Author Topic: Arctic Frost Satsuma experience  (Read 17278 times)

DFWCitrus

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Arctic Frost Satsuma experience
« on: April 06, 2017, 10:36:37 AM »
Hello, I just joined the forum here, great place and lucky find!

I live in the DFW area and recently transplanted myself from San Diego. I am a citrus nut and just had to have my citrus. After some research I discovered a Texas Satsuma variety originating from Texas A&M called Arctic Frost. It has been shown to have good cold tolerance down to 9-10oF.  Hard to believe. After getting several and planting them end of August last year, they took a bad beating when we had high winds and 16oF. They were covered and had a halogen uplight. Anyway I got complete die back of foliage and limbs, as did my Seto Satsuma I put in the ground. I guess they were still too young to take it?

I have found the Arctic Frost not to be vigorous and very touchy to transplanting. It is not a grafted plant but originally grown from seed and now propagated by cuttings.

Anyone else have experience with an Arctic Frost Satsuma?  I'll later attach a photo of the one Arctic Frost I kept in greenhouse protection this winter.

Larry

DFWCitrus

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Re: Arctic Frost Satsuma experience
« Reply #1 on: April 06, 2017, 01:10:49 PM »
3 year old Arctic Frost Satsuma. This cultivar thought to be the most cold hardy sweet edible citrus.


Millet

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Re: Arctic Frost Satsuma experience
« Reply #2 on: April 06, 2017, 02:51:32 PM »
Very nice trees.

vlan1

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Re: Arctic Frost Satsuma experience
« Reply #3 on: April 06, 2017, 05:43:40 PM »
Lots of people here in central texas bought arctic frost satsumas and orange frost oranges the last few years.

most of them got killed even with protection during the January cold snap when it got down to 20 or under for 2 nights.


Citradia

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Re: Arctic Frost Satsuma experience
« Reply #4 on: April 06, 2017, 08:03:50 PM »
Try Kimbrough. Mine has done very well with winter protection, even sailing through a night of 19 degrees or lower during an ice storm with no electricity to powerful my space heater in its plastic greenhouse without dropping leaves and fruiting the next year.

DFWCitrus

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Re: Arctic Frost Satsuma experience
« Reply #5 on: April 06, 2017, 10:43:45 PM »
Thanks. I have not seen Kimbrough for sale in my area of Texas, but I will watch for them. I pulled the Arctic Frosts out and put back into containers as they are damaged almost to the stump and the new growth wilted and died. Hoping my Seto Satsumas will make it through as they are more mature. I just need temps to stay above 18oF this next winter.

Citradia

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Re: Arctic Frost Satsuma experience
« Reply #6 on: April 07, 2017, 08:28:10 PM »
DFWCitrus, what did you cover the satsumas with? Plastic or frost cloth?  I've been covering my grapefruit and owari and Changsha and Meiwa with 4mil plastic and put small desk-top size space heaters inside the pvc pipe -frame enclosure for the past several years, and these trees survived zero degrees for several nights. I've also lost citranges that I tried to protect with frost cloth. Maybe your trees were not very dormant when the temps in the teens hit. I have a citradia citrange that did good with a low of 7 degrees this winter, but after a warm February, it started budding out, and when I got two nights of 14 degrees, the new growth died and it lost entire branches. We have to protect more when trees not dormant.

DFWCitrus

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Re: Arctic Frost Satsuma experience
« Reply #7 on: April 07, 2017, 09:34:50 PM »
DFWCitrus, what did you cover the satsumas with? Plastic or frost cloth?  I've been covering my grapefruit and owari and Changsha and Meiwa with 4mil plastic and put small desk-top size space heaters inside the pvc pipe -frame enclosure for the past several years, and these trees survived zero degrees for several nights. I've also lost citranges that I tried to protect with frost cloth. Maybe your trees were not very dormant when the temps in the teens hit. I have a citradia citrange that did good with a low of 7 degrees this winter, but after a warm February, it started budding out, and when I got two nights of 14 degrees, the new growth died and it lost entire branches. We have to protect more when trees not dormant.
I had purchased frost cloth but it was terrible. The problem was I did not adequately cover them. This year I will either buy or make a framed plastic covering for each in the ground citrus until they are more mature. Planting late in the season didn't help. I was hoping for another mild winter ;)

manfromyard

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Re: Arctic Frost Satsuma experience
« Reply #8 on: April 08, 2017, 09:03:05 AM »
I had one some years ago. Totally wimped out on me. It wasn't even close to the low that they said it could endure. It was up against a south wall and with protection. Just for comparison, my yuzuquat and meyer lemon that were in the same situation are still alive.

