My feeling is that long, dark, snowy winters with consistently low temperatures for sure increase the likelihood of losing leaves and limbs to dessication and reduce the hardiness of things like perennials that rely on root hardiness (for both because of the freezing of the ground, something that doesn’t happen much in climates like mine) and probably knocks a few degrees of hardiness off of the absolute minimum hardiness. And for ripening fruit, all this makes a big difference as well compared to hot climates that happen to get periodic cold like in Tampa.
But for above ground survival, the absolute minimum is probably the most important number. It’s why, for example, there are a bunch of Chilean, Argentine, New Zealand, and southeastern Australian plants that I sadly can’t grow, even though my winters almost get more heat units than those places get in summer. It just never gets take cold over there, so even a lot of alpine Eucalypts, Nothofagus, and Podocarps that grow on snowy mountaintops freeze to death here in the tobacco and sweet potato country of the upper South.
@a_Vivaldi you ever tried growing Joshua tree? Seems up your alley. I have some seeds germinated and a few more to try again in spring. But apparently they grow in zone 6, if you want a couple seeds I can send em your way.
Note that in that record low year in Florida, a large part of citrus to like Sebring died, and it was one of the big freezes that killed off citrus growing North of I-4 (that was 1962, and 1985 was another big freeze). Also, I know Tampa is just being used as a placeholder, but there isn’t alot (if any) citrus groves along the bay. Most of them are inland or farther south (around Lake Okechobee and the Mid-Florida ridge). Its weather is also influenced heavily by the bay, and stays cooler there in the summer than it does in orange country.
True, the fact we stay cold and gloomy all winter here on the Pacific Coast north of the Bay Area is definitely an advantage. I would say the climate is almost identical to Jeju Island all the way up to southern Oregon coast. It hardly freezes on the coast even north of Coos Bay. So that seems like a good comparison for Jeju Island, and why I want to see what varieties they are growing over there. Like you mention the ripening with cool weather is very intriguing. While the Willamette Valley gets too much freeze, that’s only a small section of the region I’m concerned with. I also plant down in Mendocino County, which is definitely a place where the Jeju trees (whatever they are) would flourish.
I haven’t tried them, but yes, weird stuff like that is right up my alley.
That being said, the wife includes yuccas on the “don’t you plant that shit here” list. And to be honest I doubt any of the Western species will survive the winter moisture my yard has, I’d be better served with the ones native to the South. A lot of those really hardy Western desert plants can take incredibly cold temperatures and wild temperature swings, but a little water when it’s cold and they rot. Agaves are really bad about that in particular.
Yes, that set up you describe works well and what I used the first two years. Though my trees outgrew that this summer, so I had to switch over to a taller system. It allows me to drape a cover really easily. If forecast to drop below 25 I use a small heater set to activate at freezing. staying below freezing is very rare, on average 1 day each year.
My soil stays bone dry, it’s just beach sand here. My San Pedro is thriving
Idk what you call mandarin, since different people call them all mandarins but mostly satsumas. The only true mandarins I have in ground are Kishu and a Clementine
I have satsumas: Okitsu Wase, Owari, Browns select, Arctic Frost
Tangerines: Ponkan and Sunburst
Oranges: Cara Cara and Glen
All in ground about 3 years I guess, with the exception on the graft of Kishu and Clementine but those rootstocks were growing in ground for 2-3 years
Oh, you saw that San Pedro? That’s done very well there. Survived 18 unprotected last winter. We had a much larger stand at our land in Mendocino. Unfortunately it got something that turned them yellow and then the tallest began rotting and falling over. So I saved a few healthier pieces and this was one of them.
Here they were when the ey first started turning yellow. I told everyone it was a problem, but nobody believed me. Within a year they were all dead.
I never added it, but may swap some budwood with someone at some point in time. I was afraid it didn’t taste good haha
My arctic frost is likely going to get grafted over because it’s such a shy bearer
I’ve read conflicting reports about the clem x yuzu. Stan says it tastes like lemonade. Guy with YouTube channel says excellent. Few people on tropical fruit claim it’s inferior. I’m leaning towards getting it on account of the cold hardiness. Yuzu grows unprotected here so if the Clem x yuzu is even close to that it is worth it.
I live about 30 miles due north of Houston Texas. The USDA recently moved us into zone 9B (average winter low 25-30F), but we had lows of 17 F last January, 12 F in December 2022, and 9 F in February 2021 (somebody at USDA is smoking dope!). Anyway, I have been growing Citrus trees in-ground here for about 20 years and currently grow about 110 named varieties of Citrus (virtually all of them in-ground). I did not lose a single tree in the February 2021 freeze, thanks largely to 4 cubic yards of mounded wood mulch, moving blankets and tarps (no supplemental heat however). Prior to that devastating 2021 freeze, I regularly had fruit on 50+ Citrus varieties. In the fall of 2021, I had a few fruits on just 7 varieties! In spite of the subsequent hard freezes, my trees have slowly recovered some decent canopy, and this year I finally produced fruit on nearly 50 varieties again (although drought and varmints cut down the final number down somewhat). I made a montage this morning of this year’s varieties. Ping me with any questions. BTW, growing Citrus in-ground in this supposed-9B zone is not for the faint of heart.
[quote=“Johnsgard, post:516, topic:13564”] I live about 30 miles due north of Houston Texas. The USDA recently moved us into zone 9B (average winter low 25-30F), but we had lows of 17 F last January, 12 F in December 2022, and 9 F in February 2021 (somebody at USDA is smoking dope!). Anyway, I have been growing Citrus trees in-ground here for about 20 years and currently grow about 110 named varieties of Citrus (virtually all of them in-ground). I did not lose a single tree in the February 2021 freeze, thanks largely to 4 cubic yards of mounded wood mulch, moving blankets and tarps (no supplemental heat however). Prior to that devastating 2021 freeze, I regularly had fruit on 50+ Citrus varieties. In the fall of 2021, I had a few fruits on just 7 varieties! In spite of the subsequent hard freezes, my trees have slowly recovered some decent canopy, and this year I finally produced fruit on nearly 50 varieties again (although drought and varmints cut down the final number down somewhat). I made a montage this morning of this year’s varieties. Ping me with any questions. BTW, growing Citrus in-ground in this supposed-9B zone is not for the faint of heart.
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I looked and found some for sale at Madison Citrus. Then when I went to check out the website wanted to charge $65 per item for shipping. That has to be an error, no? I can’t imagine the shipping is nearly twice the cost of the tree.
