Hey Steve, There are a lot of people more knowledgeable than me but I'll try to help. I looked up your location and you are in USDA zone 8b which is good for cold hardy citrus. It really depends how much time you want to put into cold protection. I am in South Alabama in 8A and have Satsumas, Changsha, Meyer Lemon, Kumquats, Sanbokan Sweet Lemons, and a Limequat in the ground. This winter my lowest temperature so far was 19 last month. I protect the Satsumas, Lemons and Limequats by sprinklers. The Changshas do well on their on when they get some size on them. Check out some pictures at: http://picasaweb.google.com/jbwindham/Dec2006Freeze As far as wet ground goes there you have a problem. Citrus do not like wet ground. They get foot rot. All is not lost though. I'll bet the LSU Ag Center or your local extension agent can tell you the best rootstock for damp soils. http://www.lsuagcenter.com/ Good luck with the citrus. Jack

You could try growing a Thai lime/Kaffir lime (Citrus hystrix). The leaves are used in Thai cooking. My tree is outdoors, and so I don't know if it is fragrant as a houseplant, but the leaves smell marvelous when you crush them. Mmmmmm, craving some tom kha gai now...Anyway, you wouldn't really need the fruit with this plant, and the leaves are useful. In fact, if you want, I have some Kaffir limes from the tree that I am not going to use. Are you interested in the seeds? Got anything to trade? I would love some cranberry cuttings, or some pink or white currant cuttings. I've got other citrus fruit/seeds that are not real common if you'd prefer--limequat, yuzu, Seville, Palestine sweet lime, Bergamot. Or bouquet de fleurs in a few months. Another one that may be good is chinotto sour orange, bacause the leaves are unusual ( it's also called myrtle-leaf sour orange ) and it is very slow growing. I will have ripe seeds in a few months. It seems that lots of people grow calamonins indoors too. Also, though I don't know much about growing citrus in the house, but just make sure that if you do, that you have a very very well-drained medium and that it gets lots of light. I germinated a couple of citrus seeds just for the he** of it by sticking them in cup of damp peat and keeping it by a window--but remember I live in California. Keep it somewhere warm--I am thinking of getting a seed warming mat for other stuff. I didn't soak them first. HTH.

If you want to push kumquats, try Swingle citrumelo, but they don't like wet feet. If you use TX/ northern Mex sour orange they will fail after a few years. One ref says tresteza virus free sour orange will be compatible, but I don't think that is available in the US. I know of no rootstock that satisfies all your conditions. I am growing six different ones now. C-35 is not best as cold tolerant. One you may try is keraji mandarin, fast growing and very tough. Good cold hardiness if you don't fertilize after June, it would be an experiment though.

Now that I have learned to grow citrus with no problems I have 3 Poncirus trifoliata of grafting size and 4 sweetlee tangerine trees of vigor that will be graft-able next spring. That's 7 root-stocks that I can graft my twigs from the grafted tree I can purchase. My purchased tree will grow faster by waiting a year and will out grow anything I bought a year earlier. My decision is to not buy a grafted tree and to grow what I have. If it fruits, great If they don't. Well we'll see My from seed Nagami kumquat for grafting to poncirus trifoliata Seed grown Meiwa kumquat tree. The tree fruit I am interested in. To be grafted on to the poncirus trifoliata moots through the Nagami inter-stock. May also go directly to my sweetlee tangerine tree root-stock, Seed grown sweetlee tangerine tree for root-stock #1 Seed grown sweetlee tangerine tree for root-stock #2 Seed grown sweetlee tangerine tree for root-stock #3 Seed grown sweetlee tangerine tree for root-stock #4 Seed grown poncirus trifoliata to be grafted on Is posted above . Its in a blue 55 gallon half drum. This completes what I have done and what I have. If I think of anything I'll add on to this thread Steve This post was edited by poncirusguy on Tue, Nov 5, 13 at 18:29