I am having good luck with Owari Satsuma. I have two of these mandarins planted in my front yard here in the Georgia mountains. I do protect them in the winter with a wood/plastic sheet structure, but I think I may be overdoing it as there has never been a single leaf damaged by frost or freezes in the last three years that I have had these. The last few years the outside temps got down to 11F at the lowest. The Owari Satsuma fruit has got to be one of the best citrus I have ever eaten. Period. I also have a Thomasville Citrangequat I planted last year and so far it is doing great with very little protection. I've read quite a bit about these and they sound like one of the best cold hardy types. I am experimenting with other things: I have some mandarins that I grew from seeds from grocery store fruit planted in the yard- they're only about a year old but seem to be doing ok (considering all the leaves have frozen off) I am also growing kumquats from seed and will plant these out in the next year or so. If they die or do badly, no big deal, they cost me practically nothing. I have about 7 trifoliate orange trees scattered around my property, but these are mostly for fun, I've tasted a fruit from one of these growing in town and it was as horrible as everyone says it is.

Thank you all so much for the input, appreciate it. I think I am more interested in knowing the specifics of the fruit traits. I want to use as a lemon/lime/Seville sour orange substitute for the juice for salad dressings, drinks, seafood seasoning. I can definitely wrap it up in burlap and such even xmas lights for the first couple seasons or bring it indoors like the rest of my citrus the first couple winters. Eventually though I want to plant it in warm microclimate spot I have for it in zone7a. I assume all these have fragrant blossoms typical of citrus which is also a requirement? I did get to speak with Mckenzie farms forgot to ask if these all have fragrant blossoms or if any stand out for blossom fragrance. I think Ichang may have the largest and most fragrant blossoms. But the others should have fragrant blossoms too? So basically the most important thing to me to is: juice quantity, juice quality (no offtastes/bitterness/astringency or extremely little), and blossom fragrance. Here are my notes based on sleuthing: Yuzu- Only real problem is here is juice content is so small- sounds like a teaspoon per fruit due to both small fruit (think 4,5 cm diameter tangerines as standard size) and also very thick peel, lots of seed, and occasionally dry. I am confident the QUALITY of the sour juice is good--as it is a classic culinary juice. Aromatic, zesty juice. The rind is awesome on these, but I have no interest in rind. It sounds like per fruit it's almost a 1:6 ratio Yuzu juice to lime. Do I really want to be juicing 6 fruit every time I can just a lime or one of the below 2? Maybe if the juice is that awesome--which it could be. Shangjuan/Ichang lemon- Large fruit with 1/2 cup sour juice! Very seedy, thick peel, but still gives 1/2 cup sour juice which is a lot. The quality is suspect--some say it can used as lemon, some say it is way too sour and caustic like straight up vinegar with no citrusy flavor/zest/aroma. So maybe juice quantity over quality on this one. Also I think I read it doesn't keep well? Thomasville Citrangequat- seems like the best option and a compromise. A 4cm x6cm fruit rough standard size (close to size as Yuzu, but oblong shape) but is juicy, not insanely thick skin, not insanely seedy. Not sure how much juice it offers per fruit--but is described as juicy and I'm sure it is more juice at least than the Yuzu. The quality sounds good too and may be like the Seville sour orange with some orangey flavor in the sour juice. My main concern with this one is if it's only juicy when RIPE--to my knowledge citrus gets juicier as it gets ripe. Most people suggest using underripe Thomasville as lemon substitute--are these relativey DRY sour wedges though? The descriptions of juicy are surely describing the truly ripe fruit which I will not count on getting in zone 7a nor do I desire. I want something that is juicy when it is sour (like a lemon/lime/Seville sour orange), not dry when it is sour because the sourness is due to underripeness (like an underripe standard sweet orange--those are a bit dry.). So overall, I think thomasville wins for me, but a taste test would help since I'm nitpicking on the quality traits--I may try to taste test some in November. Also thomasville sounds like it's a half notch hardier than Ichang. If anyone else has anymore info or thoughts that would be great. Remaining questions- Blossom fragrances? How much juice can you get from a sour underripe thomasville?

The only citrus that will likely survive (and possibly fruit) in zone 7a with minimal or no winter protection will be Poncirus or one of the tougher Poncirus hybrids. Odds are that a Seville (even in an excellent microclimate) in zone 7a will not make it through winter with only frost blankets/burlap for protection. You could certainly plant one outside, but it will need good protection (I have a satsuma outside in my zone 6b/7a location but it receives substantial winter protection) You will also need to consider when the fruit are ripe. Seville are ready to use in spring/summer therefore the fruit need to be overwintered on the tree. Thus you would need to prevent the fruit from seeing temps below 28F or so for any prolonged time. If you want something that requires limited winter protection and will possibly have useable fruit before winter sets in, your options are pretty slim (Poncirus or Poncirus hybrids). Having said that, you can grow pretty much any citrus outside in zone 7 or colder, it just depends on how much winter protection you are willing to provide.

Billy, I have Marseilles White. Is it the Marseilles mentioned in the post you provided? Or could that be another Marseilles, like M. Black? I believe that Marseilles White was Thomas Jefferson's favorite fig tree, and I suspect it did well for him, in ground at Monticello in VA. Maybe it was winter protected or greenhouse grown. I would just like to know for sure if it will thrive for my niece in ground. There's nothing like failure to occur for a novice to consequently develop a, "I can't grow figs.", mind set. Moses