Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Messages - bussone

Pages: [1] 2 3 ... 15
1
Cold Hardy Citrus / Re: F2 citrange winter hardiness trial
« on: February 06, 2026, 02:54:35 PM »
Looking at my weather station, since January 24, I've had right at 24 hours total that were at freezing or above, with a minimum low of 3.6 F (-15.8 C).

It's not forecast to hit above freezing again until February 10. So it will make for fully 16 out of 17 at sub-freezing temperatures.

For context, in some years, my roses are budding out by Valentine's Day (February 14).

2
Cold Hardy Citrus / Re: Colder than normal
« on: February 06, 2026, 02:45:09 PM »
Quote from: BP on February 03, 2026, 12:27:58 PM
Quote from: bussone on February 03, 2026, 12:19:09 PM
Quote from: BP on February 02, 2026, 11:38:09 AM
How do you set them to turn on based on temps? That sounds slick!

Thermo cube. I was wrong on the temps: on at 20, off at 30.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000M4ZJ6Y?ref=ppx_pop_dt_b_product_details&th=1

Wow that is cool thanks!

I like the TC-2 specifically because it doesn't take it up above freezing, so it's not cycling between freeze/thaw.

There's also a TC-3 which cycles between 35 and 45 and a TC-1 (discontinued?) that cycles between 0 and 10. I'm too cold to try to hold above freezing (35F), so I settle for "won't kill the tree"

3
Cold Hardy Citrus / Re: Colder than normal
« on: February 03, 2026, 12:19:09 PM »
Quote from: BP on February 02, 2026, 11:38:09 AM
How do you set them to turn on based on temps? That sounds slick!

Thermo cube. I was wrong on the temps: on at 20, off at 30.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000M4ZJ6Y?ref=ppx_pop_dt_b_product_details&th=1

4
Cold Hardy Citrus / Re: Citremon hardiness
« on: February 02, 2026, 11:40:37 AM »
Quote from: bussone on August 02, 2024, 12:50:52 PM
Anyone have an idea which version Madison is offering?
https://madisoncitrusnursery.com/products/citremon-citrus-tree

I'm assuming it's Citremon B (CRC 1449), but I'm not certain.
https://citrusvariety.ucr.edu/crc1449

If so, they sound zone 8ish, and probably won't make it overwinter without a lot of help.

Realized I never followed up on this. This one handled a low of about 8 F and came through the best out of Prague (some damage) and Thomasville (the Thomasville died, but the rootstock survived). It did have a heat lamp for some additional benefit, but not the best sealing. But it did the best as compared to nominally hardier neighbors.

Now, that said, this winter is posing more of a challenge. We haven't been above freezing for more than a week, with lower- and windier lows than last year. This year will probably stress everything I have that isn't poncirus.

5
Cold Hardy Citrus / Re: Colder than normal
« on: February 02, 2026, 11:36:36 AM »
Quote from: Unicyclemike on January 31, 2026, 12:46:57 PM
What protection methods are you guys implementing?  I am in zone 6b/7a

I'm using 2.8 oz frost nets, with a 7 mil white contractor demo bag outside that.

The trees I care most about (and which are closest to the house) also have a 40w lampshade under the bag.

frost+bag+lamp:
unknown citremon
   Madison's unknown variety: https://madisoncitrusnursery.com/products/citremon-citrus-tree
Prague citsuma
Thomasville citrangequat

frost+bag:
Morton citrange
US-942 citrange

nothing:
poncirus (species)

The lamps are set to go at 15 F and off at 25 F. They've been running quite a bit this last week or so.

6
Cold Hardy Citrus / Re: New Citrumelos: Iva Swingle and Dingle
« on: January 30, 2026, 11:16:30 AM »
What's the hardiness like for Iva Swingle?

7
Cold Hardy Citrus / Re: F2 citrange winter hardiness trial
« on: January 28, 2026, 06:03:22 PM »
Quote from: kumin on January 23, 2026, 04:48:31 PM
Indeed, we're heading to subzero temperatures by Tuesday morning.

