bklyn: http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=23499.0 That link is an interesting read. Wish I knew about it when we visited Prague and Brno several years back.

Laura: Your tree has distinct PT/FD like stems and thorns. Very interesting plant indeed. I hope it survives and you get lots of fruits. Take several cuttings and propagate. PT/FD both are hard to propagate by cuttings so take several. I hope it roots for you.

Make the two

I took six cuttings today and am trying to root them. I’ll let you guys know if any take.

our community garden group had a rooter come over to show us how to root hardwood cuttings

the bud area has stem cell that can promote roots or bud grown as needed. I have 3 Meiwa mature twigs rooting and3 NZLs to. I'll give progress reports

Steve

Here they are along with Rangpur lime cuttings. Cross fingers a few take. Now the police will certainly knock on my door since they’re in the basement lol ;)

Thanks Steve! I saw this guide just now and the deed in done. I hope some will take. I am going to cover up the in-ground plant and, underneath the plastic, clamp a heating lamp onto it (from when I had chickens). My neighbors are going to think I’m nuts.

Good setup. I think one light a bit closer should be plenty for now.

What Steve said about cutting close to a node is also a good idea. Burying several nodes in soil also increases the chances of rooting. Nodes have those primitive stem cells (in vast numbers) that have the ability to differentiate into shoot or root. Once cut the cells are activated to repair the cut and start the process of forming roots.

Usually, for many types of woody plants, if the stem is more mature, they have hidden buds all along the stem and the cut point is not that critical. Woody cuttings of ficus, for example, will readily root from any location along the stem. If it is too mature and the bark is thicker then it may need to be wounded to make it easier for the roots to push out. For citrus, I have found that a semi-woody cutting offers the best chance of rooting.

Wow Laura, I may have to hit you up for some cuttings! Maybe I can trade for Citrandarin (US 852), which might just survive in your area. I have seeds of Citrandarin as well as Tai-tri.

Dave What is a tai-Tri and what would it be used for

Laura The Citrandarin should do well in your area. It is a zone 7a tree.

Steve

I would be happy to trade Dave. Let's see if it actually survives though. I will put that heating lamp on it, but for the next few days, it will not be necessary. Pranab, I have not had great success rooting cuttings so far, but let us hope that some of these will take. I have noticed the roots growing from nodes and did make sure to bury several in the soil. Keep in mind guys that I am fairly certain that this tree is grafted onto FD, so I do not know if the cold tolerance of it on its own roots is as good. Fingers crossed...

poncirusguy , I did a post about Tai-tri a week or so ago. It's Citrus taiwanica (Nansho Daidai sour orange) x P. trifoliata.

When I rooted Dunstan citrumelo cuttings, they rooted beautifully on a heat mat. I had not had success before. Fingers crossed for yours!

http://www.walterreeves.com/uploads/pdf/coldcitrus.pdf

A picture i promise, peppers up the ying-yang.

Wow that is an amazing site! I want that tree hahaha!

Bob; Nice collection I will be growing 1 variety and I have no idea what its name is. Brought over from Romania a couple hundred years ago and that family gave me seeds.

Steve

Thanks Amanda. Bob, that is an impressive collection of peppers! I do not eat spicy peppers though! I have no tolerance for them and am afraid my throat will seize shut...lol

Here it is warm and cozy. I put a heat lamp in there clamped to the tomato cage. Fingers crossed it survives this arctic blast. We expect a low of 15 Tonya de wind chills in the -6-8 range...yikes!

That looks a good heavy duty cover - where did you get it?

Good news

An Item at 15F in 15F wind will remain at 15F no mater what the winchill is. For humans at 98.6 the stronger the wind the harder the pull against the body temperature. You have nothing to fear but fear itself.

Steve

Windy conditions in winter can desiccate the plant by rapidly drawing moisture out. For plants that go naturally dormant have better defense mechanisms. Even then you will notice outer branches die back because they are more exposed to the cold wind blasts.

Pranab, I got it off Amazon. I can find a link if you like. Do you guys think it will help? The heat lamp does generate some heat and hopefully the cover can help retain a little of it. Even a few degrees would help.

Pile up snow some to seal the bottom edge of the cover. That should help a bit more and help keep it in place in the event of windy condition. Place some bricks too. Wind can potentially blow the cover off completely.

I will look it up on Amazon - I did see a few but did not look around enough.

I believe wind chill does affect plants, to some degree. A plant can often manage to stay a few degrees warmer than the surrounding air.

Yes, wind can dessicate a plant in Winter (freeze drying effect). But this is not really at all an issue on the West Coast where winters are constantly wet.

Steve is on the mark when he said that wind chill is mainly meant for us humans who have to generate heat to maintain temperatures. It is not really applicable to plants who do not generate heat on their own. So technically plants cannot become any colder than air temperatures except in a micro climate next to a building or such things. In day time they can become a bit hotter from Sun's energy especially the leaves.

During spring, when temperatures can fluctuate very rapidly and when dormant plants are waking up a technique is often used to protect plant from sudden super chilly conditions. This is practiced in bonsai. And that is to spray water on the plant till you have a layer of ice all over the plants and leaves. It looks just like what happens after freezing rain. That layer of ice protects the plant from severe damage.

I do not know whether it will work for citrus though even the cold hardy ones.

Yes, Stan uses that technique for his citrus I believe.

