Both of your trees look great, Steve! The NZL looks so lush and green after coming through a cold winter planted in ground. What an accomplishment. Great job!

My in ground trees that are planted in the partial, underground gh, made it through their first winter just fine, but we do supplement heat with a wood furnace (blowers) that also heats our home.. So, not exactly exposed to the cold elements under glass like your setup. The furnace went out a handful of times on single digit and negative -20 evenings. The inside temperature never dropped down below 32 degrees and having a solar pool cover covering on the outside of gh helps. I don't know if you want to see pictures since I cheat with heat! :D Lol

Show pictures. I heated mine to keep it above freezing with an incandescent light bulb when the temperature dropped below 20F

Fukushu kumquat#2 · More Info

Greenhouse and bucket lights · More Info

I could not find these pictures last night. My trees would have died in December with out this greenhouse.

greenhouse over Fukushu 2 years back

Greenhouse and bucket lights · More Info

Steve

Planted down in partial underground gh. Gh is located on south/west side of house. Heated with wood furnace . Zone 4b: Satsuma tree's are planted on the south/east end. We had quite a few strong, cold, bitter, winter winds that somehow blew a portion of the pool cover off despite being tightly strapped down. There are some cold air gaps here and there (that need to be caulked this summer.) and the Satsuma trees planted near the windows had their leaves exposed to the cold air briefly which are showing a bit of a nutrient deficiency on the newer leaves, but, they look great overall and the tree had enough cool temperatures to set blooms and fruit during mid- late winter. I am really pleased with how well the Satsumas do. They are tough, hardworking trees.

I have a in ground Bearss Lemon which is doing well, but I made a mistake by planting it near the door, so it gets some cold air blown on it when the door gets opened, and the bottom leaves suffered a bit but I have a partial screen put up now, and will be making a taller screen before this coming winter.

I just planted a 5 gallon Shiranui, and a 5 gallon Tangelo from Harris. I only have enough room left to plant maybe one or two Dwarf citrus in ground. Maybe a pomelo and another mandarin. The rest of my collection will remain in pots, but I am going to downsize the collection and keep only the ones that do well for our conditions, produce well with good taste, and are not that fussy to grow. My daughter wants one of the Santa Teresa's and I may give the Genoa Lemon to my daughter-in-law. The rest I will give away and sell.

Zone 4b

This will be the first winter with my Owari, just planted this past march. Planning to use a pop-up greenhouse frame with added blankets on coldest nights, plus lights or a small heater if necessary. What I don't quite know yet is how to keep it from being too cold, but cool enough that it remains dormant.

Steve, looks like you got it pretty well figured out.

How do you keep it airtight?

My GH is screwed together and all airspaces are filled with an expandable sealing material. Foam, old shirts, News paper plastic bags stuffed with leaves. In heavy wind you feel little to no air movement inside.

Steve

Dave

Will the fruits ripen in time to clear the first fruit killing freeze.

Steve

Steve, it has not fruit yet, so I don't know. But most likely the fruit are not edible anyway!

I like seeing everyone’s trees - gives me hope. I plan to take the leap and plant my Prague satsuma in the ground - I think near my house. I worry because it is very thorny where I intend to plant it and is a high traffic area. I may need to re-examine my location.

Very impressive, Dave. I believe you can use the fruit in pies and for marmalade. Also read somewhere where you can candy the peel and grind it into a spice for cooking/baking.

Laura Just cut the thorn tips off. They do not grow back. It will take 15 minutes a year at most

Thanks Steve, I ended up putting it in a good spot where my pomegranate died (again!), so I’m giving up on those. Let’s hope this one fares better...

Laura. what made you decide to plant a Satsuma? Is it because it's hardier? Up to what temps can it withstand and can it stand a frozen ground with snow on it for weeks? I would love to do that!.

I know you have a planted in ground fig tree that is thriving that otherwise would probably not make it here. Maybe a tree that can take what your fig does would do great too?

