 Have you seen one of these? It’s a variety of cumquat called Nagami and it's just magnificent. It’s not a big tree, but it can produce bumper crops so it’s the perfect citrus for small spaces.
It looks great in the garden too with these glossy leaves and bright orange tear-shaped fruit. The flowers are sweetly fragrant and there are no thorns. You could grow it as an edible hedge or prune and shape the top into a ball and it’s the ideal size for growing in a large pot.
But what about their fruit? Well, they’re the sweetest of all cumquats and they make the best marmalade. Some people preserve them in brandy which is a real treat, but you can eat the fruit - skin and all - straight off the tree and they’re absolutely delicious.
Like all citrus, these Nagami cumquats must have good drainage and plenty of sunlight. They’ve got to be kept moist too, especially when the fruit are forming. Scale insects and sooty mould are the only problems you’ll find, but they can be controlled easily with a regular spray of soapy water or an oil based spray.
I asked the owner how he got this one to fruit so well - ‘No secret Phil’ he said ‘I put a good bucket of ash from the fireplace around the root zone each year’. Try it yourself on your own ‘Nagami’ cumquat, the perfect fruit tree for small spaces.
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