my poor Citrangequat

7 years ago

This seedling from woodlanders on its own roots is alive, pushing out new shoots, after receiving passive protection only in garden proper ground over the winter, as you can see it got knocked back real hard and is only about a foot tall. About April 15th I pulled all protection: a frost cloth bag inside a frost cloth enclosure, including its glass roof, probably a mistake as we had a cold damp wet spring. I'm not sure if thats what caused the branch dieback or hidden damage from cold? there was no bark splitting. It was also not a broomstick specimen so its hard to say. Upper branches were only in the 1/4" thick range. The problem is I need to get it to bearing size.......a grafted bearing branch on trifoliate is impossible to find. With that kind of dieback that may never happen. I guess I'll leave it in ground and pull it at summers end to go back in a pot under lights. I have a morton citrange seedling, a keraji on trifoliate, and a yuzu on trifoliate I could also try, but none are size ready.

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socalnolympia

7 years ago

last modified: 7 years ago

If I was in zone 7, I wouldn't bother trying to grow hardy citrus, but at least in zone 8a I have a decent chance of growing some hybrids that are semi-edible.

That being said, theoretically it should be possible to grow hardy citrus with protection in 7b. Though one can question whether it's worth the trouble. More of a novelty really.

I put gallon water containers inside my coverings for protection. The idea being that as the temperature drops just below freezing, the water begins to release heat, preventing the temperature inside the covering from going much below freezing.

I didn't cover all of them, just some of the hardy citrus varieties that were a little less hardy than the others. My Bloomsweet barely managed to survive under the covering, the Satsuma did not survive.

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Comments (7)

bklyn citrus (zone 7B)
Original Author
7 years ago

Winter protection
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poncirusguy6b452xx
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago
I am doing fine in zone 6b
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Steve
bklyn citrus (zone 7B) thanked poncirusguy6b452xx
bklyn citrus (zone 7B)
Original Author
7 years ago
I have an indoor grow area so I have a winter garden to amuse myself - lovely in January, although I have a goal of establishing some form of citrus in the garden proper. My rear yard is 10 foot of concrete before I get to my garden (30 foot rear yard), so unless I made a more complex
structure that sat on concrete I cannot get an in ground situation up next to my building walls - so I cannot do what Steve did, and that window helps him for emergency heat. I purposefully used only frost clothes and used no heaters etc to see what it could handle. I'm still unsure if I caused the branch dieback by pulling protection to early, or specimen was not big enough. Its also NOT grafted to Trifoliate. That was a pretty typical winter and if I had the right specimen, sized right, and grafted to trifoliate, that was kept small it might work. I have a morton citrange seedling, a keraji on trifoliate, and a yuzu on trifoliate I could also try, but none are size ready. I may pull the Citrangequat to grow bigger so I could try grafting it to trifoliate. My grafted yuzu will be grown to size for my next attempt. Still got cutting Laura?
bklyn citrus (zone 7B)
Original Author
7 years ago
After a call to Stan Mckenzie, for earlier bearing purposes and an added cold hardiness I'm ordering a grafted Morton and grafted Thomasville (I heard his taste better)which while they still have to be grown to broomstick size should bear earlier as opposed to this Woodlanders seedling tree which was all green wood .....not much above mature bark held ....but it is sending up multiple shoots from mature bark
poncirusguy6b452xx
7 years ago
Multiple trunks wills grow with closer together leaf nodes. for a hardier tree.

Steve
bklyn citrus (zone 7B) thanked poncirusguy6b452xx
bklyn citrus (zone 7B)
Original Author
7 years ago

Thats one tough little Citrangequat ($10 woodlanders BTW), who survived with passive protection only. Obviously the roots and lower stalk with mature bark made it. All green stalk died back hard. I guess I gotta let him live........I'll let him fatten up over the summer before digging him up and seeing if I can grow him to a mature size in/out in a pot. Seems to want to be nice and bushy now instead of tall and lanky. Although I could, I'm not willing to run electric to the enclosure - lights thermocube etc.. Maybe next go round with a grafted tree. If I had a portable enclosure on the concrete up against the building I'd definitely pick up some warmth but then its a potted situation which is fine for these other guys....not a Citrus.