Mike

Laura's tree is a Sitsuma not a Satsuma and It can go down to the 0 F range -18C.

Steve

Thanks for the correction Steve. You are right . I had forgotten the exact name. Mike, I got it from Stan McKenzie who was on the fence about whether it would survive here. I guess I'll find out. I'll let you guys know how it fares. It looks a lot like FD with huge thorns and twisty limbs. It has one flower on it now, but in the past, the fruit has not set. It is very slow growing (on FD rootstock), but maybe it will grow faster in the ground.

The coldest it ever gets here is maybe 10 F...this winter we may have reached 8, but normally it is nowhere near that cold.

It should grow much faster in ground.

Steve

Fukushu shoots

Looking great Steve! Jinny, your trees look great also!

Steve, your trees are simply magnificent. So lush and green- you'd think that they were grown and cared for in SoCal. Jinny yours are lovely too; all those babies are adorable!

Nancy

Looking good, Steve! I love the NZL buds. Laura and Nancy, thank you! :) I will be thrilled if both trees hold onto at least 2-3 fruits each so I can have a chance to sample the fruit at different ripening stages later this fall.

Thank for the compliments from all of you.

Steve

Laura, sorry to change the subject but you mentioned your Pomegranate died, again. What type of Pom did you plant? I just put a Pom, Favorite Variety in the ground out door and I'm concerned it won't last the Baltimore winter.

Unless you planted the giant Russian variety pom You will have problems in your inner city Zone 8a yard. My yard is 600 feet north of the zone 6a to 6b boundary and I am 15F to far north for even the Giant Russian pomagranate.

Steve

Jeff, I think mine was something along the lines of “wonderful pomegranate “...lol. I’m not sure! I got it from a local nursery and this zone is the northern range it seems, but a few blocks away, there is a HUGE pomegranate tree in the ground. I think this was a tough winter. Even my figs are not fully back. A few have one or two branches that are budding out, but I think many died. They are sprouting from the ground. Maybe if you string lights on the pomegranate?? Jeff...are you still interested in that limequat? I also have a Meyer I can sneak out ;)

String lights a great idea, one I'll definitely use when winter rolls around. The Limequat is a tempting offer for sure, but I think I have to pass. Really appreciate it though.

Nice thread Steve! Plants that were put in at the end of March have been growing like mad! At least the meyer and pink variegated lemon. Lot of new growth and now going into full flower. It's nice not having to water every 2 days in a container. I will get some pictures tomorrow. Did yours loose leaves over winter?

Very few leaves dropped My oldest leaves on the fukushu is almost 3 years old.

A lot of the figs around town have suffered major branch die-back, some only sprouting from the ground. We had a brutal stretch of weather in January. I've noticed that the fig trees in more protected locations did fine. Happily, mine didn't lose any branches and has leafed out well.

Meyer

Steve

Steve

Very nice thread indeed Matt!

Steve, I still have my in ground planted Meyer Lemon and Fukushu doing well these days. I have to keep cutting back the Lemon though! It's crazy

Today I finally dug up around the tree since the roots can rise to the top and dumped some composted manure on that and then fresh soil. Then I mulch it in. It's been a while since I fed her and today I will do that along with Miracid for acid loving plants. It's need to green up a bit but it sure is growing vigorously! I did bury a dead fish under the roots last winter and boy it seems to like that!

Mike

About dead fish. I bury raccoons around my trees and my trees seem to like that a lot. I trap them in a havahart trap and bury them after they are dead.

Steve and everyone. Here is a few pics I took of my planted in ground Lemon Meyer and Kishu Along with a kumquat growing like weeds. They just have to be fertilized with an acidic liquid. Been lazy about that.

Very nice Mike. Congratulations.

I was just noticing that the tree with you hand around it looks between 3 to 4 inches diameter. It looks absolutely fantastic.

Steve

Very nice Mike!!! Is the enclosure around them all year or do you remove it for summer. You must have to trim the height...they look huge!