I'm a touch worried for my US-942. It survived last year, but this year has been both colder and colder for longer than last year. It has a frostcover, but this winter might be pushing its survivability. Neither it nor my Morton have supplemental heating.

8
Cold Hardy Citrus / Re: Frost hardy citrus in Poland, zone 6
« on: January 28, 2026, 05:57:55 PM »
Quote from: BP on January 21, 2026, 12:15:59 AM
I've wondered for a long time about the insulating properties of snow, thanks for sharing that

I've noticed that if you have bagged your citrus, you get very limited protection provided by snow if it has not covered the bag.

I've got 12" (30 cm) of snow around my in-grounds, but my heat lamps -- set to go on at 15 F (-10 C) and off at 25 F (-4 C) -- have been on a lot even at temps as high as 20 F (-7 C).

9
Cold Hardy Citrus / Re: F2 citrange winter hardiness trial
« on: January 23, 2026, 04:31:25 PM »
This week should provide a challenge for Kumin's crop. If he's where I think he is, his place is going to be below freezing until February and hitting lows of around 5F or lower of multiple nights.

10
Cold Hardy Citrus / Re: Colder than normal
« on: January 23, 2026, 04:28:03 PM »
Quote from: Walt on January 23, 2026, 04:02:18 PM
Friday night through Sunday temperatures will range from 8F to 1F.  Not good citrus weather.

I'm in 7B, and we're looking at a week of lows at 10 F or lower, with a forecast low for the week of 4F (which is actually 7A weather). Highs won't break freezing.

11
Cold Hardy Citrus / Re: F2 citrange winter hardiness trial
« on: December 19, 2025, 12:21:55 PM »
Quote from: kumin on December 19, 2025, 03:59:04 AM
The lowest temperature they would have been exposed to was 19 degrees, well below their comfort zone.. At 28 degrees the thick rind on 5 Star Citrumelo is quite resilient. Citrandarin rinds are less resilient. Another important factor is length of exposure and number of repeated exposures.
At this point our very lowest temperature has been 5 degrees .

Got down to about 12F here near Philly.

Kumin is more interior in the state than I am (about 90 min away), so he loses the moderating effect of a tidal river.

12
Cold Hardy Citrus / Re: Yuzukichi from Quissac
« on: December 01, 2025, 04:30:53 PM »
Quote from: Skandiberg on November 22, 2025, 06:22:23 AM
Or maybe I will visit Mr. Bajusz for a box of fruits and prepare a PT jelly which I never tried, using the rind of some leftover fruit.

If you're making PT jelly, either use no rind at all or use the rind of some other citrus.

PT jelly is pretty good! PT marmalade is awful!

\I've never tried to make PT jam/preserves.
\\Jelly: uses juice; jam: uses juice and pulp; marmalade: uses juice and rind

13
Cold Hardy Citrus / Re: An unusual seedling
« on: December 01, 2025, 04:27:39 PM »
Quote from: BorisR on November 22, 2025, 12:26:20 AM
If anyone is interested, this strange seedling has not changed in any way during the season.

It didn't change, or it didn't grow at all?

14
Cold Hardy Citrus / Re: The Citrus I have
« on: November 21, 2025, 04:34:17 PM »
Quote from: Skandiberg on November 19, 2025, 05:40:15 AM
Random PT Brix 14
This is the stickiest of the lot and this has the darkest, nearly pale orange rind. I didn't feel this amount of resin with the first three ones as obviously as here. But now comes the good part: it's sweet and also less acidic! Okay, not Kishu sweet but I don't need my imagination to call it sweet. It's a shame about the resin because this one is quite good. Actually tastes a little sweeter than Bajusz. This fruit came from a mediterranean area so I'm not sure if this sweetness is the result of the genetics of strain itself or just the extra sunshine. I have several fruits, I must check if they are the same good. This one fruit alone has dozens of seeds so if anyone wants a few, let me know. This fruit was a real surprise to me. If any of you grows PT in hotter areas, please let me know if it's normal to have such sweet(ish) fruit.
If this flavour came in a mandarin structured fruit without resin, I would say it's nearly edible.

