Citrus tree that grows in cold regions?

meanwhile · #1 01/01/08, 12:23 PM

In a Barbara Kingsolver book ((Small Wonders - essays), I read a comment about a citrus tree that was grown on Homesteads 100 years ago, that grew even where temps reached zero in winter? Any ideas on what citrus tree that would have been and where to buy it today, if it can be found? Thank you. (I will also ask in garden section too. Thank you.)

TwoAcresAndAGoat · #2 01/01/08, 01:03 PM

I am not sure about Barbara Kingsolver book Small Wonders, however this website written for Texas citrus may shed some light on cold hardy varieties of citrus.

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/e...us/citrus.html

Here is a link to the table for different citrus varities
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/e...us/table1.html

The Maurumi Kumquat tree is more cold tolerant than any of the other popular citrus tree and will withstand temperatures of 17F.
http://tytyga.com/product/Maurumi

YuccaFlatsRanch · #3 01/01/08, 01:03 PM

There are numerous ones that will survive in cold weather areas. Satsuma tangelo is one I have, another is meyer lemon, and the best is one called 10 degree tangerine. I have some of all three. Ours have survived down to 14 degrees, but they get some residual heat by placing the large bulb Christmas lights in them during the winter. The lights help keep a halo of warmer air around the tree. I do experience some leaf burn and loss anyway. I am zone 7b in the hill country of Texas.

TYTY Nursery in Texas will probably have all of these. They also have a very cold hardy bearing banana called Texas Gold.

meanwhile · #4 01/01/08, 05:17 PM

Thank you - I will look up information about those. Anyone here grow citrus where it gets down to zero? We will be about 14 tonight but wind chill said to be minus 5 - so I guess I should plan for tree that will survive down to zero? Thank you.

Sara in IN · #5 01/01/08, 05:53 PM

Most cold hardy is the trifoliate orange.

http://www.fw.vt.edu/DENDRO/dendrolo...eet.cfm?ID=392
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trifoliate_orange

available from

http://tripplebrookfarm.com/tbf/gen/...oncirusP.shtml

among others. Don't bother with "Flying Dragon" with the curved spines unless you want a landscape specimen. The curved thorns are a sport that occurs naturally in a small percentage of seeds of p.t. that are planted out and grown for nursery stock.

Poncirus is hardy in Zone 6, maybe Zone 5. In Zone 6 you might get some winter kill, but it will grow again in spring. Poncirus is also suseptible to late frosts, as are most stone fruits. Pick up the fruit or you will be growing a barbed wire thicket or barbed wire ground cover in a few years.

**ladycat** · #6 01/01/08, 05:57 PM

Ok, why did ya'll do that to me? Now I've got to try to get some citrus trees.

meanwhile · #7 01/01/08, 06:04 PM

Oh! Thank you. A friend who grows a lemon tree inside all year gave me one lemon for Christmas and it was so good that I have to figure out how to grow my own Citrus. I have no room inside so I must find a variety to grow here....I am zone 7a or 7B...Western North Carolina at about 2300 feet.....but I do have a good sunny southern exposed hill for planting, so that will help. Thanks for all the ideas.

**Terri** · #8 01/01/08, 08:34 PM

Is the trifoliate orange tasty, or is it just an ornamental? I would LOVE citrus in the yard, but we live in zone 5!

BTO · #9 01/01/08, 08:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by meanwhile

Thank you - I will look up information about those. Anyone here grow citrus where it gets down to zero? We will be about 14 tonight but wind chill said to be minus 5 - so I guess I should plan for tree that will survive down to zero? Thank you.

I don't believe wind chill will affect a tree as it generates no heat. As usual I could be wrong!

Sara in IN · #10 01/02/08, 12:22 AM

Trifoliate orange is well beyond " sour enough to make a pig squeal". It's also bitter. Poncirus is best used for juice base for sweetened juice, in place of keylime for a pie, or for a marmalade.

The "oranges" are little suckers, barely golfball size. It may take two trees to pollinate, as with late frosts I haven't had any fruit since tree #2 had a bad run-in with a bushhog a couple years back.

