No flowers yet for any of my in ground Citrus.
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Iām very interested in your observations as they progress.
Iāve got a Yuzu and Sudachi on Flying Dragon, both completely unprotected out in the open. Now also a couple of Shangjuan Lemon Iāve grafted to Flying Dragon.
I think the Yuzu made 3 fruit 1 year. Itās been in the ground for 8 years or so I think. My first Yuzu died to the ground when it was really small, and when the rootstock grew back it eventually got grafted to one of the Shangjuans.
Iāve had no luck air layering Yuzu, and my couple of half-assed budding attempts failed. Shangjuan Lemon grafts took easily.
A Yuzu trimming stuck in the ground next to the tree, maintained green leaves for more than 12 months and had a little leaf growth, but no hint of rooting when I eventually went to transplant it. I was sure it had roots before I dug it up.
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Yuzu will die in the snow and cold. The snow, if allowed to gather around the base will freeze the tree and kill it. I am talking about a mature 7 year old tree that died in last yearās freeze.
With minimal protection however, they can easily survive in zone 8. Zone 7 may be possible also with heavy protection. Unprotected? Forget it.
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Have no problem growing citrus in a pot but it is very hard to grow citrus in the ground here.
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I have two trifoliate from the tree in Birmingham Alabama growing in my yard. I had a few more planted, but hot dry summer killed a few of them. These have survived a 6 inch deep ice and snow layer 2 years ago and they survived 0 degrees 3 weeks ago.
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nature is mean, the only really cold hardy citrus /poncirus is trifoliata and has this unpleasant taste. which is further inherited in the hybrids.
i have a poncirus which is said to have less turpentine taste so you can drink the juice after a night in the fridge they say.
I wonder instead of breeding half borderline hybrids if one could breed the turpentine flavor out of poncirus. even if itās more complicated because most of the seeds are nucellarā¦
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Mellineal Gardnerā¦ Zone 8a winter protection success.
Mandarin orange, myer lemon, avacado.
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Five degrees protection on a small tree. And even in 8a he needs that a dozen times a year. Then he needs a lot more than 5F and on a much bigger tree, for a decent amount of fruit, at least a few times a year.
I need 20 or more every winter numerous times on a big tree. Just get a greenhouse, generator, and two heaters if you want to grow citrus in zone 7 or colder. Or spend a 100K or more to get a small version of the one in Nebraska.
Or eat pears and apples that do well in zone 4-8.
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Maybe the turpentine is the antifreeze.
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Iāve only tasted fruit from one C. trifoliata tree and it made fine juice with no turpentine flavor. Iām trying to decide where to plant one of its seedlingsā¦
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The resin/turpentine flavorā¦ or how you call it.
I wonder if it is possible to breed it out without losing the cold hardiness, than at least there is real cold hardy ālemonā but 
It seems that all hybrid attempts for a ārealā cold hardy tasty ācitrusā fails. So maybe trying different attempts
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The only way that the hybrids āfailā is that theyāre still too sour for fresh eating. Thats why Iām advocating for using a bland low acid parent in such crosses. If you cross pleasant acid level with high acid level the results have been too sour for fresh eating.
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Yeah, it could help both to breed a poncirus with less turpentine/resin/sour taste for breeding or as a cold hardy ālemonā alternative
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What became of the SanCitChang complex hybrid of Donās in OKC?
It survived outdoors for years near Oklahoma City, had citrange, kumquat, mandarin genes. Don remarked he didnāt like itās āspicyā kumquat flavor, he preferred sweet orange taste. I havenāt heard anything about it in the past 10+ years. I donāt think itās listed on the Citrus Pages website, either.
Hope itās not a lost clone
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I donāt think Iāve tasted the Flying Dragon juice, but if its anything like Makrut/Thai Lime juice Iām afraid to taste it.
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Itās also not impossible for a tree to be planted in a warmer location than the owner thinks it is, a lot of people do not actually check the actual temperature at the actually tree, either trusting the closest weather station, or checking another part of the property, also citrus is very sensitive to wind during cold weather. Limit the wind, and they can handle colder.
Another thing, lets say it was 11 degrees Fahrenheit, 11 degrees Fahrenheit despite lots of heat releasing from lets say a building, is not as bad as 11 degrees Fahrenheit with no heat releasing.
One thing that I noticed about cold hardiness claims of citrus, often those claims are, does the temperature kill the plant? No, then itās cold hardy down to that temperature. It does not mean no die back, it does not mean youād get a crop.
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Be VERY afraid. The juice I tried 2 years ago was spit-out-da-mouf bad.
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Makrut is not that bad, I grow it and it is just sour. But the FD fruit is not edible, really bad tasting fruit. I grow it just to plant the seeds of FD for dwarf rootstock.
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Yeah, you will definitely need a greenhouse set up for any edible citrus in zone 7. You will be able to do poncirus trilofata outside as thatās hardy to -20 Fahrenheit. But, honestly, they are an inferior fruit. I only use the seeds to grow rootstock for my other citrus grafts. Though it is a striking plant and I love it as an ornamental.
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There are good cold hardy citrus. They just arenāt the sweet kind. Iām particularly fond of the sudachi. They taste like high quality limes with a floral scent. A type of yuzu and a most excellent citrus fruit that can definitely be grown in zone 8. The ichandrin is also excellent tasting. The problem with the ichandrin is the seeds. Itās also worth noting that Japan and Jeju island in South Korea have prolific commercial sweet citrus and those regions often get snow in the winter.
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