First, your tree CERTAINLY will bloom when it has grown to the correct size (obtained the proper number of nodes). Second, for a seedling tree that is 5 years old the tree should be a LOT taller than 3-feet tall. Third, the proper pH of the medium should be 6.2 to 6.5. The most important things you should provide your tangerine are a VERY GOOD draining soil, and a soil that has VERY GOOD aeration. Flush your trees container 3 or 4 times a year with clean clear water, to remove any soluble salt build-up. Do not over pot the tree, and on the other hand do not under pot the tree. There is no one good fertilizer, the proper fertilizer depends on the condition of, and epsecially the pH of the soil the tree is growing in. However, if you just purchase one, a 30-10-10 with trace minerals is fairly good. Take Care, welcome to the citrus forum, and good luck to your tangerine. Millet

Hi Millet, Thanks for the info. I figure the tree may
be small for its age because it has never been outside. (Maybe). The pot is 9" wide and 9" tall. The tree has two
branches coming up from dirt, one wider then the other. The
larger one is 3/4" wide. I'm going to repot the tree because
I think drainage is very poor. Pot has only one hole in center. What size pot would u recomend, and what type potting soil. I will check Ph after potting. I'm just getting into this hobby. I just recieved my one year old
Dwarf Meyer Lemon Improved from four winds today, planning
on repoting it in cactus mix. Your help is greatly appriciated.

Brew, when you unpot the tree, check the roots..Repot to a 12-14" container, but I wouldn't go higher.
There are several types of citrus fertilizer online, but in the meantime you can use an Azalia/Rhodo food..BTW, if you repot, wait about a month before feeding if using soil. Or, you can use 1/2 strenght..
Cactus soil might do, but you can mix your own by using, all purpose (black soil) sand and peat..a little perlite will help with drainage.
You've been doing something right, since you've had the tree from a seedling, and considering the pot has one hole..
A seed-grown tree can take 5-14 yrs to bloom/fruit. If possible, take the tree outside in summer. If it can't be taken outdoors, and it does flower, you'll have to self-pollinate..Good luck, Toni

Hi hopefulauthor thanks for your reply and info. When
u say a 12-14" container, do u mean diameter, and if so,
how tall should it be?

Brew718, Since you planted the tree from a seed the second "branch" (trunk) could easily be a second tree. Many citus seeds have multi embryos and thus can produce one to four trees per seed. When repoting just purchase a container 3 to 4 inches larger than the container is presently planted in. I use the common black nursery containers that have 4 or 5 holes around the bottom sides. There are many different formulas for good draining potting mixes. My favorite is 4 parts 1/4-inch coconut husk and 1 to 1-1/2 parts peat moss. You can see many many threads (probably hundreads) on this forum concerning the CHC mixture. However, there are a lot of other mixtures that can be used, but they must be well draining, and also not compact over time. Millet

Millet:
I have a question that is hovering on my head for a long time.
This concerns with the use of coconut husk.
Since CH has no nutrition in itself and peat moss has I believe none also how does the plant gets its nutrition other than as you said dunk the plant in a solution mix with fertilizer once a month? or twice a month?

Please tell us how do your plants get their nutritions?

Benny, Your correct in saying that the CHC/peatmoss blend itself does not offer any nutrition, but then most all other potting mediums also offer no nutritional supply. To fertilize a CHC/PM medium you just water it with a fertilizer solution like any other potting soil. The use of soaking CHC's will work of course, but soaking is used mostly if you let the medium become excessively dry. Benny, just fertilize and water the same way you would any containerized tree in any type of medium. The real value to CHC's over most potting mixes is that you cannot over water a citrus tree (which is a very common citrus killer), and CHC's give you a natural pH level that is required by citrus. I have grown to like the 4 to 1-1/2 mixture best. Millet

Thanks Millet. I have the preconcieved notion that black soil or garden soil is naturally fertilized soil and that any plant will grow very well on it. And that a CH is a husk only of the fruit of a coconut tree.

Another approach to growing in nutrientless media is like doing hydroponics. I would go for using some formulations in such solutions because they provide all the possible essential nutrients needed by the plants. There are various hydroponic formulations sold over the internet or your local specialty nursery stores. Use the nutrient types that are suited for flood and drain type of application because that is what you are essentially doing with your citruses in peat or CHC's.

Joe, could you expand further on your meaning of "hydroponic formulations". I have little knowledge on the fertilizer formulations used by hydroponic growers. When feeding my citrus that are growing in a CHC/peat mix I use various formulations of NPK with trace mineals. Is hydroponic fertilizers any different? I'm not sure if a CHC/peat mix is actually like flood and drain as it retains a lot of the liquids poured through it. At present I water approximatel every 5 - 7 days during June. Regards, Millet

There's a lot of them, but the most fundamental one that I can remember is the Hoagland's solution. You can search the net for Hoagland's solution and it will give the listing of all the ratios of all essential nutrients. One thing is that some elements like Nickel or Cobalt are required in the ppb range, luckily for most well water, this is a contaminant needed by the plants but doesn't affect humans at that level, but these are present in Hoagland's solution. With that solution you are sure that you did not miss out on any essential nutrient. The Hoagland solution is generic and may not be best suited for citruses, so you will have to adjust the correct ratios of NPK but for sure all the trace elements are present. Some trace elements may not be essential for other plants or are still essential but in undetectable quantities. Some hydroponic nutrients are better than others because they target specific plants, so read the ingredients and ask if it supplies all essential nutrients for targeted plants.

I actually did purchase the trace elements only from eBay and mix that with Best formulations for NPK, then used it to grow my bananas in pots using coconut sawdust. The banana is now blooming after two years in a pot. The pot size is 20 gallons, and the banana is 7 ft tall at the trunk. The blooming and fruiting is a sure sign that I have met all the minimum essential nutrient requirements to complete the life cycle of a plant. Bananas were feed essentially only with my formulation and city's water. I still have a lot left of my original 1 lb trace elements, I just perhaps used 2 oz of it to mix with the majors 6-20-20 fertilizer, to make sure banana's required essential nutrients are satisfied. Since I use manure on my potted citruses, I don't worry about adding all the essential nutrients or same formulations for citruses, only at certain times when I don't know why it is still yellowing during the warm season and there are no obvious disease or pest problems.

S.O.S.-S.O.S.
Joe, if you can read this:
Will you bring some of your "I still have a lot left of my original 1 lb trace elements," this coming Saturday at EZ's house!
I have a lot of bananas planted in the ground which are over a year old but I saved one planted in a wine barrel mixed with coconut husk/perlite/pottingsoil/sand so that when winter comes I can moved that one in my shed.
Last winter all of my bananas were happy in the shed except most of them tapped the roof with their leaves.
I want at least one banana come to fruit.
6-20-20 fertilizer I think I can get.

Brew, yes, when I said 12-14" I mean diameter. Just measure top from one side to the other.
I prefer narrow pots for citrus, but you'll need to check out your root system..If it's been growing in a round pot for the last 4-5 yrs, it'd be difficult slipping the roots into a narrow pot.
Unfortunatly, most pots are standard heights. I prefer growing citrus in plastic growing pots..But, you'll have to make do w/the pots you have..Toni

Myself I think it's time for you to make a graft or budding to your tangerine tree with buds or scions from another mature, fruit bearing tangerine or Satsuma tree so you can enjoy the fruits. K.

I have a flying dragon about three feet tall, its indoors
now and its growing new leaves. I also have the tangerine
as you already know. I was wondering if there is a place
were I can purchase, lets say, A tangerine or orange scion,
and a lemon scion for the flying dragon for grafting. Any
ideas??