US852 is will go down to 0F Morton 5F. Do you have a 10 degree tangerine 2-2 on PT or FD yet.

COLD HARDY CITRUS QUALITIES

Steve

Morton is a zone 8 plant. Many years it may survive in a southern 7B, but it depends upon duration of cold, maturity of plant, etc. Still, it could possibly be long-term in a northern zone 7 with protection during the coldest periods. Smaller plants will be less hardy than large ones, but easier to protect. A covering, plus C7s or C9s on a Thermocube in the north would aid survival. Citrandarin and Citrumelo are going to be hardier.

Going from zone 8a to zone 7b is a big jump. There are a lot of cold hardy varieties which are possible in 8a which are not so realistic to try growing in 7b. I don't think any variety that tastes mildly good can grow in 7b unprotected.

In zone 7, you're probably talking about trifoliate or possibly citrumelo and citrandarin. Even Ichang papeda gets kind of iffy in zone 7.

One little tip I'll point out, covering the plant with a plastic bag and a couple of gallon containers of water inside will raise the temperature by 3 degrees F at night. (But it's not so practical for protecting against cold snaps because as the Spring temperatures start warming up you'll have to remove the bag or the plant will bake, temperatures can get very hot inside on a sunny day due to the greenhouse effect, even with just a plastic bag I'm talking about a 25° temperature difference)

For those with a lot more area to work with, there are some extreme things you can do to create a passive microclimate, effectively turning a zone 7 climate into a zone 8 spot. (a complicated topic I'm not going to go into here)

Its hard for me to get anything, and I will grow out the morton first, I'm hoping a nice talented guy I know and I asked can make me a grafted bearing citrangequat or rusk citrange to trifoliate........ also another year, I have a citrangequat out, I'm going to steal a page from the palm guys and build a semi open box....some frost cloth, I have old windows

10 degree grafted tangerine not available....

If going through the effort to build protection why not plant something more edible? Can you get electric to it?

Morton Citrange is one of the best of the early hybrids developed more than a century ago by the United States Department of Agriculture. It makes a large upright tree that looks much like a sweet orange. Morton citrange leaves are quite large and tend to be more evergreen than any of the other citranges, making the tree very ornamental. It also has the largest fruit of any of the citranges, fully the size of an orange and just as brightly colored, with a thick peel that adheres tightly to the flesh. The fruit does have a fair amount of sweetness, but like almost all of the trifoliate hybrids still has an off flavor. The fruit is large enough to eat like a grapefruit, and with some sugar it is quite edible. Hardy citrus for the southeast.

I really don't want to get electric to it as I don't have an exterior outlet in my yard (I have one right by the door)and would have to run it across a concrete path to get to the garden area. It will have to survive with passive protection which isn't that big a deal as Stan is shipping up a 1 gallon which is staying in this winter anyway. I just plan on protecting my Citrangequat for now and grow this a bit.