Can they be treated like potted figs and brought into the garage to overwinter? I was specifically interested in a small Meyer lemon but am open to other varieties.
Are you referring to plants in the Genus Citrus, or members of the broader family Rutaceae?
Unlike figs citrus grow year around and need light and pest controls. Meyer lemons are extremely hard to grow. Citrus is generally hard to grow in zone 6 unless you live in cloudless winter areas.
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Sure I have done it a lot. Grapefruit / pomelo / oranges/ lemons all make great house plants. They do need a sunny window. If you want to take it up a notch try satsuma which will be new to me All about Satsuma oranges
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I’ve been wondering about if like some of the trifoliate hybrids, because supposedly some can get their leaves froze off and after it warms up again for them they grow and fruit like nothing ever happened. So if they don’t have leaves they don’t need light?
Also possibly the desert lime how they naturally regularly lose their leaves when it gets dry and regrow when watered and s3t fruit.
And also the prague chimera in that the trifoliate part of it makes it go dormant and drop its leaves in the winter.
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They can be grown in zone 6 we are close to trifoliata’s cutoff range which is -15 f to -20F for a few
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I have an Cara Cara Orange tree. While my figs go dormant and take up the garage the Orange stays under lights. So far it blooms for me I the middle of winter and I pollinate it with a snack paint brush. I have friends that also have Citrus grown indoors, but they aren’t going to go dormant like or figs.
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Like all people I consider myself open-minded, and tried trifoliate orange growing on a local tree hoping it would be something citrusy/sour I could work with at least in the kitchen.
They’re not. They’re pretty awful. The fruits are furry like a peach. The interior is almost entirely seeds. They’re very sour, but also bitter, but also very piney, but also don’t contain much juice for their size. If you cut them with a knife, the knife gets covered in pine tar-like resin that soap will not help remove. And if you juice them anyway you’ll need to wait for the resin to float to the top to separate it out to make the juice somewhat palatable. And the resin seems to make some people sick for like a day after ingesting it.
Most of the 50% hybrids that are out there don’t taste very good. “The Mulberries” on YT along with RareNJGrows and Virginia Fruit Grower have some pretty good videos on a lot of the hybrids and relatively hardier citrus worth checking out, but they’re in I think 7b to 8b? And a lot of stuff still has significant die back (or just regular dying).
Growing citrus indoors you may have to deal with mites, scale, and the plant being unhappy about the very low humidity and lack of strong light.
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I’ve seen Calamondin grown and fruit as a house plant in winter and outside spring through fall.
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If you put the effort in to take care of them, make sure they have enough light in winter, and that they don’t freeze when there is fruit or blossoms…yes. I’ve gotten decent crops off my Meyer lemons before when I paid more attention to them
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I’ve grown Meyer lemon down to 30F. Well, stored it, it didn’t grow until spring. If they have fruit I move the indoors fro the winter most of the time. Typically I rotate them so half get to stay in heated space to ripen fruit. IOthers store in a crawl space in the dark. Usually they drop their leaves. I also grow grapefruit in the same manner, and they never lose their leaves in the dark. Obviously I have to prune them short or lay them down. Olives are the most amazing. They easily go down to 28F, and never lose their leaves in 4 months of total dark. Mine are blooming now, and in a hot year they do mature fruit. I make a hobby of such cold defying just to see.
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I’ve tried to grow Meyer lemon in zone 6 and it’s been a complete failure.
I keep it in my yard in the spring and summer, where it tends to do well. Late October early November is usually when I get first frost so I bring it bring it onto my deck then as the deck is a few degrees warmer.I only bring it indoors when the temp will be a few degrees below frost.
My first year I kept my citrus on my first floor with a grow light. Despite scale and other issues I actually got a couple of fruit that year but my wife hated the grow light so I relegated it to a grow tent in my basement the next winter. My basement gets down to 45 in the winter and super dry and even though my grow tent is a bit warmer and slightly more humid, by the time March comes by the bush is completely defoliated and it takes several months in the spring to bounce back.
It would probably fare much better in a heated greenhouse or even a sunroom. But seems like a lot of work for not a ton of reward.
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I would switch the meyer lemon for a hardier type. A 10 degree tangerine might gain you some hardiness if you want to continue doing what you are now. 10F and colder tolerable fruit quality citrus - #11 by clarkinks . I do think a greenhouse could be worth your time long term. It is not going to be a fast return on investment.
