The Tropical Fruit Forum

Merry Christmas! And, Merry citrus!

You're welcome LaCasaVerde. The MyHeat puts out just enough hot air to warm a small enclosure and doesn't take too much electricity. I used to get them at Walmart but the last few I got, I had to get from Amazon.

Tom, you're welcome for the pictures. Yes, I've thought about the water heater approach too, but I've noticed dieback on some of my young trees just above the height of the water barrel the winter before last in the unheated high tunnel; I think the area of heat given off by the water barrel is small, maybe only a few inches. I think the space heater with fan is better because it keeps the warm air moving and distributed throughout the enclosure. The water barrels help reduce the amount of air space that my little heaters have to warm up. Merry Christmas to you too, Tom.

I just use water barrels in the high tunnel containing the hardier trifoliate hybrids, ichangs, and Nansho dai dai.

Viking Guy, do you know the name of the cemetery in Knoxville? I'm 2 hours east of there and will go look for it one day. We were wanting to go to the zoo there one weekend anyway.

Thanks guys. I've left them outside in pots for several weeks now with several good freezes, so now I'm bringing them inside house to germinate to get a head start on the growing process.

I have a sapling seedling ruby red grapefruit that I planted in ground in line with citranges and Ichangs that are protected by high tunnel and water barrels in winter. The seedling GF was about two feet tall and multitrunked, and with low of 10 degrees last winter, it did defoliate, but survived and grew bigger this year. My Rio Red GF partially defoliated two winters ago when I forgot to plug in small space heater in its PVC tent enclosure when low of 19 degrees one night, and it didn't bloom the next spring. It's seven feet tall now, bloomed this spring, but didn't hold fruit. I know my Kimbrough satsuma survived 19 degrees or lower an entire night and into next day without space heater and bloomed the next year without leaf drop.

I planted Santa Rosa in Gainesville, Fl just before I left home for NC, and it grew large and made some plums before my parents neglected it. The wild Chickasaw plums that were there in 1994 when we moved there are still there and producing fruit. If you're north of palmetto, I'd definitely try Chickasaw plums. I saw wild Chickasaw plums blooming once in the eastern part of manatee county on a cattle fence, but never saw them in the wild in east Bradenton or near the coast; the climate changes from tropical to more subtropical as you go east from coast in manatee county. My grandma showed me a dogwood tree in someone's yard in palmetto when I was a kid and it looked like crap. My uncle in Lakeland however has beautiful dogwood and redbud trees that bloomed well. When in Bradenton I was able to grow Anna apples, Einshimer apple, Fuyu persimmon, and of course any kind of citrus or tropical fruit. Grandma had guava bush at one time but said a freeze wiped out the guavas in palmetto at some time in history. With global warming going on I'd try tropical fruits there if I were you, otherwise you'll be like me hoping for enough cold weather to make your temperate fruit trees go dormant and bloom. If they don't get enough cold to go to sleep at winter, certain trees will get stressed from lack of sleep and die. I've killed crabapples, Bradford pear, wisteria, dogwood, redbud from lack of cold in east Bradenton in the early 90s when climate was colder than it is now.

Question: I just planted my Poncyrus trifoliata seeds in pots. Should they overwinter outsideto germinate in spring like they would naturally, or can I just keep them inside to germinate faster like any other citrus seeds? I've germinated citrumelo inside before, but it's half tropical. Didn't know if PT had cold requirement. This is my first PT seeds I've grown at home. I got Three Fruits this year. I tasted one before that I got somewhere else and it was nasty. I was surprised today that my PT smells and tastes like jasmine. Not really bitter and didn't make me pucker like a lemon would. 30 seeds in one golf ball size fruit though.

This one is on its own roots so is destined to get big. In years past I protected it with 4 mil plastic sheeting over PVC pipe frame. Last year's frame got crushed under snow but the water barrel next to tree helped minimize damage.  Now tree is over 10 feet tall and a long branch at top has no thorns so that branch may bloom next year, so I didn't want to risk loosing this newer growth this winter. I never know what kind of winter I'll have here, so I try to protect the citrus just in case. It has not fruited yet. I had planted a lot of trees on own roots or grew from seed before I learned that it's better to have grafted shorter varieties. I just can't stand to see a beautiful tree killed so I'll protect them as long as I can.

I think it's great, Tom. I've tasted sweeter, but to me the Kimbrough and my owari are store quality seedless easy to peal and have survived polar vortex in NC, so I'm thrilled.

I planted this satsuma about 5 years ago when it was a new graft from Stan Mckenzie. It has done very well.