Divisi
How to grow Mandarin / tangerine
Citrus reticulata · Rutaceae
Photo: Horacio Cambeiro (User:Tubby3) · CC BY-SA 3.0
The mandarin (also called tangerine or naartjie) is the hardiest and easiest-to-peel of the citrus trees — a small, spreading evergreen that lives and bears fruit for decades. You do not grow it from seed. You plant a young grafted tree — a chosen sweet fruiting top joined onto a tough root variety — and care for it year after year. Its one famous habit is alternate bearing: a heavy 'on' year of fruit followed by a light 'off' year, and much of the skill of mandarins is evening that out. Get the root variety, the drainage and the graft height right when you plant; keep the tiny sap-sucking psyllid (which carries the incurable greening disease) off every new leaf flush; and stay ahead of fruit fly as the fruit sweetens — and one tree will feed and earn for you for many years.
Jebulon · CC0 
Ivar Leidus · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Row spacing
- 550 cm
- Plant spacing in the row
- 550 cm
These are general figures for the crop, compiled from published agronomic references including FAO and CABI. The right choice for your field depends on your soil, rainfall and the yield you are aiming for.
Will mandarin / tangerine actually do well on your land? Check your field against every crop in the catalogue — free, no signup. Run the free crop check →
Other names for Mandarin / tangerine
naartjie · mandarin · tangerine · mandarine · tangerina · chenza
Working in buckets, bags or paces? The farming glossary turns the measures growers actually use into kilograms and hectares — what a 20 litre bucket of each crop really weighs, and how to size a field by walking it — alongside the Shona, Swahili, Ndebele and Yoruba words used in the field. Open the glossary →
Growing mandarin / tangerine, stage by stage
Your year-after-year guide to a mandarin tree — planting a grafted tree on well-drained soil, guarding each new flush from greening disease and the fruit from fruit fly, evening out the heavy and light years, and picking sweet, easy-peel fruit at its best.
- Plant it right — root, drainage and the first shape
- The young, non-bearing years
- The bearing tree — feed, prune, keep the leaves clean
- Flowering — set a good crop, guard the flush
- Fruit set to fill — thin the heavy years, beat fruit fly
- Pick sweet — mandarins don't ripen off the tree
- Handle gently, colour up, store cool
17 step-by-step tasks in the app
Every task for mandarin / tangerine — what to do, when to do it and why it matters — with the amounts worked out for your own field, reminders as each one falls due, and warnings before extreme weather.
Pests and diseases that attack mandarin / tangerine
Divisi tells you which of these is a risk on your mandarin / tangerine right now, when to walk the field looking for it, and what to do the moment you find it.
Frequently asked questions
What spacing should I use for mandarin / tangerine?
Space mandarin / tangerine rows about 550 cm apart, with roughly 550 cm between plants within the row.
What pests and diseases attack mandarin / tangerine?
The ones covered in this guide are False codling moth, Fruit flies. Each has its own page explaining how to identify, scout for and control it.
Grow mandarin / tangerine with a plan, not a guess
Divisi turns this guide into a dated plan for your own field — what to do each week, reminders as tasks fall due, and warnings before extreme weather. Free for farmers, works offline.
Or check your field first