I am a brand new member, and happy to find the forum. It will be a source of a lot of information and entertainment for me for a long time.
When we designed and built the house I planned on planting various citrus. An N33 (TAMU hybrid) navel orange and Rio Red grapefruit are planted with a south exposure, up against a 10' concrete retaining wall, which substantially moderates cold temps. A Valencia orange and Improved Meyer lemon are planted with a south exposure against the concrete walls of the house, with a 4' overhang, also helping with frost, as is a Miewa kumquat. I plan to plant a Satsuma this spring, but need help on which has the better flavor: Arctic Frost or Orange Frost.
All trees are irrigated by drip on timers. With the varieties I have planted it is necessary to pay attention to the weather for hard frost protection, but it is only a problem a few nights a year and is definitely worth the trouble to have the best varieties I could find. (I highly recommend the N33 orange).
We had a sudden 16 degree frost last spring (was only supposed to be 28) that caught me by surprise. I put tarps on the trees, but did not put in any heat source. The Valencia froze back, lost all leaves, but came back ok. The tarp blew off the N33 and Rio Red, resulting in total leaf loss on the orange, and partial on the grapefruit. Lost all fruit on both orange trees.
Interestingly, with the grapefruit so close to the retaining wall it retained leaves and fruit on the branches closest to the wall, but lost them further from the wall. The tree came back vigorously so I decided to not thin the remaining fruit. I was interested in whether or not it would size up on 1/2 the tree. It did well, with many fruits over 1 lb. Here is a photo of one of my unthinned 'bunch of grapes(fruit)'.
https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipPEJ6DxB812S57OEirTLq-u-bwIRXcfY-IyleTHThe Meyer lemon came through with flying colors:
https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipPcDur6cSovVkgtcayntxlFoEQOl7YrMvSzd8LX and is blooming well now:
https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipO4ooYkRfdvFHV9HcHy1HsSsMaJ3YC1j7awecHEThe Meiwa lost all foliage, but came back well, bloomed and is now covered with fruit.
Once again, thanks for the forum, I am looking forward to making it one of my frequent stops.