Scott, FWIW, I have a friend who experimented with Trifoliate, Carrizo, and Thomasville in ground in the western Kentucky area, zone 6 with low temp down to -10 degrees. The report after 3 years: the Thomasville struggled after the first season and died after the last winter, the Carrizo is alive but is not thriving, and the Tifoliate is growing like a weed.
3 Likes
Hmm, I’d agree with the placement of a lot of these but a few strand out. Carrizo is probably only hardy to about zero, Thomasville I feel like is a bit less hardy, maybe to about five degrees.
Hirado Bundan is said to be the hardiest pomelo by UCR, but they don’t say how hardy it is. Kinkoji is hardy into the teens according to Stan McKenzie. Meyer lemon should also be rated better, low twenties at least.
It’s not on your list but some people are saying Sugarbelle is unusually hardy, perhaps equalling satsumas in hardiness.
Oh, and Meyer lemon has monoembryonic seed.
6 Likes
Thanks for the comments (You too Lukester). I should have mentioned that this list was compiled for SE Texas gardeners in the Conroe TX area, where the all-time record low temperature is 3 F. The three rootstocks I included on the list are probably reliably hardy down to 3 F. I will revise my table of hardiness values and seed embryony accordingly.
The other criteria I used was that the varieties I included must be legally available for purchase in SE Texas. I grow Sugarbelle (raised from a seed), but budwood for it is not available through the Texas Citrus Budwood Program. The same is true for the TDE hybrids and some other excellent California varieties. I felt there was no point in showing gardeners some excellent Citrus varieties if they couldn’t go out and buy them somewhere (legally).
6 Likes
Can you not buy Sugarbelle in Texas? I can and likely will buy it legally. Need something to die first or along those lines to fit it in.
Is there a reason to grow Sugarbelle over Honeybell besides greening tolerence? I always thought that Honeybell got higher marks for taste and that the big shift to Sugarbelle here was that it deals better with disease.
Texas has commercial groves, so it has alot of restrictions for what can be brought in, like Florida and Cali do. North Carolina doesn’t seem to have the same rules. Citrus movement is pretty strict.
I’m aware of the regs just I know that’s in shipping to or from those states. Assumed a nursery in Texas would carry it.
The cold tolerance seems to be at least but pointing towards colder tolerance than Satsumas.
That’s what I have for my citrus. I built it off the garage. There’s also a concrete paver patio that generates lots of heat too.
4 Likes
Impressive work in Northern Houston! You may have more varieties now than John Panzarella as he lost many during the 2021 freeze.
Reagrading the cold hardiness, Hamlin orange should be more cold hardy than others, may be down to 18F? Also Bloomsweet may be down to 15F according to Stan McKenzie website.
Yes, John Panzarella’s collection has seen better days. A few years ago during a bad drought the water in Oyster Creek he irrigates his Citrus trees from turned brackish (unknown to him at the time), killing or weakening many of his trees. Then the February 2021 freeze (I think he reached 12 F) finished even more off. I am not sure quite how many varieties he still has (nor does he). I am down to about 110-120, after this past summer’s drought killed about 10 of my trees (with no “back-ups” in containers).
I agree Hamlin is pretty hardy. My in-ground Hamlin took 17 F on two consecutive nights last January (canopy unprotected) with only defoliation and late fall growth twigs killed.
Bloomsweet could be debated. Dr. Bob Randall (southwest Houston near Meyerland) lost his two 25’ tall Bloomsweet trees entirely in 2021 (stumps are about 12” in diameter). Mine (mulch-banked and tarped) froze back to mulch last January at 17 F. It is certainly better than true grapefruits, but not sure exactly how much.
2 Likes
I agree that Hirado is a pretty good bet. It is my personal favorite of about 8 pummelo and pummelo hybrids that I grow. It survived our 9 F freeze (36 hours below freezing) in 2021 with banked mulch, a moving blanket, and a plastic tarp above that. Love the taste. Here is a photo of peeled samples of my Hirado (pink) and Sarawak (pale green) fruit last month. The Hirado almost always wins informal taste tests between the two.
6 Likes
Our Citrus laws in Texas are pretty restrictive. All Citrus trees grown for sale in Texas must be grown from budwood obtained from the State’s Certified Budwood Program, which now has fewer than 100 varieties on it (it used to have about 140). Many of the cultivars are either in “limited supply” (so commercial growers don’t offer those) or licensed varieties (so only commercial growers can buy them, not individuals). There are only 3 licensed commercial Citrus growers in SE Texas (all trees must be grown in expensive, well-protected, and regularly-inspected screenhouses), so there are no more mom & pop Citrus growers. Budwood is $2/bud, 10 buds per variety minimum, and overnight shipping is mandatory. Gone are the days of cleft grafting a budwood order! Citrus trees and scions cannot be imported into the state legally (has been this way for decades) unless brought in through our state budwood program, and getting a Texas “photo-certificate” for certified budwood (from say California’s Citrus budwood program) adds an additional $300 for each cultivar as of a few years ago (probably more now). At Texas Rare Fruit Growers scion exchanges we quit swapping Citrus budwood years ago.
3 Likes
Half a bucket of wild sour oranges. Still got alot of oranges on the trees oranging up. When I fill it up, I’ll be using them to make sour orange juice for mojo, and using the better looking peels to make arancello.
5 Likes
Yum. Pretty cool!
My Ponkan tree that was mostly killed in the 2021 freeze. Recovered with >100 fruits in 2023 and 2024.
Harvest from my Dekopan tree purchased from John Panzarella maybe late 2021. First year to have fruits. Possums collected the other half of the fruits.
9 Likes
How are the Dekopons tasting? I live in the Houston area and wonder how they ripen up.
They tasted great! Very juicy and not overly sweet. Better than store bought sumo shipped from california. I harvested them early because of the cold front last week. Not yet fully ripe. So could be better if left on the tree until end of January or beginning of February.
Also the fully ripen ponkan tasted great! Better than any citrus in store in Houston!
4 Likes
Mind sharing some pictures for “moving blanket and tarp”? Seems to be effective for large citrus trees? Do you have heating sources under the trees?
As the bigger cold front coming this weekend, try to learn everything to protect my trees.
Here are a couple pages about Citrus freeze protection from my formal presentation on growing Citrus in Southeastern Texas. My 80” x 72” moving blankets are from Harbor Freight at circa $7 each. I have a stack of about 50 of them in my garage that acquired in February 2021 and used again in Dec. 2022 and Jan. 2023. I have not hauled them out this month and probably won’t. No supplemental heat added (other than heat from the fresh mulch). I have hundreds of Citrus trees, so adding a heat source to each would cost far too much and take far too long to set up. I checked the temperature inside a freshly “mulched” Key Lime next to the trunk in 2021 (air temp was 30 F and dropping), and it was 130 F at the trunk!
4 Likes
For reference, it dropped to 9 F here in Feb. 2021, 12 F here in 2022, and 17 F last January. My low here so far this winter is 28.8 F. Downright balmy by comparison.
3 Likes
I think Dekopon (aka Shiranui, Sumo) are probably the very best Mandarin that can be grown in SE Texas. Ponkan is also excellent (a bit more seedy), and amazingly productive here (I have had to build 8’ tall tripods to support my Ponkan trees when loaded with fruit to prevent snapping off the entire trunk!). Both Shiranui and Ponkan, along with Kishu, make my list of Best Citrus for SE Texas. Here is a photo of my Shiranui fruit last month:
8 Likes