OGW just listed these today.
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Thank youā¦
I am ordering today
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I put my āChangshaā mandarin to the test this winter. I left it out and unprotected. The lowest we hit here was 12F, but only briefly. The lowest sustained temperature was more like 14F, at least according to the closest weather station. Itās been thawed back out for a few days now, and I donāt see any super obvious signs of damage yet.
On a side note, I wish I could get a hold of the āprecocious trifoliateā, but where does one get this?
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Funny enough, this yearās fairly mild winter has killed my Changsha dead. For whatever reason, it failed to establish itself and lagged all my other plants for growth, and kept having issues with chlorosis. First hard freeze in the mid twenties knocked it back severely, and by the New Year all the leaves had fallen and the stem was mostly dull brown. After the recent cold spell into the upper teens, itās pretty toast.
I might try again with it, but honestly probably wonāt, my satsumas established themselves far better and have taken almost no damage (they did get more protection, but stillā¦). And given itās a parent of a number of trifoliate crosses, Iām not sure Iāve much use for it for breeding either.
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Iām curious about what was going on with the roots of your āChangshaā if you feel like digging it up and taking a look. Do you know what rootstock it was on?
It was on trifoliate or a trifoliate hybrid. Iāll wait until spring to see if anything still alive or if the rootstock is also dead and if so Iāll dig it up.
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We have a Kumquat that we have given up on twice. But, last year it began new growth in June.
How old/big was your changsha?
Oh nice, I just got my changsha from one green world. I was surprised at how small and expensive it was. Are you keeping it in a pot fulltime outside?
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Iām going to try planting Thomasville Citrangequat, Taiwanica lemon, and Nippon Orangequat in zone 7a. Iām hoping to grow acceptable lime/lemon substitutes for cooking. Do rabbits and deer try to destroy citrus (like they do everything else including joy)?
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Iāve never seen a varmint of any sort near my trifoliate orange plants. Something about 3 inch spikes all over a plant seems to deter them.
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Yeah I canāt imagine any animal messing with them ever.
I have three Pink Frost Grapefruit trees and know the owners of a commercial citrus farm in SE Georgia who have about 500 trees. Pink Frostās cold tolerance is similar to if not a little better than any of the more cold tollerant satsumas as best as we can tell. My three-year-old trees at the time took three hours of 16F during the Christmas freeze two years ago. The following evening we were hit with 19F and temperatures did not go above freezing for a three-day period. All I did for protection was cut pool noodles in half and taped them around the trunks, saturated the ground under the trees with water and sat a large tub of water under the trees. All the trees including the satsumas lost all their leaves. Some of the softer twigs on the Pink Frost Grapefruits were nipped. But the trees did not lose any limbs, and there was no damage to the trunks. To my knowledge the second most cold tolerant commercially available grapefruit strain is Ruby Red. I have a tree hugged up to the south facing wall of my house. It was a much older, larger tree than the Pink Frosts. Over a third of the tree was killed by the 3 hours of 16 F with the additional protection. Would a Pink Frost take 0F? I very much doubt it. I also doubt it would handle 16F if it were actively growing or had a lot of tender fall growth on it. But itās still by far the most cold hardy grapefruit I know anything about.
To my knowledge, Georgia Grown Citrus remains the only company with the rights to propagate and sell it. Although I think they supply some garden centers in Georgia. I donāt know about other states. The folks at Franklin Farms in Statesboro Georgia say that their Pink Frost Grapefruit Trees that were over 3 years old handled the freeze better than any of their other citrus including the satsumas. But they had a bunch of newly planted trees that were killed. In addition they said that other growers across South Georgia had their mature trees wiped out.
Generally, I would say that you can grow Pink Frost Grapefruit in a Georgia 8b climate without any protection most years. But it can get cold enough here to require some protection some years.
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Yeah unfortunately they wonāt ship them out of Georgia, I wanted to get one. Glad to hear yours is thriving.
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That will probably change eventually. Since the strain was developed at the University of Georgia, Georgia Farmers are getting a head start. But that restriction wonāt last forever, and there is enough money to be made in Gulf Coast States that someone will buy rights to sell there eventually. The last thing that needs to be said about Pink Frost is that it is a much sweeter grapefruit than Ruby Red. Itās also earlier ripening by about a month. Itās way too good, and there is way to much money to be made from it for it to remain a Southern Georgia novelty for very long.
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All really good to hear. I donāt like grapefruit but I love citrus and growing it, so plan to add some grapefruit to my collection next year.
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The lady I spoke to at the Franklinās Farm stand said that she thought that she did not like grapefruit until she tried a Pink Frost. I have had a sweeter grapefruit than the ones on my tree right now. But those were Rio Reds I picked myself in Florida while at peak ripeness. The fruit on my trees still have greenish skin and are already sweeter than any grapefruit I have bought at a store, ever. Once we get a nip of frost, they will color up and become even sweeter. The only bad part is that when the fruit on my Ruby Red ripens, I will have been spoiled by a much sweeter strain of grapefruit. A friend of mine came by the house to buy a Byron Gold Plum tree from me last week. She asked me what kind of grapefruit I had because she was thinking of buying a Pink Frost. I told her that they were Pink Frost and that while the skin was still green, they were ripe enough for her to try one. When she did her face lit up and she said, āOh my God, thatās the best tasting grapefruit I have ever eaten!ā I told her. āI know. Just imagine what they will be like when they are actually ripe.ā
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I was thinking about buying one, but was unsure of the ripening time. Do they ripen before December normally?
They are ripening now. The ones on my trees are still greenish looking but super sweet. The ones that Franklin Farms had at the farmers market were fully colored up but were not quite as sweet as mine. Itās possible that they picked theirs early and had them in storage since they ship most of their fruit out of state. Itās common for the commercial guys to pick fruit green and hit it with methane when they are ready to sell it. Donāt get me wrong, the one I bought from Franklins was delicious. But the one I tasted yesterday looked like these in the second photo and was much sweeter despite the green look.
Oh, just a note. Pink Frost was made available to commercial growers about 3 years before they were available to hobbyists. So, the oldest Franklinās Farms trees are three years ahead of mine. I spoke with the owner of the company three years ago and asked how his Pink Frost Grapefruits were doing. He said that even when half green the fruit is five percent higher in sugar content than his Ruby Red ever get, and when fully ripe itās more like 10% higher. He said that they get sweet enough early enough for him to harvest them all before there is any danger of fruit damage from an early freeze, and he can beat similar quality Florida grapefruit to the market by a month on account of Pink Frost becoming so sweet so early. That 16F freeze happened the winter after he planted the additional 500 trees and killed all the baby Pink Frosts. But the mature trees sailed through it with very little damage. So, maturity of the tree matters a lot when it comes to cold hardiness.
Iām about to attach two photos. The first is of the fully colored up fruit from Flanklinās Farm which I bought at the farmers market this morning. The colored up fruit is golden yellow with blush highlights. The second is of the fruit hanging on one of my two trees taken this afternoon. My hunch is that the one at the farmers market was picked early and hit with methane since mine are sweeter despite still being green looking. Iām confident that mine will color up in a week or so. It would happen overnight with just a nip of frost. Generally, Franklins start selling Pink Frost before Thanksgiving and Ruby Reds in December. Ruby Reds must be picked riper to be sweet.
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