Maybe the name should be changed to Temperate Chill......

Totally false advertising on this variety, and it doesn't appear to come back from the trunk or roots after taking damage, unlike most citrus...

GregW

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Re: Arctic Frost Satsuma experience
« Reply #9 on: May 18, 2017, 06:45:02 PM »


I have found the Arctic Frost not to be vigorous and very touchy to transplanting. It is not a grafted plant but originally grown from seed and now propagated by cuttings.

Anyone else have experience with an Arctic Frost Satsuma?  I'll later attach a photo of the one Arctic Frost I kept in greenhouse protection this winter.

Larry
[/quote]

I have a couple of Arctic Frost and I don't consider them to be a vigorous grower either. My trees are in their second summer. I got them pretty late in the season last year. I have them planted in air pots.

Hopefully they will have a good growing season this year.

Citradia

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Re: Arctic Frost Satsuma experience
« Reply #10 on: May 18, 2017, 06:54:09 PM »
I saw arctic frost satsumas for sale in the greenhouse of an Asheville, NC nursery, and they were covered in small thorns; my other sats don't have thorns. Is this because the arctic frosts are cuttings from seedlings instead of more mature wood, or just thorny nature of this variety?

Ilya11

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Re: Arctic Frost Satsuma experience
« Reply #11 on: May 19, 2017, 04:41:58 AM »
Arctic Frost is not a pure satsuma, it's Satsuma x Changsha hybrid and it does have small thorns.
Best regards,
                       Ilya

Millet

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Re: Arctic Frost Satsuma experience
« Reply #12 on: May 19, 2017, 11:15:57 AM »
The history of the Arctic Frost hybrid satsuma, a Texas super star,---  who developed it and how it was developed.

https://today.agrilife.org/2015/06/10/arctic-frost-satsuma-mandarin-hybrid-named-new-texas-superstar/

SoCal2warm

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Re: Arctic Frost Satsuma experience
« Reply #13 on: May 19, 2017, 11:31:38 PM »
The surrounding Dallas area (including Southlake) is in climate zone 7, with central Dallas falling into zone 8a. Or that's how it's used to be. Within the last 10 years winter lows haven't gone down as cold as they used to and the entire region has moved into zone 8a.

I guess if you get desperate enough there's the "Ten Degree Mandarin" but it has seeds.
It would really help if you used shade cloth and kept the mandarins well watered during the hot summers, because the temperatures can get very high where you are. (A little thing some people may not realize is that mandarins do not do as well with these very high temperatures as other citrus)

Young citrus trees are more vulnerable to winter chill than more mature citrus trees. A 3-year-old tree might still be just a little young to put outside in zone 7 or 8.

 
« Last Edit: May 20, 2017, 12:08:48 AM by SoCal2warm »

Gsmeyer

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Re: Arctic Frost Satsuma experience
« Reply #14 on: May 22, 2017, 07:27:13 PM »
I recently took a patio citrus at the Fort Worth botanical garden. There is a lemon which will grow here without protection. It is the Ichang lemon.   The classes instructor had an ichang growing in his yard unprotected for years.   They are hard to find though.

Millet

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Re: Arctic Frost Satsuma experience
« Reply #15 on: May 22, 2017, 09:06:24 PM »
You can purchase Ichang Lemons from Stan McKenzie at http://mckenzie-farms.com/

Droshi

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Re: Arctic Frost Satsuma experience
« Reply #16 on: June 15, 2017, 01:24:31 PM »
I planted an Arctic Frost for my mother in Dallas, died this last winter when it got down to 10F (no protection, middle of yard). I was hoping it would come back from the roots, but no such luck.

Would have to agree that it's nothing special and might as well go with any other Satsuma and plan to protect it during winters.

