that is horny. These trees are not easy to grow in the ground and are best suited for containers.

Calamondin Lemon

calamondin lemon

It is a fast-growing citrus tree that is easy to grow as a container plant. Yet, when grown in colder regions outdoors, you need to cover the plant or bring it inside as it is frost tender.

Kumquat

Kumquat

The tree is a heavy producer when it comes to small orange fruit. It has thinner skin you can peel and enjoy. It also works well as an indoor plant.

Calamondin Plant Diseases & Pests

Your citrus tree can become the haven of scale insects that leaves a white velvet trace on leaves. Also, if you plan to eat the fruit, the best is to take care of what you plan to use for insecticides.

We recommend using a natural organic insecticide like Neem oil to control these insects. You can also wipe the leaves from dust with a damp sponge.

Lastly, root rot is a big concern with this rare plant, and best to check the soil between watering.

Frequently Asked Questions

If your plant has gone through a severe drought, it can prevent the tree from blooming. But with a small amount of not watering helps develop flowers in spring.

The two are the same as the word Calamansi is a Phillippine spelling known as kɐlɐmɐnˈsɪʔ and used throughout the province. The term Calamansi people use in the USA, the old name for Calamondin.

The fruit is larger than a quarter and usually does not exceed one inch in diameter. It has a thin rind that is easy to peel to reveal juicy flesh.

While the tree used to be a rare plant, you can now find them available at most garden centers. Still, you need not leave the comfort of your home as you can order the Calamandin right here at Plantly.

Whether you want to buy, sell or simply reach out to other plant enthusiasts, Plantly is the right place to be!

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