At 24 degrees you are hoping to not lose the trees. You made a good call on picking the fruit. Hope all goes well. We are only going to get to 26 degrees so my in ground trees will probably be ok. I did bring in my potted trees under the carport. Trees in pots do not handle the cold as well as in ground trees.

Mulching tree will actually make matters worse. If the trees are on the south side and close to the house, I think yours will be ok. I have heard of people putting mulch 3 or 4 feed tall on the tree to try and save the graft. Otherwise it is best to have bare ground. The old Christmas lights will give off some heat. Covering the tree only works if there is a heat source and the covering goes all the way to the ground. Wherever the cover touches the tree, the cold will burn the leaves. Again, good luck.

Thanks for coming on Gary! I'm hoping the tree will be okay. It was planted about seven or eight years ago next to the south facing brick wall of the garage. This would have been it's most productive year except the hail this spring knocked most of the flowers off.

Now that I have your attention I have another question. If the winter is mild how long can the fruit be left on the tree? Do they continue to sweeten if left on for several weeks or longer? I've always picked them when we were ready to eat one, but never had this many before so they didn't hang on there that long.

Hoping all your trees are okay.

The early maturing varieties are good until late December. Sometime they will start to get pithy, usually sometime in January. I had someone give me some navel oranges yesterday and they are still good. Satsumas can be ready to pick even before they are fully orange but do get sweeter with cooler weather. They also taste better their second and third year of production. Sometimes the first time fruits have little flavor. They do deteriorate pretty fast after picking. I pick them fresh. Mine are just starting to fruit and I have a wife and 4 boys so we run out pretty quickly.

We got down to 18 here. I hope that SA heat dome was good for something.

Since it is right against the south side of the house there should still be hope. I did hear of someone that had a satsuma on the south side of his house in Tennessee that said his survived temperatures in the teens.

Sorry to hijack your thread, however, I have a similar question to Satsuma. So, thought why not to ask in the same thread. My apology if I offended.

I transplanted my young Satsuma from pot to ground last spring. It has well adjusted. Did not realize the frost last night would be that bad, but mercury did drop to 22F. A few hours ago I went to see the plant, Satsuma young leaves are wilted; older leaves are a bit grayish. Will the plant die ?

I also have two Hamblin, one Ponkan and one Sunburst orange/nectarine plants of similar size (about 3ft tall, planted last spring). They look relatively better shape, I wonder they will survive ?

I did look it up and satsuma's are cold hardy to 22-28 degrees. If you have trifoliate root stock you may have better protection than the swingle root stock. It is not uncommon for trifoliate root stock trees to lose their leaves.

If you are in Texas, with the very warm temperatures we have had, you may have greater damage. If the trees had protection such as a building, it will also help.

I think only time will tell. As long as the stem is green you will have a chance.

Sharma, no problem whatsoever in asking your question on this thread. If anyone else wants to discus citrus trees on this thread please free to do so.

Incidentally, the 'official' low in my zip code from Weather Underground was 18 degrees. Our house is at the bottom of the hill and the temperature is often slightly lower than houses a couple of blocks up the street. The several years old Satsuma planted near south facing brick wall is undamaged. There is not even one scorched leaf ... :-) I don't know for sure if it is grafted or not, but it probably is since I bought it at a nursery.

There is a dusk to dawn floodlight nearby that shines on the tree so that may help somewhat.

Glad to hear it. I think the tree planted on the south side of the building helps a lot. I did talk to someone that had a satsuma survive a low of 16 degrees and below 24 for 24 hours a few years ago, probably in 2011. The tree was too big to cover. Others lost their trees that were covered.

A farmer said the rule of thumb is as long as the temperature did not go below 24 for 18 hours or longer you should be ok.

The way to tell if the tree is going to make it is to look at the main trunk. If it does not split the tree will make it. If the bark on the limbs split you will be ok only the limbs will die. My in ground citrus looks good without any leaf damage.

I have a friend who has a satsuma in Austin that is older than 2011 and she probably got down to 14F and we were below freezing for three days and followed by another freeze to 16F three days after that.

Thank you so much for many replies. I leave home before daylight and return late in the dark. Let me check my plants tomorrow evening. We had a nice weather today and temp range for this week is minimum in 50s and max in high 60s. Hope this will help.

Lesson learnt - cover wherever possible when frosting !