Those are great ideas. I love the idea of picking fresh fruit for such a long time. We have a long season of warm/hot weather here, and some cold blasts on occasion, but I can protect them when that happens every 5 yrs or so.

Evan knows his stuff....you should see his garden! Good luck. Please let us know how it works out and when you plant your trees, show us pics!

I'm going to start with a lemon and lime in front of the house, and then plan where to put oranges and mandarins on the side. Semi-shade herb garden is going in front too; full-sun herb/veggie garden is already in back, but there's too much sun for some herbs. Hopefully I will finally be able to grow cilantro; so tired of having to buy it in the store. Thanks for the advice.

You can always check with your local ag extension to find out what grows best in your area. My trees are in ground and they handle 120 degree weather in the summer and temps down to the mid 20's at night for a few hours during the winter with little to no damage. So if your temps are similar to mine and you can protect if necessary than your trees will be fine. Also, make sure you visit a reputable and knowledgeable local nursery that knows about the type of rootstock your trees are on, that is key to your citrus' success. If your tree is not grafted to the right rootstock suitable to your area and soil type you will end up with a slow growing tree that never produces fruit, or worse , withers/ rots away and dies.

Evan

Santa Teresa should be great since u prefer more acidic lemon. as for keylime it's a very prolific producer but if u preferred larger size check if u get giant keylime in TX. it's a sport of keylime supposed to have same flavour but larger size

Evan,

I really appreciate your comments. I'm a good veggie and herb grower but I'm ignorant about citrus trees. Can you give me a tutorial on rootstock, or point me to a resource?

Sure, citrus trees on their own roots are succeptable to certain types of foot rot, root rot and various other diseases. Citrus growers and researchers figured out they could graft certain types of rootstock (the roots in the ground) to citrus scions (the leaves and tree you see above ground) together to help resist those diseased and bad traits that the normal citrus tree can't deal with. Hence, grafted citrus trees. Through this research they also figured out what traits were favorable and that they could control the size of the trees as well, a normal citrus tree on its own roots or a standard sized type root stock can grow to 30' tall by 30' wide or larger. The rootstock I prefer is semi dwarf which will produce a tree about 2/3 the size of a standard tree, but even that can take 15-20 years, they also have dwarfing rootstock that will keep a tree to around 8'-10' tall at maturity. Something else that grafting does is "trick" the tree into thinking it's older than it is because you're taking a branch or new growth from a mature tree and grafting it to rootstock and will start producing fruit much sooner than say a seedling. Here is a website that I use frequently for reference on citrus varieties and general info and is a good starting point. Keep in mind these trees are in California and what they write may not necessarily pertain to Texas, for that I think Texas A&M has a site and research center as well, not 100% sure though. Welcome to the citrus forum by the way, were glad to have new folks here.

http://www.citrusvariety.ucr.edu/varieties.html

Evan

I live about 100 miles east of you (maybe a bit less as the crow flies in 8b just a few miles from the 9a line. Around here traditionally the only really "safe" outdoor edible citrus to grow is Satsuma, even then a once in 50 year freeze event will likely wipe them all out if you don't have active freeze protection. Sure there are lemons / limes that you can plant outdoors, but these require far more frequent freeze protection, and given our climate the real problem is you never know when you will need that protection, as all too often the actual temperature in a hard freeze may get 5-10 degrees F lower than the forecast temperature, which can make all the difference on citrus survival. I know I have found myself outdoors when the north wind was blowing at 25+ mph trying to cover young and old citrus trees ahead of a particularly cold night on several occasions, and I know I have lost them when failing to do so...

p.s. When I can find one (hard to do in Louisiana with the citrus quarantine) I plan to plant one of the more cold hardy Satsuma such as Miho, Seto, or Orange Frost as a backup plan in case of one of those 50, 100, or 500 year freeze events.

evdesert, that is excellent info in that website, truly helpful,Bob.

@ Ike Stewart try this place. They have the artic and orange frost. https://www.soonerplantfarm.com