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Meyers are more cold hardy than folks think if you take a bunch of precautions, including strategic pruning to encourage shorter thicker branches, keep close to a building and keep on top of bricks or pavement to boost heat, keep out of highly exposed areas where either frost pockets settle or more importantly wind doesn’t attack it, fertilize less to try to limit lots of new growth, move into storage any time it gets into the 21-22 range but keep outside in the sun as much as possible if above that, supplement with a light in your indoor spot. I’ve treated my Meyer that way for years and it’s been totally happy during winter. The only time I’ve seen it unhealthy was when I up-potted it too aggressively and it got root rot. Also you need to watch out for over production when young.
I’d consider either a Meiwa or Fukushu kumquat on trifoliate/Flying Dragon for an easier alternative. Especially Meiwa grows incredibly slowly which makes wood lignification so much easier. It’s simpler to apply all of the precautions and storage on a tree that stays tiny. Thomasville citrangequat best other option imo.
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For some reason they like to sell Meyer lemons near me. I guess it’s somewhat cold hardy, but not very.
I will be moving to 7a, which is not a huge change. My
Wife wants a greenhouse for the next place. Not sure I’d get bigger than 7x7 or 10x7. I imagine I’ll have to have some heating in place for when it goes below 25 outside. At the winter solstice the sun will be pretty low and don’t think it will heat the greenhouse very much.
Id prefer fruit for fresh eating so I’d probably get owari satsuma.
I’d consider yuzu/yuja. Though it seems it’s mostly used for cooking/tea, which is nice but not sure it’s worth the effort for that so I may try a second fresh eating citrus from McKenzie.
For reference my favorite citrus in the store are
- Sumo
- Satsuma
- Those small mandarins they sell in big bags.
- Cara Cara.
- Valencia Orange
I hate anything remotely grapefruit. Don’t love kumquat except once in a while. Don’t remember liking tangerine at least compared to mandarin though it’s been years and it’s possible my tastes have changed and I don’t mind tart (for example I will eat tart cherries straight from the tree )
I’ve been watching millennial gardener’s videos about cold protection and he seems to have a lot of good info. I believe he’s an engineer, which translates well to his approach.
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I think you are on the right track with owari or maybe browns select. If you use his bagging and Christmas lights trick that’s great. I have a trick to add which is use an outlet to kick on your protection based on temperature like this one Amazon.com: 2 Packs Thermostatically Controlled Outlet, On at 32°F/Off at 50°F Plug in Thermostat Controlled Outlet Switch for Heater, Waterproof Temperature Control Outlet Extension Cord for Freeze Protect : Industrial & Scientific
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People do this with citrus, actually a cool garage will put them in a dormant- like state (they won’t try to grow and will kind of just sit there). Some people put the pots on wheels and open the garage door when it’s above 40 to let them get some sun. The biggest issue with container citrus will be root rot and leaf drop, if the roots are too cool but the top of the tree is warm from lighting or what have you the leaves will drop. Meyer lemons are notorious for winter leaf drop once the pots are indoors. If you can get the mix and temperature right then it’s possible to keep it happy, but I dont consider it an easy plant. Another issue you will run into once inside are spider mite and aphids as well as scale. They definitely need attention unlike a fig that will go dormant and can “sleep” indoors as long as the temperature stays cool. I keep my remaining (remaining as I’ve lost several over the years) potted citrus in a grow tent in the basement with some overhead LED lighting. Root rot and pests are my biggest issue. The trees look haggard by the end of the winter. Definitely not my favorite plants to grow in a pot. Planting cold hardy tasty varieties (like kumquats and Thomasville hybrid) in a greenhouse outdoors in the ground will be much easier with some supplemental heating for the coldest nights.
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Thanks. I’ll look into those outlets. I also have an inkbird temp controller that I can use to turn on heat below a certain set point. I already use those for my seedling heating pad (to turn off above 90 or so, so that they don’t get too dry from excess heat).
What’s a good heat source to use in a greenhouse ?
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Before you make another move I would fully review this thread as heat and cold is always the issue in colder zones
https://growingfruit.org/t/greenhouse-putting-it-all-together/81737/20
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Thanks for all the info. I think my wife would go nuts if I dug out a huge pit for a wallapini greenhouse though.
I’ll have to look more into those links you posted
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