Worth keeping around, anyway. PT is pretty easy to grow from seed.

15
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Alternative Citrus Greening treatment? What do you think?
« on: November 05, 2025, 05:30:02 PM »
Quote from: growinginphoenix on November 05, 2025, 12:53:28 PM
I came across this account in a book I'm reading. What do you think? For context, this was in Brazil.



Syntropic Agriculture According to Ernst Götsch, 1st edition in English, page 81

I think that's mostly woo. They are likely seeing a minor fertilizer effect from composting and the real advantage they are getting is using a taller canopy to break up exposed citrus area. We already know that canopy cover confuses psyllids and reduces their infestation level and the downstream greening infection. This is likely what the eucalyptus plantings are really doing. Thing is, this is amelioration, not prevention.

16
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Should I pick my Thomasville Citrangequat's
« on: November 05, 2025, 05:26:30 PM »
Quote from: LBurford on November 05, 2025, 12:25:30 PM
My Thomasville Citrangequat is absolutely loaded with fruit. They are still green, but the largest ones have a very faint sign of turning yellow. Next Monday the weather forecast says we may get down to 32 degrees then the lows are back on the low 40's and high 30's after that. Will this one night of possible 30 to 32 degrees ruin the fruit? What should I do.

If you are concerned, a frost net might keep your tree above 32 F.

17
Cold Hardy Citrus / Re: Tips for Germinating Poncirus Trifoliata seeds
« on: October 20, 2025, 06:07:57 PM »
Quote from: coldhardycitrus on October 19, 2025, 05:21:03 PM
Can anyone give me info on how to successfully germinate poncirus trifoliata seeds.?

I have twice now ordered seeds online and followed the directions precisely as printed without success.

1. Soaked for 24 hours in water.
2. Placed in fridge in most medium for 30 days to cold stratify
3. Planted at 1/2 inch depth in citrus/cactus potting mix in 1 quart pot
4. Kept soil moist and above 70 degrees F.

Twice now, nothing has happened. What am I doing wrong?

Any advice would be helpful as I really would like to germinate some trifoliate orange seeds.

I just tossed them in a finger-poked hole in potting soil in a ... 4" (maybe pint?) and left them in my semi-heated basement. (Around 60F)
More grew than did not grow.

post-script: most of mine were taken from refrigerated fruit, though.

18
Cold Hardy Citrus / Re: F2 citrange winter hardiness trial
« on: October 14, 2025, 11:54:15 AM »
Quote from: kumin on October 09, 2025, 03:31:58 PM
I've attached photos of another hardy selection: Conestoga 128. The fruit is tart but not bitter. The rind is not outstanding .

"Not outstanding" is high praise for a poncirus descendant. Poncirus's rind is typically described as "unspeakably foul" or "evidence for the existence of Satan."

Are all of these pubescent?

19
Cold Hardy Citrus / Re: F2 citrange winter hardiness trial
« on: October 14, 2025, 11:52:04 AM »
Quote from: kumin on October 08, 2025, 03:20:16 PM
Today's taste test of several selections, all of which survived -8°F during the past Winter.

Conestoga 006 is among the hardiest of the selections. It's also the earliest to ripen, as it's beginning to drop fruits.
The flavor is the least acceptable of the 5 fruits picked and tasted today. The bitterness isn't overwhelming, but there's an earthy component in the taste. Highly acidic, as are all of the fruits tested today. This selection is very productive

Conestoga 010
Another very productive selection, as hardy as any of the 5 types tasted today. This is the close second in the agreeable flavors. The seediness is practically equal among all 5 sampled. This one is second in ripening, the fruit tested wasn't quite fully ripe. The tree may be slightly more vigorous than 006.

Conestoga 026
Despite not being fully ripe, this was the best flavored of the 5 fruits,with a very light sweetness being discernable at this stage. It's flavor reminded me of a tart Grapefruit.

Do you think the earthiness might be an aspect of fully-ripening? Sort of like how limes are picked green because they develop off-flavors when fully ripe?