I just covered my Owari with a tarp suspended by PVC arches. We're supposed to get down to 16 tonight - wonder if I should add some Christmas lights? There's also a black ~30gal water barrel in there as a passive solar heat source. It's already sailed through some mid-20s unprotected this winter.

If the air humidity is very low the ice on the leave will vaporize into the dry air and lower the plant temp below air temperature by as much as 0X F The water must be kept running to provide fresh water to turn to ice and release heat into the tree.

Steve

ANPHSIN Pack of 2 Drawstring... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07JCTCDY3?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

I’ll put some more bricks around it. I put a few to weigh the cover down. My neighbors are really going to wonder what I’m growing! L

At least its not getting directly crapped on, bet its OK

It’s fine. I just removed the cover. It got a couple of burns from the lamp, but otherwise seems unscathed.

looks good, did it really need the lamp? cover might have been enough

brooklyn, I don't know...it was awfully cold and windy so I guess I erred on the side of caution. For now it shall remain uncovered unless we get another arctic blast.

Looking pretty good and winner. I think the only thing that may kill it is when you start taking too many cuttings to distribute around - :( We are supposed to get even colder arctic blast middle of next week. Use the lamp closer and pointing to the ground. It will keep the roots warmer and since hot air rises the the upper parts should be OK.

Laura, that thing grew like a weed! I remember when you shared a cutting with Vlad which I wonder how it's doing too? You have only had that tree since July of the year 2016 and it looks that nice. Great job !!! It's a beauty. If it survives your winter and grows again in spring, please keep me in mind. I would love to try and grow that up here))))

Great job and I wish you all the luck. Appreciate you keeping us updated.

Pranab, thanks for the insights about the lamp. I'll try that next time. I think in about 10 days we may have lows in the teens again so I may have to resurrect the setup. I still have no idea what the fruit tastes like so it may be a lot of trouble for nothing. Mike, if it survives, I'll send you a cutting. The cuttings I have going seem ok so far. Pranab, a few of the rangpur cuttings look like they are budding slightly, so I may have a little plant for you come spring.

Great. Looking forward to Rangpur lime in spring.

Update: I just uncovered it after the arctic blast. One small branch is totally burnedfrom the heat lamp, but the rest of the tree is totally fine.

Looks like its been happier but all things considered looks ready to go in ground, where is Spring

Brooklyn it is in the ground. Yes, it will be happier when it’s warmer.

It looks like it should be OK. What kind of lamp is it that it burned the branch? I had a 100W equivalent CFL to keep some small figs in pots and some bonsai. This in a small stairwell from basement to the backyard. So it is somewhat better protected. The temp there was around 28F during the last cold spell of -6F lows.

It looks good to me. I don't have any thermometers but I used a 23W and two 13W CFL's to heat my 40+/- CUFT kumquat enclosure. It seemed to work through a 2 and -4 F.

Steve

I just looked...it is a 250W/120V heat lamp that emits red light. I did not get it for the trees. I bought it years ago when I had chickens to heat the chicks when they were tiny. I only used it now because it is what I found in the basement and it seems to work. Other than the small burned branch, the tree is fine. Interestingly enough, the outer branches closer to the ground that probably had the least amount of heat look the best.

Here are photos:

That is one powerful infra red heat lamp. In house those are often used over shower. I would definitely like one over our shower. 250W in a small closed area will heat things pretty fast. I think one or two CFLs would have been enough - although the fabric you used must let cold air in somewhat. But even then I think couple of CFLs would been OK. Anyway the plant survived and that is good enough.

The cover prevent evaporative cooling which can cool and additional 5+/-F.

Steve

Laura, it looks like those leaves actually froze, translucent like, and are going to fall off. I hope not!! I'm going to keep my fingers crossed for you. Please let us know how they fare once the warmer weather sunlight hots them. I hope they don't turn to mush or fall off along with the branches. Prayers for that one my friend!!

Mike

Thanks guys. Mike, they do not feel like they've frozen at all. They feel like normal leaves. I think the funky coloring must be because of nutritional deficiencies caused by the cold. I am sure it is not doing anything except trying to stay alive, like everything else outside. We are in for some some warm weather - it went up to almost 60 today and tomorrow it will be even warmer, so hopefully it will recover a bit. Pranab, it was what I had readily available. I guess it was overkill. I tried to put it closer to the ground like you suggested, but the tomato cage makes it impossible to get it in there and not touch the plant. As it was, the bulb did not actually touch the leaves and they still burned. There is just not much space in there with the cover and cage. I'm hoping I don't need it again for a while....

Laura, oh that's great . I hope it did alright. It's a shame we have to go through these extremes to keep our trees alive when I thought these arctic blast might be a thig of the past. It seems they are getting colder and colder each year. Now I have to double think what to plant and what to keep in pots. I did plant a hardy snow gardenia in the ground and it made it through the severe cold arctic outbreak we had in November for over 2 weeks in which our ponds and lake freakishly froze four inches in depth! Then it got warmer after that. But that plant is covered by an igloo, you know the kind you make lemonaid in. it's insulated. It was doing great until I had to cover it again for this blast. I have not been able to take the cover off yet and I pray it's ok. I deliberatly planted it against my house on the south facing side so that the foundation woud prevent the roots from freezing. Oh God, I wonder how it's doing? lol What we do for our trees I'll tell you. Please, keep us updated and good luck)))