Dirtslinger · #11 01/02/08, 01:49 AM

Yes I think the 0F hardy orange in the trifoliate orange, aka Poncirus trifoliata. I've read a lot about it and don't think it's worth growing, unless you enjoy oddities (I have one).

Poncirus rootstalk is used for many citrus trees, it increases their own hardiness to a certain degree.

joerocker · #12 01/02/08, 06:38 AM

The trifoliate orange is used for rootstock for satsuma oranges to give them more cold hardiness. I have 2 satsuma trees but I'm in SE Alabama. I've heard they are hardy to Tuscaloosa...not quite Kansas or N Carolina...

meanwhile · #13 01/02/08, 06:42 AM

Guess I'll have to find a way to ask Barbara Kingsolver just what orange she was speaking of in the book. Maybe she has a web page. I do not want a bitter orange - I need a usable citrus, lemon or orange types. I'll keep looking and let everyone know what I find.

gardenlily · #14 01/02/08, 08:19 AM

We bought a small farm in the upstate of SC recently and there are many lemon trees growing. I dont know what variety but previous owner said they were the best lemons he ever tasted. Because of the drought, they didnt do well last year but, hopefully, they will do better this year. Not sure if the temp gets down to zero here.

GoatsRus · #15 01/02/08, 09:20 AM

I can tell you that Meyer's lemons will not make it through a TN winter. I had high hopes since they looked wonderful during the spring and summer and I even covered them well during the winter, but they never made it. I'd love some citrus trees also, since I moved here from florida and miss the trees I had.

#16 01/02/08, 09:47 AM

Below ten degrees Fahrenheit your only choice as others have said is going to be Trifoliate Orange and it is not edible. I know some folks claim to eat the fruit, or at least the juice, but their directions usually indicate drowning it in sugar and even then it's not exactly a pleasant flavor.

Except for some coastal areas that have more moderate temperatures outdoor, in-ground citrus growing stops at a line roughly equivalent to central Georgia heading west. North of that line you either have to supply a lot of protection or resort to one of the trifoliate crosses that have more cold hardiness. The problem is that if there is enough trifoliate in the cross to get that cold hardiness there's enough to get a good dose of the trifoliate flavor as well. Some folks claim those fruits are good to eat but I've yet to find one that had cold hardiness appreciably better than a Satsuma that didn't taste nasty to me.

If you just have to try in-ground outdoor citrus I'd go with a Meiwa kumquat. Cold hardiness is pretty good for non-trifoliate citrus and the fruit are edible, with the Meiwa being the best of any kumqat variety I've tried. If by "western North Carolina" you mean in the mountains you're still going to have to provide some winter freeze protection, especially for the first several years after it has been planted.

Citrus can be grown in containers and often are. I have a small greenhouse full of various limes and lemons right now. In the warm season I keep them in a flowerbed. In the cold season they go into the greenhouse. They keep us in all the limes and lemons we could want. Sweet citrus can be grown the same way if you choose good varieties.

.....Alan.

GoatsRus · #17 01/02/08, 09:52 AM

I wonder if the trifoilate oranges are the same as what we called "sour oranges" in florida. Usually we just waited until a "good" orange tree got hit by a damaging frost and then the fruit turned sour from there on in. We used the sour oranges as a marinade for our christmas pork. I learned to cook with them from my ex- father-in-law who was spanish.

ldc · #18 01/02/08, 01:52 PM

AT Hagan is correct, the trifoliate orange isn't edible by normal standards. An old colonial estate road is still lined with them today in New Jersey. The colonials used them instead of fences because their 2-3 inch thorns are brutal and keep out livestock. The fruits were used in colonial times keep rooms smelling good in the winter! A bowl of these inch and a half fruits smells wonderful.They grow very easily from their seeds; maybe there is a way to graft something on to the rootstock? The road that is still lined with these bushes also has osage orange on it. And no, these are not botaniacally the same as the "sour oranges" of Florida. ldc