In short -- have you tested a not-fully-ripe Conestoga 6, or a fully-ripe 10 or 26?

20
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Magic cambium
« on: September 24, 2025, 11:26:24 AM »
Quote from: psa on September 23, 2025, 04:30:55 PM
I'm pulling out all the stops to go to war with the rats--traps, poison, deterrent sprays and paints, whatever it takes.  They dug up and ate the rhizomes as well as the plants themselves--everything from poinsettias to passion flowers.  They chewed through hardware cloth (metal wire) and plastic to get to some of them.  I'm still trying to figure out what to wrap the tree trunks with.  Many of them are grafted low and they gnawed on the branches, so it's not just a matter of a tube wrap.

Sometimes I paint the trunks to protect them from scald, and I thought I might do that and mix capsaicin and mint oil in.  Then wrap with burlap and use one of the many deterrent sprays on that.  I don't know what if any of it will work, though.  I think they're pretty desperate with hunger by the time they go to work on the bark.  So I'm hoping the traps and bait will get them.

I would really like to stop them before that point.  They were willing to eat the fruit before it was ripe, and I got none of it last year.  And there are more plants that really need to be in the greenhouse, but I don't want eaten.

Supposedly copper wire works better than steel wire.

Granted, copper wire might be harder on your plants, too.

21
Cold Hardy Citrus / Re: Taichang F2 trifoliate shows fruits for the first time
« on: September 16, 2025, 11:57:02 AM »
original thread:
https://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=24267.0

22
Cold Hardy Citrus / Re: My Prague Citsumas
« on: September 10, 2025, 04:31:29 PM »
Quote from: Ilya11 on September 10, 2025, 08:31:07 AM
It is just very slow to mature, you need to be patient.
When it reaches around 2 meters height, fruits are becoming more abundant and large.

It seems to grow in every direction *except* up!

23
Cold Hardy Citrus / Re: very old trifoliate, maybe poncirus
« on: August 29, 2025, 03:16:30 PM »
Quote from: jim VH on August 26, 2025, 11:53:30 AM
How tall is it? My 18 year old Flying Dragon is about 10 feet tall. They grow faster as they get older too.

To a point. Flying Dragon is pretty runty even when full-grown, and even species poncirus is shortish.

Longwood Gardens has some poncirus specimens that they date to the early 1980s, so they are about 40-45 years old now. They are probably 12-15 ft tall.

Truck diameter might tell you more, but my tree in SE Pennsylvania has siblings in SW Michigan, and its trunk diameter is 2x those. Indy is both colder and warmer than SW Michigan (Lake Michigan moderates extremes in both directions), so it will probably grow a little faster in the higher summer temps of Indianapolis than it would in Michigan, but a bit less quickly than around Philly, because Philly has both warmer summers and winters.

24
Citrus Buy, Sell, & Trade / Re: Looking for rootstock seeds (US-942, US-812, C-57 or FA-5)
« on: August 22, 2025, 03:40:39 PM »
FWIW:

Woodlanders and Madison Citrus sell US-942.

Not sure on seeds, but it can't hurt to ask.

25
Cold Hardy Citrus / Re: The Elusive Michigan Citrus: A Lifetime Experiment
« on: August 20, 2025, 12:52:06 AM »
Quote from: Lobotomy on August 18, 2025, 04:26:26 PM
Quote from: bussone on July 15, 2025, 12:51:42 PM
Visited those trees this week. They are alive, although still really bitty in size. They survived a prolonged hard freeze without cover this winter, and they are planted in a shady area -- the combination of the two means they are all still runts, especially compared to their sibling seedling in the Philadelphia area. But they are also all alive -- even the one that got nibbled by a rabbit.

That's a heartening result. How old are those plants now?

This is their third year, I think.

I've noticed my poncirus here tends to put on growth flushes when its hot. I do wonder if poncirus needs a fair amount of summer heat, even though it's cold tolerant.

My hardy figs act like that, too.

Pages: [1] 2 3 ... 15