Speaking of freeze hardiness, we just got our first frost Sunday AM and Monday (today) AM. They were light frosts but they counted. Now the weather is supposed to stay between the 50's at night and 70's in the days for a week or so. I didn't cover anything for the frosts since my trees need to know winter is coming but this kind of thing happens deeper in the winter. It's a crazy looking yard at night with blue tarps over my smaller trees and then I have to uncover them in the mornings so they won't get too hot. I'm thankful for the warm days and I don't think I could haul all of my plants indoors all winter like some of you do...hats off to you for loving citrus that much.....but that's the one thing that makes outdoor trees in a borderline region difficult. I'll try to post some photos here of coverups as someone requested earlier. I guess we all have our favorite methods. I have experimented and tried different things according to what I had on hand and how big my trees were. Blue tarps seem to be my fallback since I use them for other purposes too.

Jenny, that’s very useful, understand how the hardiness zones are calculated. Since my area has hot humid summers, I’m gonna guess it’s probably a lot like Virginia or the Carolinas? Crazy pest and mold problems here, but when things grow they grow like crazy. The weeds in the summer are like nothing I’ve ever seen. Yuzu was the first citrus people recommended for this area. Mikan (mandarins) were recommended too. The resprouting is kind of neat, and at least before the moles showed up, they had very extensive root systems, which should help with regrowth. I’m not expecting much or any fruit though, as there’s no leaves to support them, and all has to be regrown in one season. Not sure how useful that is. Thanks Cory. The last time I tried grafting I cut my thumb open in the grafts never made it anyway! Pon, I agree with you, it’s nice to use the passive heat systems. I’m still interested to experiment with some ideas. The typhoons really make it tricky here though, as things being blown away can be a bit dangerous. I don’t miss low temperatures like that anymore. I would have no problem moving to an even warmer area that I’m in now.

Did you know the Chinese city of Yichang, in the region where the Ichang papeda is believed to have originated, is just a tiny bit further south in latitude than San Diego? That area of China gets most of its rain during the Summer. It doesn't have much elevation, but it is pretty far inland so can still get cold in the Winter, equivalent USDA climate zone 8. So warm most of the year, not too extremely hot and dry during the Summer, Summers can still be fairly humid, this is exactly the sort of weather citrus likes to grow in (except for the colder Winters). While they are separate species, the papedas are believed to be more closely related to each other than to other citruses. C. micrantha (ancestor of lime) and Khasi papeda (C. latipes, the ancestor of Kaffir lime) both have symmetrically large winged petiole leaves like Ichang papeda (C. ichangensis). Ichang papeda is also believed to be closer in genetic relation to citron and pomelo than to mandarin. However, unlike C. ichangensis, C. micrantha and citron are both very sensitive to cold, more so than orange. Since Kaffir lime descends from a different species papeda than real limes, it can grow in zone 9 (even saw one source that says it can survive down to 15F, not sure if that's true). (People most often don't eat the fruits of Kaffir lime, but rather the leaves of this citrus are really good for adding flavor to Thai cooking recipes) Changsha mandarin is either an indigenous species in China extremely closely related to mandarin, or became naturalized in the wild a very long time ago. There are several different cultivars of Changsha that evolved to be suitable to different growing conditions in different areas. There was one study, looking at genetic markers, done on an accession of Changsha mandarin which indicated it was mandarin but may have had up to 15% pomelo in its ancestry. (Genomics of the origin and evolution of Citrus, Guohong Albert Wu, Javier Terol) This could possibly be from genetic introgression over time from surrounding cultivated hybrid mandarin varieties. Stan McKenzie sent us a picture of a large Changsha tree on his citrus farm in Scranton, South Carolina, that he said had survived a drop all the way down to 8 F degrees on January 18 this year, and it was full of fruits by November 5. (I think normally Changsha trees can only survive down to about 10-12F) Here's the picture: The fruits are filled with seeds though. Changsha mandarin is also notable for its drought tolerance (since it comes from a drier farther North area of China).

I can give a review of the Kabosu Cutting into it, this smells like the best very high quality Meyer lemon (and I'm not much of a fan of Meyer lemons) mixed with some very aromatic Satsuma smell. There might also be a tiny hint of Yuzu aroma, barely perceptible. The inside is a little bit more fragrant than a lemon, has a little bit of Yuzu smell. Eating it, it tastes like a lemon. Not bad at all, but it doesn't have the most flavor, and it's just a little dry, like Yuzu. But it is still fairly juicy. The flavor is like lemon, maybe not the best quality lemon but not that bad, kind of watery, mixed with a little bit of tangerine and Satsuma flavor. I do not see any seeds inside. I think Kabosu is supposed to be picked green in Japan, so these may have been considered too over-ripe. Although they tasted like they might be underripe to me. In this cool climate (Pacific Northwest), they probably wouldn't be the most sweet. The peel was about as edible as a normal lemon, maybe just a little bit more. One probably could use the peel in cooking, although it might not be the most ideal. The peel reminds me a lot of the flavor of Satsuma peels, although maybe just a little bit softer like Yuzu. The white pith appears to be edible, only the tiniest bit of bitterness, not that much inferior to the pith of citron. The fruit quality inside is better than Yuzu, but I suspect the peel is still very important for the flavor, if you were making a sauce. One last thing, I do want to emphasize that this review may not be representative of what Kabosu is really like, but rather a single account of Kabosu grown in the far north in the Pacific Northwest climate. I think the peel is where most of the flavor of Kabosu is. The peel is less edible than that of Yuzu, somewhere between Yuzu and Satsuma mandarin, but I guess it cannot be too bad since I am finding myself eating the peels. The flavor of the peels is mostly like somewhere in between the peels of Satsuma mandarin and lime. Maybe just a little bit of Ichang papeda / Yuzu flavor, but the orange part of the flavor of Yuzu is not really there. I think the peels of Kabosu could definitely be candied to be made into a snack.