Would love to hear some good zone pushing stories from folks. I’m currently trying to grow peaches, nectarines, and sweet cherries in Minnesota. I’ve discovered that blackberries also are not a sure thing for my climate. But I’m trying. Basically would like to hear about successes, failures, and strategies used. Someday if I move to Georgia I’ll probably be trying to figure out a way to get a couple orange trees through the winter. In his intro, mksmith from Oklahoma mentioned he grows Citrus, love to hear more about that.
I’m growing figs which are generally going to be borderline for me in Zone 6b. I’ve been employing a couple tactics to get survival. The obvious, easy one is planting near the house when possible. I’ll be doing this with my Kaki persimmon in the spring.
My main thing is building rock walls around the plants, mostly on the North and East sides. Once they went dormant I tied the plants up, wrapped the trunks with spiral trunk protectors, and piled mulch up about 18-24". I don’t have a good picture handy at the moment. This my first winter doing this, so I can’t say how well it will work. I expect dieback, but if the trunks are fine I should still see good fruiting. I don’t think this is too applicable to stone fruits, but maybe it’ll spark an idea.
Wrapping and insulating is common enough for zone pushing, but I think that only gets you so far. Tony in NE had some good posts on his persimmons on GW about wrapping. Microclimates help too, such as nearby structures, windblocks, etc. Wrapping things in lights or even building structures around the plants can be done. There’s a guy in Bethlehem, PA who builds an insulated “house” out of carpets around his figs every winter.
Mike:
There is a guy in MN growing stone fruit in large pots, like 50-70 gal. He moves them each winter into an old highly insulated, unheated pig barn. Gets fruit every yr. It was written up in some trade publ a few yrs ago. His favorite peach was Saturn. Didn’t sell those.
Others in NE are growing fruit including citrus in pit greenhouses. Citrus In The Snow- Report
You could grow stone fruit in a pit greenhouse in MN. Just keep it from falling below zero in winter. Cover with poly spring and fall to fend off frost. In summer cover with bird netting to keep out pests and hail. Heating a pit GH to zero won’t cost much at all.
Mike, I do Citrus in North Georgia. About 16 trees of 12 types I think and there are many folks further north that do as well. Most everything is giving me fruit. You just need a strong back and Insulated unheated garage and a understanding wife.
Thanks Phil, Kelby. Great article fruit nut. For the blackberries, this year I tried the basic pin the canes down and cover with oak leaves. Last year 90% of the canes died back to the ground with no help from me. My current zone pushing strategy for stone fruit is like you Phil, bringing into the garage 1 peach and 1 nectarine in half whiskey barrels, wrapping them in plastic and turning on a light on especially cold nights. Outside I have 3 more peaches and a sweet cherry planted close together. Late fall I built a simple 2x4 frame and draped 2 layers of 6 mil plastic over the frame and all 4 trees, plus put in about 3 feet of leaves. On below 0 nights I turn on a 500 watt worklight. One night when it got to -16 it was 10 above in the tent. I also try to open the tent when its over 20 cause it will really heat up in there on sunny days if closed. strudel dog, when you take your trees out after months in the garage do you do it a little at a time, like 2 hrs one day, then 3, and so on to get them used to the sun? I was wondering the same about my tent, if I should slowly expose the trees to the sun more and more over several days, or not worry since they’re dormant? Opinions?
I won’t worry as long as dormant. It’s after bloom that 90% of spring damage occurs. You won’t get sunburn of wood or new leaves in early spring.
Thanks fruit nut, that’ll save a lot of hassle! About one more week of severe cold and then I can get out and start pruning and looking for signs of life on those trees.
Mike,
I doubt I do my shuffle correctly. I make no attempt to
acclimate. I just look for a span of at
least 3-4 days without lows below 30F and move them out. This year they have
spent almost all winter in a dark garage with light only from those small door
windows. They have not lost foliage and
look fine and ripening tasty fruit, although I am sure more light would improve
the fruit. Last year I put them initially into a large sun room across the back
of my house that I just had moved into. My favorite room in the house 3 sides
totally windowed 12x50 perfect for my citrus I thought arranged nicely looked
great fruiting. Few weeks in major leaf and fruit drop which I am pretty sure
was due to dry indoor heated air. As the doors to the room from the main house
are always open if I want to try that again I need to resolve so suggestions
are open. I tried misting daily with a squirt bottle but did not help. I might
try a humidifier for the house but not sure I might get vetoed on that, and not
sure it would be enough.
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Cool pic. Blood orange?
Yes that is a Moro Blood from a few weeks ago. I have hopes for large high tunnel within a few years. Fruit_nut’s posting have had me interested in them for years but it will be full of figs. for a citrus that stays small with small lemon like fruit I am in love with my Variegated Calmondin. So ornamental even the immature fruit is variegated, and it literally has fruit 365 days a year it seems if I don’t pick them all. Just squeeze and drop the whole fruit in water very refreshing.
