I already planted in ground a Flying Dragon and some sort of trifoliate citrus but am looking for something at least close to edible to plant. So, anybody growing citrus in ground in zone 5b/6a?
I’m proud to say have several Flying Dragon seedlings (thanks to Lucky)……
but if you want limes or naval oranges…better have a room in the house for them with good light and high humidity during the winter!
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A couple people around me have meyer lemons in pots that are outside in the summer and overwinter in heated greenhouses. Im 5b in western NY. Thats about the only way for them to stay alive this far north.
I’ve got 2 poncirus here in Michigan. They are not the Flying Dragon variety, just straight species. I get fruit off one each year (the other is fruiting for the first time this year). I’ve had a couple citrus in pots that I brought in and out for years, but my last one a finger lime seems to have died back to the rootstock this past winter.
Besides poncirus varieties, there are no citrus that will live outdoors in anything colder than zone 8, or maybe a VERY protected zone 7b.
Scott
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Do any of the cold hardy citrus have any uses?
They are ornamental and taste horrible like battery acid.
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Vlad, I had similar ideas for a while. While doing my research, I stumbled upon Thomasville citrangequat:
https://www.houzz.com/discussions/1818226/thomasville-citrangequat-zone-6b-success
I contacted Stan McKenzie, and he was out of them. For now, I’m growing a bunch of trifolate orange seedlings and hoping to use some of them as rootstock for my future forays into citrus growing.
I’m in a narrow strip of 6b in a sea of 6a (so, practically 6a)
thomasville is awful tasting
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Worse than poncirus trifoliate?
Scott
Not as bad as trifoliate but bad enough not to taste a second time as thomasville is 1/3 trifoliate. `1/3 of a bad taste is still bad. In 2000 I bought a thomasville tree with fruit. When I got home and tasted the fruit I thought, “who in their right mind would sell this as edible?”
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