Got to 14F here. 36 hours below freezing, worst since 1989. Had banked my trees with 3 yards of mulch about 24 inches tall. Satsuma trees look the best. The round oranges leaves are looking about ready to fall. Time will tell. Power out only 2 hours! Did have a ball valve on anti-siphon vale break but no leak. Very lucky. Have around 15 citrus backup trees in 7 gallon pots but are random varieties.
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14F in TX is unbelievable. Good to know Satsuma trees hold up well.
Remember, Texas is also the source of the âblue northerâ. Even south Texas gets occasional arctic blasts.
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Thank you
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We got down to 9 degrees in the big freeze this February in Louisiana. No protection and did not lose a single tree, all satsumas. Hardly lost any tender branch tips either, just the leaves which are growing back quickly.
The clouds were low, the air was moist and the freeze started with rain turning into ice on all trees and low north wind speed. The freezing process was relatively slow and coming out of frost was also relatively slow. Couldnât have asked for a better outcome to 9 degrees.
But it hardly had anything to do with which varieties of Satsumas they are, and everything to do with the atmospheric conditions.
An inversion freeze with dry air from the north would have severely damaged any Satsuma, âFrostâ series or not. We certainly got lucky the conditions were right to avoid an inversion freeze.
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After a low of 24F nthen up to 49F sunny and down to 26F. I had no damage to growing potted citrus trees left outside.
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I believe that the Kumquat is a good candidate for pushing the limits of Citrus hardiness.
I do have one Mandarinquat seedling.
Would like to grow a few more if I could find the fruits, but they never show up in the local market.
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Just realize that this is Citrus and Fruitwood is in California. They wonât be allowed to ship Citrus wood to FL, TX, AZ, etcâstates outside of California that have a Citrus industry.
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Iâm being really tempted by satsuma mandarin on clearance at my local big box⌠itâs my birthday next week, maybe Iâll get it and hug it and baby it.
A while back I did a lot of research and decided I wanted a kumquat, because they are more cold hardy. But⌠clearanceâŚ
Talk me out if this. I want to put it in the ground, with Christmas lights for winter. On the south side of the house. About 5 feet from the house. Zone 7b, but a block away from a reasonably sized body of water. And full southern sun.
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Cold hardy citrus fruits are destroyed at 28F. kumquats ripen from December till April. There are no satsuma varieties that can survive a cold 7B winter without a physical enclosure.
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So, they lie about 20F? 20⌠28âŚ. Close. But maybe coulda been.
I guess I could keep it potted, like my lemons and limes. But, a girl has dreams.
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The fruits are below 28 killed not the tree. Citsuma Prague might make it down to +/-0F but the fruits ripen December and January. Orange frost can go below 10F maybe down to 5F and has a ripening time before December. There are no kumquats that ripen early.
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If you can find a Marumi kumquat on Poncirus trifoliata you can grow in Kentucky inside a large city. You will need to protect the fruit from temps lower than 30F but the tree fully hardened under glass can survive 0 F. fruit ripens in winter-spring and can store ripe for up to 3 months.
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This February we had a freeze of 10-14F low here in the Houston area and frozen for 4 days. Last freeze this cold was Christmas 1989, over 30 years ago. All unprotected citrus cold hardy or otherwise froze and were killed. The occasional mature citrus tree survived with 90% of tree dead and sprouting from the rootstock, probably located in a heat island. Claims of true citrus surviving lower than 20F for more than a few hours are highly over-rated. Managed to save 18 of 20 inground citrus in my back yard by banking them with mulch. BTW my marumi kumquat on flying dragon was in a pot inside so wasnât frozen. Drug 20 7 gallon citrus inside to save them.
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Can you tell me about your potted lemon and how well it has done? Do you put it out in the spring, leave it out until late fall and bring it in? Has it grown well? Have you gotten any lemons yet? How long did it take? When does it fruit- when its outside in summer or when inside in winter? When inside, does it get sickly from lack of sun, air, natural rain, etc? Sorry to be so inquisitive. I just bought my own lemon tree a week ago even though Iâd sworn of potted fruit plants. Such is the life of a fruit growing addict- just like you and your satsuma dilemma.
Happy b-day! (soon).
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Mr. Texas How do you like the Marumi fruits. Do you know where I would find a Marumi on either PT or FD. My seed grown Fukushu finished its 5 winter inground outside behind 4 layers of glass and a 69
watt CFL heater. Four Winds uses C35.
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@thecityman - I donât have much to report. I have a Meyer lemon that Iâve had about a year. Last fall, I brought it in to my south facing dining room. Took it back out in April. It has yet to flower or fruit for me.
I also have a ponderosa lemon, after seeing one at the local botanical garden. But he is new, only about 5 months.
I had key limes for a few years, but they kept getting scale. One winter, I took them out side to treat for scale and forgot to bring them in that night. And I lost them both. Chances are, the scale was too bad for them to survive anyway. So, one could say I let them freeze. Undiscouraged, I have a new key lime, also only a few month.
I did not have winter scale issues this year. I applied a systematic insect treatment in the fall, before they came in. I donât know if that was the best thing to do, but the scale thing was so annoying and I didnât want to deal with it again.
I just moved recently, so luckily, rather than squeezing them into a dining room/eat-in kitchen space, I have a south facing sunroom. So they will live there this winter.