Yeah, I guess you are right... Even though all the remaining trees look good now some of them still had some scary die back so I didn't know if that was indicative of perhaps being in too big a pot?

I have noticed that the trees with turface have looser roots on the surface and seem to have done the best so I thought the turface would be good for water retention plus aeration... what do you think?

I have a big nagami that had some pretty significant die back on it's main stem but I managed to save it and it seems fine now.... darn those nagamis are finicky aren't they?

Atheen, hugs right back at you. Hope your husband has been well these days..E-mail me anytime you need an ear...

Hobby, have I told you its a wonderful thingy to have you back? It really is. I missed you with all that you have to say and show...You are too kind. Thank you. Hang in there yourself. I few lost trees can always be replaced. It's not your fault but it is mine. I deliberately didn't water a few, was too much for me to do at the time, never re potted a few in containers that dry out too fast, and never used vinegar or fertilizer all winter..My bad(( I think I will focus on them once the warm weather finally commences because by then they will have been outside long enough to show me what they want to do and i can re pot once I want to be outside in the warmth and once they have responded to it too..Hoping all is well with you...

Vladimir, thanks for the heads up buddy! I am going to do what you do and not fret. I think they will be fine. Our trees won't aggressively grow the way we want but anything is better than being cooped in doors for sure! It was 35 here and they did just fine bud.

Stephan, for some reason your story of snow actually makes me feel a lot better!! Now, I feel real bad for you. I thought I had it bad here. But it looks like your trees are responding very well to your method at this time, even better than the outside for the time being. Good luck and I hope the OMEGA block stopping all the warmth from reaching us for the next ten days leaves sooner than they think...Do a 'bring warmth back' dance with me will yah..lol

Corycampbell, that is quite a story..I am glad it did that. Thank you

Cory, how are they now? Have you been able to put them back outside...??

I know there are a few members here who are even having snow as of yet and thank God that is not me. Toronto can't seem to get a break from the cold. Are your trees better outside now. Your collection is also nice.

I don't see any night temps into the 50's for the next ten days around here as it should be. Normals should be much warmer than they have been. That Omega Block is causing so much cold for so many of us and I hope it gets out of here fast. If I could just get the temps to at least stay above 50 at night, I might be able to get growth on my trees and my grass planted.

I hear ya Mike! My calamondin is pushing new growth but the very tips of it are black. I think its cold damage? The temperature keeps falling to the low 40s at night. I so worried it is going to damage the lemons on my meyer! I guess if the lemons all fall off it can work on growing bigger :-(

It is going down to 47 tonight and it has been chilly all day. Some of the new growth of my trees is a little limp, but I think they will be fine. I'm sorry for those of you dealing with even colder temps!

Yeah, it's chilly and raw. Raining some more now, after 3 inches on Friday. Not frost levels for lows (mostly mid to upper 40's); highs in the upper 50/low 60's. But this is getting to feel real gloomy! Yes, omega block (not unusual for this time of year), and once it's done; it will be SUMMER.

Laura, I am with you! It's not even 50 at night for the next 15 days!!! Should be 70's by now and only low 50's for the next three weeks..So tiring!!

Subtropix, I feel so bad for you. I thought I had it bad..Terrible..Why can't we get stuck under the warm side of the Omega Block? Why are we always lucky to get stuck on the cold end of it? lol I would LOVE for that heat in the middle of the country to be stuck here for a change.

Hey Mike we have a freeze warning for tonight. Can't seem to get a break from this awful weather. My sinuses can't take much more!!!! For now the citrus will be staying in my south facing window. I also have a led light on them. I have been thinking of expanding my collection. Besides logees and four winds growers anybody know of any good sites to order from??

Thanks Mike, glad to be back and able to focus on my garden again! I am super busy starting all my seeds, I am way behind schedule.

Wow I'm shocked that all your weather has been so terrible... we were scorching over the past week or so! As of yesterday the rain hit so I dragged all my trees out so they can benefit from it. I am hoping they can stay out now, I just need to watch the nightly lows for a bit longer. As of tomorrow the sun comes back but with more seasonable temps, which is better for the citrus anyway as they adjust to being outside again.