Phil, you probably have a lot more experience than I do, but I’ll give you my guess/theory on the citrus in the sun room anyway and wait to be corrected. My theory/understanding is that for citrus trees (and probably a lot of tropical evergreens) there needs to be a balance of temperature and light. Even full sun in the winter isn’t very intense, so it’s better to slow the tree down with lower temperatures. Otherwise the tree just seems to be thrown out of balance looking for sunlight that isn’t there and leaf drop is the result.
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Cousin:
I agree on your citrus protocol. I mimic the weather in central valleys of CA. Winter highs in 50s and lows in 30s. Too many people want there trees to grow all winter. They warm too much and humidity is too low for available light level. My citrus doesn’t grow for 4 months in winter which suits me fine. Very limited leaf drop and only as it warms in spring.
Thanks Guys that makes sense for them doing better in the dark garage. I was dreaming of the smell of blooming citrus in my house all winter but I don’t want my sunroom in the 40s F
Phil, do you have any citrus planted in the ground? I’ve been wondering a little lately about removable winter protection for growing something like satsumas out in the open. I have one satsuma planted up against the house, and it’s made it through the last three winters (getting down to 3F last winter and 1F a couple nights ago) just fine with me covering it on the coldest nights. I’m wondering about better ways to do additional citrus, either covering once for the whole winter with something transparent (but that makes cold protection much more difficult) or something that I could easily take on and off whenever temperatures threatened to go much below 20.
Not really I do have a couple Poncirus trifoliata ( trifoliate orange ) in ground but am I am not counting it.
I’ve sworn off zone pushing. Also pH pushing (trying to grow blueberries with pH above 7).
I’m able to get peaches most of the time, but that’s just marginal, not zone pushing. Last year was an epiphany. Not a single killing frost, but like five of them. Even the crabapples didn’t make it. Yet, the ‘Glenora’ grape I grew set fruit OK and so did the ‘Caroline’ raspberry.
Growing adapted fruit is hard enough and rewarding enough. Why try and pull a rabbit out of the hat to go along with that?
When planting satsumas in areas that may be a little north of the recommended growing areas, it is important to grow them on the south side of the house. It may give a 3 to 5 degree increase in temperature. If not the house people will plant on the south side of a barn. I have 3 in the ground and 2 in pots, planted last year. I have noticed that the car port on the south side of the house is about 5 to 10 degrees warmer, according to pickup temp gauge.
Cousin, have you thought about planting the satsuma in containers and bringing them in on the coldest morning. There is also a new satsuma that is called Arctic Frost that is suppose to be hardy down to 12 to 15 degrees.
I’m pushing it a bit with 4 kaki persimmons and 4 muscadine grape vines. I’m in the process of rooting figs to add even more questionable plantings. But, I know that figs can reliably be protected in my area. After I started rooting the figs, I was talking to a co-worker and he said that his father and uncle (both immigrants from Italy) have been growing figs in the area for 30+ years. I’ve asked him to get the details on how they protect them.
Recently it hit -8, the lowest I’ve seen in the 5 years I’ve been here, so I’ll probably have some losses. But, like Ampersand, I piled mulch (wood-chips in my case) up against the trunks just before the cold weather started, so while I may have damage, I don’t think I’ll lose anything.
The muscadine vines were actually small enough that I could put them on the ground and cover them with chips. I did the same thing with some Marion and Boysenberry vines, which escaped from buckets and grew 10+ feet without me noticing until fall. If they produce well, maybe I’ll keep them there…
I do like to push the zone thing a bit. My Ichi and Nikika’s Gift Persimmons had endured the -18F in 2007 and -16F in 2013 with some died back to the 3rd year woods. Now I protected them by wrapping them up with surgical drapes, a light bulb hanging in the middle of the trunk and stuffed them with dried leaves in the lower portion of the tree. When the temperature dipped to -8F then I will turn the light on. Fruitnut and I agreed that the heat source is the determining factor for the survival of the kakis.
Tony
We zone push but its a little different than what you guys are doing. We grow subtropical fruit in a environment that doesnt otherwise support them. Mango mainly. We see lows here in the desert outskirts of Phoenix occasionally as low as 12 degrees. We can usually count on at least 30 night below freezing every winter. The solution for us is straw houses built around the tree with added heat inside controlled thermostatically with a heavy cover over the top. Ive often wondered why some of you guys in northern climates dont use the same tactics to zone push on peaches etc? Yes it requires that the tree can only be so large, but most of us are employing pruning techniques that make such things easily possible.
