I am growing sweetlee tangerine trees from seed. as well as kumquats. The tangerine trees grow very nicely but the kumquats are not worth bothering with. It is difficult at best and they probably will never produce any fruit. If we lived in zone 10 with in ground trees, I could get fruit in 10 to 15 years Your trees should grow nicely and be very attractive.

To see what I have done over the last few years with kumquats, click below.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/citrus/msg0320572518736.html

Steve, there is no such thing as "sweetie" tangerine. You have some mandarin cultivar marketed as "sweetie". There are several used. The term "sweetie" is merely a marketing term. Steve does bring up a good point -even in idea conditions, growing in the "Citrus Belt" - most citrus grown from seed on their own roots will not produce fruit for 5 to 20 years (limes are the fastest to produce, grapefruits & pummelos the longest). It's a fun project, but patience is a must. Also, not all citrus will grow true to seed. Most citrus are polyembryonic - producing more than one seeding per seed. The first and strongest seedling popping up will be the clone seedling (a clone of the mother plant that produced the fruit), and thus you will have a tree identical to the tree that produced the fruit you obtained the seed from. Other citrus are strongly monoembryonic, and will only product a hybrid seedling - a cross between the mother plant and the pollen parent that pollinated the flower. So, you would then NOT have something the same as the mother tree that produced the fruit. But, there are forum members who grow citrus indoors from seed besides Steve that have been able to get their trees to maturity, and are awaiting fruit patiently.

Lastly, be sure you post just one post, instead of three about the same subject. If you'd like to post multiple photos in your post, simply upload your photos to a photo sharing site, such as photobucket.com, then copy and paste the HTML code string (ignore the other code strings), right into the body of your message. When you click on the "Preview" button to preview your message, you should see your photos pop up, and be embedded directly into your message. If not, you've copied and pasted the wrong code string, so go back and copy the HTML code string.

Patty S.

Patty

The tangerine I am growing is called a sweetlee , not a sweetie. There are very few articles on this variety but as I recall it is supposed to be 2 to 4 weeks earlier ripening than a fall type and would ripen in September through December. I believe that it turned out to not meet quality standard for commercial growing.

Steve

Do you mean Lee mandarin? I have never heard of "Sweet Lee". If you're referring to Lee, it is a good mandarin. Worthy of a spot in my orchard. It's detractors are it is a strong alternate bearer, and it is rather seedy. UC Riverside took Lee and Nova (also a very nice mandarin, and sibling of Lee) and produced the Lee x Nova (USDA 88-2) mandarin, which ended up bringing the best of both parents. It is exceptional, and is being used now pretty extensively in commercial production. I have all three, and the Lee x Nova cross is very good. Up there with Tango and Gold Nugget in quality. Also, it is seedless,easy to peel, holds well on the tree, and is even earlier than either parent, all pluses (including for commercial growing).

Patty S.

Here is a link that might be useful: UC Riverside Citrus Variety Collection: Lee Mandarin

Oh Hi guys thanks for the comments and like it said im new to the site thanks for the advise on the pictures. Well It was a project I wanted to do im not trying to get fruit out of it i just wanted to see if I could grow a orange seedling from a orange to there. lol thanks for the info ill up date soon. it's exciting