Just yet another weird season. February was warm, then March was cold, April was above normal, May so far has been very chilly. They seem to have raised my temps here in NJ. Bottoming out tonight and tomorrow at 45 f, , with highs in low 60's and back to 70's by the weekend.

Corey, did you ever get that freeze? Was it so bad that you could see on on your lawns? I hope not. It's just not right for this time of the year, not to say it never happens. In fact, my last frost date is May 30..Ugh..That is why I do as Brian suggested and why I also bought frost blankets. I am so tired of worrying if everything is going to do well then some freak front comes through and threatens to kill all my perennials annuals and my citrus...I feel bad about your sinuses..That stinks. I could actually see it flying out of the pine trees the other day. Like a fine mist powder all over everything. I hope you are taking something for it. You know, what stinks? Our electricity bills should be a lot lower thanks to warmer temps but lately I have had to still use a space heater. NO break, you know?

Hobby, your welcome. I am still grateful for all the nice pics of clouds you posted here for me in the past. You are very thoughtful and that's why you were missed. Also too thanks to all the input you generate here) I saw that you area is stuck in the middle of the Omega Block which gives you extra warm temps for weeks..You are so lucky. I wish that part would park its but our me..lol

Here guys, still low 50's by day until after Mother's Day and normal temps should be low 70's..I am getting gypped ...Tonight 30's...I am leaving mine all outside even with tender new growth..

New growth is much more tender; it can be damaged above freezing even without a frost. Covering with some kind of frost blanket (even a light one would dramatically help) as it will trap in some of the heat of the day (especially if you had sun in the day). The only plants I did bring in are some recently purchased young tomatoes, chili peppers and basil (which really hates the cold).

Subtropix, for sure bringing in any vegi's at any age from temps that low does help. I have seen my pepper plants decline so fast with cold temps in just days. Sames holds true for any annual in pots..Thanks for the heads up.

Corey, I am glad you have been keeping an eye on the temps. I think we watch our ten day and daily forecasts like a hawk. It's funny how much it affects my moods when I see no warmth for days as compared to warmer temps.lol I hope your allergies get better soon. Are any of your trees flowering as of today? I have some ready to bloom because of the cooler temps at least. One good thing form the cold I guess. Do you see any warmer days ahead in your long range forecast? What zone do you live in and in what area if you don't mind me asking?

Yeah, it's cold: daytime highs just barely low 40s and at nights it falls down to low 20s. I put annuals out for daytime and bring them in for nights. Calamondin stays now inside for at least a couple of days.

When does this end?

The weather people were wrong again!. They predicted a low of 39 F and it got down to 35 F. That is a 4 F difference. I left all of my trees out. I know they will not be affected by the cold but it still makes me nervous.

Vladimir, same thing buddy!! I never expected to see frost on my windshield this morning or I at least would of used a frost blanket! What a joke. Watch out for tonight, once again...So tired of it. I forgot to bring my annuals in and they actually suffered greatly..My fish are starting to go dormant again. Good thing I only fed them spring and fall feed or I would of lost all of my Koi.

if it makes you feel any better, I think it was 4 or 40 years ago when we got over a foot of snow on this day then. When will this cold end on the East? NO higher than 50 today here.

My Meyers have been in constant state of blooming for the past month. They are covered in lemons and more blooms are coming out.

They've been out on the deck for over a month now. Mid forties nights. It "should" get warmer next week. Heard that one before. It's 63 right now, so I brought all my chilies out to get some sun. Will decide if I leave em out overnight by 6pm.

The weather here in Indiana is getting better. It is going to be 75-80 all next week with lows in the mid 50s. YAY! There are also several rain showers so ALL of my plants will happy! My blueberries are getting big (but still green, I need to get my nets out) and my apricot looks like it will bloom soon!

We did get a good 5cm of snow last night. Bwahaha..

