I have 1 Meyer Lemon and 1 Midknight Valencia Sweet Orange, I would not call myself a citrus fanatic. Maybe some day.
I’ve got a few inground citrus (2 lemons, 2 limes). I’m impressed you’ve had success with the navel oranges even with a green house with your lack of summer heat.
I’ve got a Meyer lemon (about 3 feet tall) and an Australian finger lime (4+ feet tall in pots. The lemon already has 5 fruit on it.
I also have a few poncirus in the ground and my largest has 6-10 blooms on it right now…
And I’m in Michigan
Scott
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Any idea where I could find some Satoka scion?
speaking of which, @chills and @ross are undoubtedly two out-of-zoners you could exchange notes with @UrbanAggie
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I keep meaning to post a pic of my finger lime for you.
Maybe next to the grill, for scale. I’ve been moving it in and out the past 2 nights, it’s on it’s own tonight, low should only be around 42.
Scott
I’ve been growing them for about 8 years now. This year I have planted a Meyer and satsuma in the ground and plant to build a temp hoop house over them for winter. If I perfect this technique I’ll do more of the more sensitive and valuble to me trees
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can’t wait to see it! Our finger lime lost its leaves last winter(outdoors and unsheltered), and just now leafing out, so worried it might be a bit delayed in overall photosynthesis for this growing season.
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That’s weird. None of my citrus drop any leaves in the winter. They are evergreen.
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we get several hours of sub-freezing temps here almost every winter, or at least at this side of las vegas.
our meyer lemons do the same as well, while oranges and tangerines die-bac quite severely, often getting smaller than its overall size when first obtained(shipped from california).
kumquats, trifoliates, and calamondins are the only ‘evergreen’ and non-shrinking citrus may grow unsheltered here.
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I’m surprised Vegas got that cold. I’m also in 9B and assumed the climates were similar.
How cold did the finger lime take? (I just carried mine in and out for days because it was threatening frost.
As promised.
The pot is 18 inches tall. Just standing the plant is taller than me 5’6"
The stem is just over an inch thick
Scott
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that is so impressive @Chills. Quite incredible, considering your zone. Am sure your neighbors would pay to take selfies with it!
btw, our finger lime endured several hrs of 27F, or probably a little colder.
will do get 15F’s here every now and then, so i guess it hasn’t seen the worst…
btw, @Calron, there are some tree-sized citrus(meyer lemons) i see here in vegas, but quite few and far in between. Am sure those were protected by their owners the first several years. I have also seen some of them(big ones) succumb to a severe arctic spell, my neighbor’s being one of them, so being tree-sized does not exactly insure any citrus from vegas’ hard freezes.
below is the little docu of our little finger lime
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I purchased an Owari Satsuma last year and then was given a Meyer Lemon, Persian Lime and Washington Navel by a person who was tired of growing them (since they bothered his stomach when he ate them) and left them out in sub freezing weather (so I guess they are ‘rescues’, LOL). They were large and I struggled to get them in the house as more cold weather was coming and I had no clue how to prune them with fruit on them. They dropped leaves, but now they are all coming back great. Just today I was ‘summer pruning’ them to get them down to ‘door size’.
I also have Poncirus in ground from which rooted cuttings quite easily. I wanted to try grafting the other varieties onto it to give as gifts. Is poncirus a suitable rootstock for these other varieties?
Whoops. I also wanted to ask if anyone here has successfully grafted citrus and when and by what method?
yes, and may just be the only option if you’re out of zone and worried about cold feet. That you have an in-ground and established poncirus is awesome news! since all you need worry about is insulating or keeping the above-ground grafts from freezing
Thanks Raf, but if I graft a Meyer Lemon to a poncirus rootstock, I’d still need to bring it inside, right? We got down to 9 deg F this last winter and single digits is not uncommon for us.
you could use smaller poncirus suckers, plant them in-ground(since you’ve proven your poncirus hardy to your area for several winters already), and then graft them over with meyer lemon.
you could then adorn your meyer lemon grafts with incandescent xmas lights during winter.
if you’re ok to spend a bit on plastic domes/mini-greenhouses from big lots or harborfreight, you could keep them relatively warm during winter with far less power consumption. Bringing plants in and out your house is still the safest way, but there might be a time when you’d get tired having to do it. Also wouldn’t hurt to try fielding a few ‘sacrificial’ citrus with the least energy consumption, meanwhile.
you could also graft meyers onto your poncirus tree, but will be more difficult to put a dome over if you are trying to skimp on xmas lighting power consumption.
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almost certain single digits will kill meyers. Here, our meyers have survived15F’s unsheltered and unheated, but dieback is pretty much the norm. So the specimens only have static growth, if not actually shrinking in size, depending on severity of the arctic spells
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I guess this is the right thread for this, I just learned about a hybrid rootstock that is clay soil, wet soil and drought resistant, it’s a 2014 variety still in quarantine. It’s called ‘US-942’, it should be available from Riverside https://npgsweb.ars-grin.gov/gringlobal/accessiondetail.aspx?id=1917023
You can see information about it here http://www.crec.ifas.ufl.edu/extension/citrus_rootstock/Rootstock_Literature/rootstock-print-11x14-v3.pdf