Planting the Satsuma Tangerine Tree

Mom recruited our neighbor to tell me that planting my new Satsuma tangerine tree so close to the house would be a bad idea.  They thought it would be best in the back of the house.

However, there's not a lot of light there.  I figure fruit trees need lots of light.

It just so happened that the University of Hawaii Master Gardener program is open to the public on the second Saturday of each month.

Perfect!  I took a photo of the place I was planning to put the tree and we went to the Urban Garden Center to ask for advice.

We met Wally the Master Gardener and we showed him the photo.  He suggested putting brick type slabs to block the roots from going toward the house.  He also said we could prune the tree to control the branches from hitting the house, but not too much because fruit grow from the tips of new branches.

First we dug up the Mickey Mouse plant and planted it out on the parkway.  I don't know if it will survive because the root ball I dug up was somewhat small.

To be honest, it was me who dug up most of it which might be why Art decided to take over.

Now that we had the hole, we gathered our equipment along with the 5 patio bricks we bought from Lowes.  They had a better selection than Home Depot.

We went as deep as we could stand to dig because it was exhausting, and inserted the patio bricks to block the roots from the house as advised by the master gardener.

We added the seed starting soil and some wood compost to the rather clayish dirt that was at the bottom of our hole.  We poured a little water in to moisten the bottom.  The tangerine plant was placed into the hole, being careful to have what looked like the grafted point above the soil level.

Now to clean up the mess and put back the gravel and replant the akulekule.

And there it is!

I have high hopes that it will grow despite the threat of fruit flies or whatever else could attack it.

I can almost taste the tangerines now.