Even the meteorologist did lose it in the news this morning https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=o6T9ESB_UcA

In the end he says "Next week will be warmer, EVEN +15c" :D

This spring has been absolutely crazy!

Now its getting better: todays highs are at hight 30s, but tomorrow should be in mid 60s and it gets warmer following days.

And clear skies, so on the balcony it gets really warm. Good timing, calamondin is getting loaded with flowerbuds :)

That's great! I hope the warmth lasts for you!!

It should stay warm at this point. Rule of thumb here is that last frosts occure before june 10th. After it its no frost before mid october, and june is not far away :) But the spring has been really odd one, so you never know..

Tomorrow I will put first annual flowers out permanently, and if needed, I'll add some jugs with hot water around the plants and cover them up with frost cloth.

My wife has already got a bit irritated of all these plants in our living room!

Hey everyone.. I thought that I should stop by since I have a rare moment and to see how you are all doing and how your citrus are fairing after the winter. It seems that Laura and a few others got a jump on some of us and was blessed to be able to take your trees outside for some sunshine, rain and fresh air! Good for you, your trees will really take off.. And by looking at some of the pictures your trees are getting some good growth! Wow!

Hobby and Mike, sorry the two of you had some citrus losses. It was a long , cold winter and I had a number of casualties also. (Sorry to hear you had a rough winter, Mike. The spring and summer should make you feel much better.) I am a bit perplexed as to why. But, like you Hobby, all of my casualties (except my Nagami) were in larger pots. They are either planted in the gritty mix or the 5-1-1 so they do drain well, no major pest issues this winter. Some trees were in larger pots and did fine. Scratching my head as I am perplexed. Hobby, Your remaining trees look lovely by the way!

Our weather has been up and down this past month. A few weeks ago I took my trees outside and left them out for four days. They loved it! The weather took a nosedive the following week and so I cleaned my GH out and moved them all inside. They did really well even when the night time temperature dropped down into the low thirties a couple of nights. A number of citrus trees started leafing and budding out. Including my pomegranates. Then we were unprepared when one night last week the temperature dropped down to 22 degrees. We had a heavy freeze. The new fresh growth on the tips of some of the citrus got nipped and turned black and dried up. My poms got hit hard and a number of leaves turned brown and dried up. I trimmed the tips of the branches back and am just happy I have no casualties. I brought them all in for a few days, but they are all back outside..They will be set back a bit but the weather has warmed up this past weekend and it has been gorgeous.

The only real damage I noticed on hardy trees from some cold in April was loss of bloom on Saucer Magnolias this year. I did lose a prized Crape Myrtle due to Winter sun scald (first year for this but it was a very sunny Winter with ridiculous warmth, then frost). Otherwise, there was no foliage on trees and shrubs from cold despite the chilly April. I keep poor records but thanks to the forum, I see my Citrus went out this year on March 25. There have been years when I needed to move them back once into early April but now my rule of thumb is not to return them unless temps are lower than the mid 30's, even a couple of hours flirting with freezing has worked out for me (except for minor damage on some tender growth) thanks to microclimate factors. There was another big deluge so more good watering (as they are sooo dry by the end of Winter).

Low 90's F Thursday.

What is "Spring"?

P.S., Jontte, which annuals do you grow? Over the years, I really seem to have grown fewer and fewer of those (replaced over the years with perrenials). I used to grow impatients, begonias, Madagascar Periwinke, etc.. I also used to use Fushias in hanging baskets in the Spring, but their season is really short here in more recent years as Spring heat kills them. The only one I still grow by fierce of habit is marigolds, oh, and tropical hibiscus because the attract humming birds.

Sitting here in the Tiki Tiki Bar having a Pina Colada soaking up the view and this is in Canada

Brian

Hi Jinny, nice to see you back! My trees have all been outside for 2 weeks now but looks like we have some nasty lows in the next couple days I will need to keep an eye on.

