Author Topic: Cold hardiness of various citrus  (Read 4726 times)

Millet

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Cold hardiness of various citrus
« on: July 25, 2014, 03:22:53 PM »
Commercial citrus types differ in cold hardiness.  Mandarin trees are most hardy  followed by (in order from most hardy to least hardy) Sour Orange, Sweet Orange, Grapefruit, Pummelo (Shaddock), Lisbon lemon, Eureka lemon, Tahitian lime, Mexican lime, and citron.  Trees of citron, lime, and lemon are least hardy because they tend to grow continuously and flower and fruit in cool weather.  On the other hand, grapefruit, sweet orange, mandarin, and kumquats are more frost hardy because their growth stops in cold weather. Also, a tree's tolerance to frost is not the same as the fruit's tolerance to frost.  For example, although satsuma mandarin trees are very cold hardy, their fruit are small and thin skinned, which makes them more susceptible to frost damage than grapefruit, which are large and have a firm rind. Another factor responsible for differences in frost tolerance is the maturity of the fruit.  Fruit that is closer to maturity at the time of a freeze can withstand more cold than immature fruit.  For example, although Valencia and navel trees are equally cold hardy, navel orange fruit  are generally more cold tolerant than Valencia fruit because navel fruit mature earlier and have a higher sugar content during the coldest months.  - Millet

Delvi83

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Re: Cold hardiness of various citrus
« Reply #1 on: July 30, 2015, 08:37:11 AM »
Interesting !! The problem with many new Poncirus-hybrid is that the plant can withstand 10F, but the fruit doesn't ripe in time and is damaged in early winter.....are there cold-hardy citrus (Hybrid or not) whose fruits are also cold-hardy or they ripe early in fall?

Millet

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Re: Cold hardiness of various citrus
« Reply #2 on: July 31, 2015, 09:40:16 PM »
Citrus varieties that are quite cold hardy, yet produce really excellent tasting fruit Satsuma's are king.   Xie Shan (pronounced She Shan)
is an early maturing Satsuma giving mature ready to eat fruit as early as September in most locations.   At the 2013 Citrus Expo's taste testing contest, Xie Shan won 1st place .   I have 3 Xie Shan Satsuma trees, because they produce such wonder fruit. - MIllet

Mangorilla the Uslurper

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Re: Cold hardiness of various citrus
« Reply #3 on: August 02, 2015, 08:47:01 AM »
I wonder if there is a way to force a lemon or lime tree to go dormant for the winter or at least to cause it to significantly slow it's growing for a few weeks.

Delvi83

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Re: Cold hardiness of various citrus
« Reply #4 on: August 17, 2015, 12:51:21 PM »
Maybe grafting Lemon on P.trifogliata could help you....but Lemon is one of the most sensitive to the frost.

Pancrazio

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Re: Cold hardiness of various citrus
« Reply #5 on: August 21, 2015, 05:37:51 PM »
On the other hand, grapefruit, sweet orange, mandarin, and kumquats are more frost hardy because their growth stops in cold weather.

That's true. I was thinking, most of the citron people see for sale are obtained from cuttings, because citron do so well with cuttings. Maybe if people started grafting them on poncirus trifoliata they would change idea on the frost hardiness of the citron?
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