AndrewAZ

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Re: Arctic Frost Satsuma experience
« Reply #17 on: June 16, 2017, 12:38:32 AM »
You could try changsha  mandarin.  It is seedy, but the fruit tastes very good.  Hardy to 15.

mikkel

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Re: Arctic Frost Satsuma experience
« Reply #18 on: June 16, 2017, 05:07:05 PM »
Is Arctic Frost available in Europe?

Delvi83

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Re: Arctic Frost Satsuma experience
« Reply #19 on: June 19, 2017, 05:34:08 PM »
I think there is a lot of marketing about these 2 cultivars.....I think they are not hardier than other (for example the Russian Satsuma cultivars)..

vanman

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Re: Arctic Frost Satsuma experience
« Reply #20 on: June 25, 2017, 11:58:52 AM »
I have arctic frost and orange frost in the ground.  One set is on its own rootstock, the other is grafted to trifloliate.  Both were protected with Christmas lights and covers.  This was their first winter.  One set got down to at least 14 degrees and probably lower but I stopped looking after 3am.  The lows for those three nights were 11, 3 and 5.


Here is Arctic frost (right) and Owari.  Owari suffer the most damage.  Where there were no Christmas lights, it died back.  The Arctic frost had mild to moderate damage. 




This is Orange frost and Xie Shan.  No damage at all.  The Xie Shan has fruit this year.  The real surprise is the mango seedling to the very right, no damage.  The Orange frost had fruit on it when purchased.  I picked them in Sept.  They were ok, not great and they had seeds. 

The pair that were grafted also were no damage, but they are smaller and much better protected.  These grafted ones are growing much slower.  Part of the reason is that they're growing in native soil versus a garden soil for the others. 

As of now, I don't have an opinion about Arctic or Orange frost.  Other mandarins so far seem to be about as cold hardy.  This last winter was fairly mild after those 3 days in Dec. 



« Last Edit: June 25, 2017, 05:23:21 PM by vanman »

Delvi83

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Re: Arctic Frost Satsuma experience
« Reply #21 on: July 06, 2017, 03:21:25 AM »
If Mango surivived this is not a "good" place to test the cold-hardiness of Satsuma :)

SoCal2warm

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Re: Arctic Frost Satsuma experience
« Reply #22 on: July 21, 2017, 01:41:34 PM »
It usually takes Satsuma trees 5 years in the ground before they are fully cold hardy.

dlhvac

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Re: Arctic Frost Satsuma experience
« Reply #23 on: January 26, 2019, 09:38:25 AM »
3 year old Arctic Frost Satsuma. This cultivar thought to be the most cold hardy sweet edible citrus.

  Hi all no survivors of my ruby red grapefruit in ground naval (only trifolate rootstock was 10 foot tall.
i have a naval that was given to me in an oak barrel that fruits but has seeds. i want to cross this with either the arctic frost or the other cold hardy mandarin variety developed in Texas. i don't have a problem with the citrus disease because of using the natural root fungus and supplementing with growth hormone  regulator Brassinolide . I cannot find these varieties anywhere in Florida
i want to cross the naval with seeds to arctic frost. I have been told the naval oranges that have seed are very rare so im keeping it in the half oak barrel. And to poster below the top of my mango died down to 6 foot was a 30 foot tree but it did survive barely was against a south facing concrete wall.

SoCal2warm

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Re: Arctic Frost Satsuma experience
« Reply #24 on: January 26, 2019, 02:32:26 PM »
Here's my Arctic Frost.

It was growing inside and then I planted it outside too early in March before the tree had time to be acclimated to the cold outside (it did not go below freezing though) and much of the top died back. It later started growing back.

This picture is from July:


This picture is from today (Jan 26) :


It lost all its leaves except two, and they both look a pale lime green. It looks like it may be able to come back though.
It probably would have done better had so much of the tree not died back in March (which was due to sudden transfer from warm growing conditions inside to a cold outside before it had time to become acclimatized). All those dead branches you see in the second picture had already died back in March, before the first picture was taken.

Olympia, WA, zone 8a


Incidentally I have a Satsuma that looks much better right now (but it's not a fair comparison, and the Satsuma was also covered with a frame until early January when the winds tore off the frame).
« Last Edit: January 31, 2019, 11:39:59 PM by SoCal2warm »