Sorry for your losses too, don't know what to tell you, it definitely seems odd in some cases. I think I may not have flushed properly during winter, will have to work on that.

Looking good Brian, glad you can finally get outside, your weather has been horrid!

So we have some inventory at a local greenhouse that is tempting me... a record buck GRAFTED Valencia! I haven't tried a grafted type from this vendor, I think Laura's have done well. Anyone with any input on a Valencia for my climate?

Valencia is a Citrus that is Summer fruiting; as opposed to Washington Navels that set fruit in the Winter. I have a dwarf Valencia in large container (NJ/Zone 7a). No problems and it is fairly cold hardy (I have to overwinter mine in an under heated garage in the Winter). (I know nothing about Zone 2b Canada and Citrus though.)

Hi Hobby thankyou . Hobby my Page is a Record Buck, the tree in the sun if this helps .

Brian

Hobby, the RB grafted trees are awesome. I have several and they are great trees....large, great shape, strong stems...I really like them. Ginny, I'm happy to see you back. I just finished helping my son with an essay for school so I am brain-dead...will post more tomorrow.

Thanks subtropix appreciate the input! Thanks Laura yes I thought you were happy with yours. They look really nice and healthy it's true. Ok maybe I will grab one! Lol and rest up!

Thanks Brian- that's super encouraging that you have grown yours up so well! How old is yours? Do you remember when you repotted it? Were you extra careful to get all the old dirt out of the rootball? Laura?

Subtropix: marigolds, violets, black eyed susans, black eye susan vines, morning-glory vines(Ipomoea), marguerita daisy etc..

As you see, various vines and flowers :) We live in an apartment, 3rd floor so we only have a balcony where to grow stuff.. Anyways, its better than nothing ;)

Hi Hobby,

I have a RBF grafted Valencia, it is doing very well. New growth on every branch, it has set fruit and is setting more... It is constantly blooming. It is the tall tree in front of the blinds... the photo is old, it has grown quite a bit in the last few weeks.

Hi Hobby I do not remove all the dirt I remove just enough to loosen up the outer roots . Hobby not exactly sure how long ago I bought this tree must be at least 6yrs , I was able to buy the tree for half price . It's definitely a beautiful Record Buck grafted tree .

Matt never had squirrel problems before but now at our new home there are squirrels everywhere does this mean I will loose all my oranges and mandarins do they like lemons and limes to? :(

Brian

Hobby, I did not remove all the old dirt either. I did what Brian described. When I got some of those trees, it was late fall and I did not want to stress them too much at that time. They are doing very well. I just found out my local nursery got a citrus shipment today....I need to get over there to see what varieties they got. I am sure they will be RB trees. Brian, I had some type of animal damage last year, but the squirrels never bothered the large lemons or limes. I wonder if the tiny limes were a case of mistaken identity. I started a whole thread about it last year. I am afraid to be optimistic, but so far this year, no trouble...

Hobby, the grafted RB trees I have are: thorny key lime, ray ruby grapefruit (the one I raved about this winter with all the blooms), a blood (I suspect Moro), and a cara cara. Of course I have a few limequats and a calamondin that are rooted cuttings. I also have that "cocktail" tree that I am dreading having to separate.

Thanks guys good news! So Laura you just left the rootball mostly as is and potted it into 511? Or did you leave it in the original pot? I still have 2 record buck cuttings that I never repotted and they seem to be doing well so somehow my repotting of my other ones caused their demise. Interesting.

Brian and Stefan what mix do you use again?

Im going to grab one on my way home and give it a shot. I may just leave it in its pot for the summer and see how it does. That's encouraging you have so many Laura! Thanks for the input all

Summertime is great if not for severe storms... it's been 90-93*F here the last few days, and today the pattern finally shifted. We had storms with 80 mph gusts come flying through that blew the vast majority of my trees over, despite me putting numerous bricks on the pots before I left for work this morning. The only trees that didn't blow over were tied to my deck fence! The winds even took a local radio station offline (it's still off 3.5 hours later)! I have a suspicion the tower got blown over...

