Fruit

Does anyone thing this tree will live threw winter.

It depends If the minimum temperature are on the warm side or cold. Be prepared to cover it. have the system built and test set up to be sure it works. You should do fine. My kumquat is grown from seed and will never be planted outside as I live in cincinnati.

Are you a braves fan.

Not huge sports but lol some. McKinney farms said I would be ok with Christmas lights and light cover.

Not huge sports but lol some. McKinney farms said I would be ok with Christmas lights and light cover.

Tree is doing good had a few nights in 20s lost fruit but tree is happy still.

Tree isnt doing good even with cover and heat We had an extreamly cold winter here. I hope it comes back in spring if not I will replant and try again.

Tcamp The kumquat is the wrong type of 'citrus' to plant. Its fruits ripen from November to May. While the tree will survive, the fruit will be destroyed below 28 F. Try something like an early ripening satsuma. I don't what variety but that shouldn't be hard to research..

Steve

Tcamp, if you really like Kumquat they make excellent Container plants...this way you can bring them inside when you have those rare or few degrees in the "teens" or when your tree is fruiting you can bring them inside when the temps dip below freezing. I know this year has been a really bad winter for most of you North of FL.

Satsuma sounds like another great idea as well...

Have two kumquats inside just tried it outside because of its cold hardyness. I hope it comes back but in spring will plant a early Mandarin to see if it will push the zone and live. We had 0 degrees this winter and two major ice storms which is unusual for this part of the country.

I'm in North Georgia and have been experimenting with citrus for 4-5 years.
So far my biggest success is Satsuma mandarins. I planted them in the ground about 4 years ago and they are still doing fine (covered with ripe fruit right now)
I did build a greenhouse around them eventually, but only use a few lamps for heat on the nights below 30F.

I have some kumquats I grew from seed that still have some growing to do before they are of flowering age. I plan to plant them around the property and see how well they do, if they die, I'm not out any money.

One interesting experiment is I planted an about 7 year old LEMON tree out in my front yard and gave it minimal protection last Winter, it froze to the ground, but as of right now, it's grown back mostly.

I have a poncirus trifoliata that I grew from seed like 4 years ago, and it flowered and fruited the first time this year- this is completely unprotected in Winter time.

crispy, is your Lemon tree on it's own roots, seedling or cutting? Because as you probably know, if the top graft died last winter that would be the root stock coming back. Lemons are less winter hardy than Satsumas in general.

You guys should also try Yuzu, it's considered ever more cold hardy than Satsumas. Great fruit to cook with! Sometimes called Yuzu lime or lemon, it's really neither, more of a sour mandarine cross. (Citrus ichangensis x Citrus reticulata)
Very seedy and not a ton of juice from each one, but the juice is so delicious and fragrant, plus the zest is used a lot too. It has in common with Meyer lemons, the trait of the skin, zest and white pith, as being on the sweet side as opposed to the bitter skin of some citrus. Not as sweet a skin as kumquats, but very nice. Anyway, they're very, very cold tolerant.

Here is a link that might be useful: all-about-yuzu

Well that kumquat tree Died even with protection I found our why. It was on Rough lemon rootstock which does not make no sense to me. Since the kumquats is more cold tolerant than lemon crazy sounds crazy to me. I planted an nice apricot tree in its place. I will try. A. kumquat in ground soon I have some seedlings so I'm going to try them one day.
Trace

Hey crispy do u have pics of your trees.
Trace

BarbJP- The lemon tree is one that I grew from a seedling in a pot for about 7 years- it simply got too big to carry back inside last year so I planted it outside as an experiment.
(But yeah, Lemons are the LEAST cold hardy of all citrus as far as I know and it was probably a dumb idea to even try LOL)

I do have a Thomasville Citrangequat in ground, its only about 3 years old and got pretty damaged last winter, so it will be a while before I get any fruit from it. I think it's not quite as hardy as Yuzu but pretty close.

I attached a pic of my Owari Satsumas from last year, the trees are almost double that size now.

This post was edited by crispy_z7 on Tue, Oct 28, 14 at 8:15

I don't think I've mentioned, but I have about 4 Kumquat trees I've started from seed (no rootstock)
As soon as they get a 3 years old or so I will plant them out.
There is actually a small one in the ground in the picture I posted above, but it is behind one of the Satsumas.

I think for something like Kumquat, it might be actually better to plant them on their own roots for cold hardiness. Possibly on trifoliate orange rootstock though.

crispy

Could you post pics of your kumquat trees. My meiwa is 2.5 years old from seed. It has been very disappointing. I also have 2 seed grown nagami kumquats from seed. The are 22 months old and equally disappointing. My seed grown sweetlee tangerine trees show what a citrus tree should grow like. They are about 10 fold the wood mass of the kumquats.

Steve

Poncirusguy- pics of my kumquat trees would be pretty boring, as none of them are more than 2 feet tall.
All except one are in pots, the last is in the ground in the greenhouse and has grown very slowly.
(All of these were planted from grocery store kumquat seeds, not sure of type of kumquat)

I'm not sure what I may be doing wrong, or if they are just excruciatingly slow growers by nature.

Funny thing is I started some poncirus trees from seed about four years ago, and depending where I planted them, they range in size from a foot tall to EIGHT feet tall (the tall one flowered and fruited this year) so there is obviously some discrepancy in the growing conditions.

I really would like to get the kumquats going though as I've read a number of reports that they are pretty hardy and hard to kill. (not to mention I like eating kumquats)

Great work crispy.
Trace

store bought kumquat fruit is almost always the Nagami kumquat (oval shaped) and they are very slow growing. Mine just flowered inside about a month ago and I was amazed at how beautiful and fragrant it was. Wish I could let it grow in the ground outside but I think our -40ðC/-40ðF central Canada winter lows would kill it instantly lol

{{gwi:621000}}

Ok, yeah, the only kumquats we get here are oval shaped, so I imagine you are right.

Nice pic, I can almost smell those flowers! lol

Mr Ri

Beautiful kumquat tree and flowers. I agree that the plant has to remain a potted tree, however the -40 C/F would take at least 30 seconds to kill the twigs and trunk.

There is a bunch of citrus'er from Canada or extreme north USA that discuss their trees in the bugs series of threads, the latest "bugs 7"

Steve

Here is a link that might be useful: http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/citrus/msg1021005028548.html?129

Tcamp: Depending on where you live, you might consider trying Thomasville Citrangequat in the ground. Also, Citrandarin and 'Rusk' Citrange.

True but want something I can eat lol might try thomasville. I know it would grow here.
Trace

update of your trees plz.