Here are a couple pictures I took from the drive home...

Here's the base reflectivity return, after I forgot to add it in my initial post. The dreaded bow-echo (house location is the blue star):

Unfortunately, I was too preoccupied to take any pictures of my deck in favor of rescuing my trees from their horizontal position.... and salvaging as much spilled soil as I could from my deck before the rains inevitably washed it all away. I did move my grafts inside before the hail hit, though. I'll be able to survey the damage tomorrow evening when it isn't pouring rain. No matter how you look at it though, it could have been a lot worse!

Summertime is here!

-Tom

Wow Tom, that dust cloud looks very scary! I can only imagine the urgency of saving your trees at that moment. Summertime is here with all its glory!

It was an "uh oh, the damage has been done" realization more than anything! "What will I come home to..."

And it was pretty much what I expected, lol. Wind blows the pots over, which is a pain in the rear end from a soil perspective, but yet leaves the plants mostly unscathed. Large hail/tornadoes are what I truly fear.

-Tom

Last night was the first for my calamondin outside. I wrapped it with three layers of freeze cloth, but it only got down to 40F. Annual flowers did well with 5(!) layers of freeze cloth and couple of big jugs of hot water under the shelf. It was warm under th clothes when I stuck my hand in at 11.30pm. Now its 10am and over 50F and getting warmer.

Only the Ipomoea vines were a bit saggy, but now their fine.

First real heat of the season in the MidAtlantic-Northeast. Locally, hit 94 F (34 C.). Gonna have to move them soon to a cooler site (off the blacktop and away from garage. No real humidity and there's a constant breeze so it feels great. They are predicting a kinda hot summer for most of the US. We'll see, just hope the drought does not return (this past Winter and Spring helped with that).

Here it's raining finally. It gives the spring an extra boost.

But, surprise surprise.. We get another cold spell. Not directly below freezing but close enough. Calamondin does come in but I don't bother hauling in my annual flowers. Just need to cover them up properly and I'll put plenty of hot water jugs under the frost cloth with crossed fingers.

If annuals die, then I'll start gradually hardening up my other citruses for a summer on the balcony.

The cold spell is predicted to come in one and a half weeks from now, so there's a chance of prediction to change..

Jontte, I would be so depressed if I lived there and I am happy you have found a way to cope! Wow.

IT's finally 96 today and broke all records yesterday and today. All of a sudden all my trees a flushing and even the ones I hacked back to death thinking I had lost them all...I hope they grow full again. What a difference it makes once temps warm past 55 and sunny days..I wish I could get more than 2 months of that. We go right back down to the 60's by Saturday and pretty much cool nights and warm days for the next ten. I have had no thunderstorms though, my favorite, just raw cold rains before the heat finally moved in for a day or two. I hope we don't go back to drought like Subtropix says...We get no warm showers or pop up storms like we use too because of deforestation...Make me mad. They get them all west of me where the forest still exist and then fall apart a few miles north and west of me as always..

Brian, just AMAZING buddy! No need to go for a trip to the tropics, your back yard takes care of that. Nice job

Tom, thanks for the sky pics and the storms! Hobby know's how much I love sky pics. Nice work. You must of been panic stricken just trying to get home. They always have a way of blowing over unless tied down like you say. I am glad they did ok.

Beautiful plants everyone else. I am glad you are all able to still leave them outside..Gotta love it. What I love most is the ease of watering everything as much as you want with a hose, leaves and all and not water about water drip!

Hi Hobby, just noticed your question.

I use reptibark mixed with perlite and pro mix. I have been reducing the reptibark and increasing the pro mix recently, since the plants tend to dry too fast.

HeyHeyy! The predicted cold spell does not seem to come, instead it warmed up! It went totally upside down, now its 70F and clear sky!!!

Now I'm really a happy chap, the weather prediction looks really good if it doesnt change too much. Actually I don't take it serious anymore, just taking it day by day as they come.

Summer, looks like it's coming with storm! Let's enjoy it! :)