Update on Yuzu in WA state, September 2024

[SoCal2warm]

This Yuzu tree is in Olympia, WA, in the Yashiro Japanese garden.

It was originally grown from seed, and is now 42 inches tall.
It is not covered during the winter. But the small Japanese garden is located in the downtown area of the city, and is enclosed by a high fence. So the spot is mostly protected from colder winds. It probably does not get as cold there as more open rural areas further away from the city. It's a very optimal spot. From what I've seen, if it were any colder than this, a Yuzu would probably not grow so well in this region. Pictures taken September 5, 2024.


This is an Ichang lemon. It is planted in a very protected spot, sort of a nook close to the wall of a house. It gets plenty of sun early in the day but is mostly shaded from afternoon sun. It is not very big, maybe only 20 inches high, but the leaves have survived through the winter and it has put out a good amount of new leaf growth this year. It was not covered last winter.



I tried to grow two small Ichang papeda plants further out in the yard away from the house but they slowly declined after the first winter, despite being able to put out a little new leaf growth, and were not able to end up surviving after the second winter. They just seemed to lack enough vigor to be able to grow fast enough and recover from the winter. Yuzu plants seem to be more successful here, but even then I had a bush (on grafted rootstock) that gradually declined after two years and finally did not recover after the third winter and died. I do have another very small Yuzu bush in the yard (further out from the house) that is slowly recovering from being mostly killed-back during an especially cold winter 3 years ago. I've noticed that the hardy citrus plants seem to do better if they are closely surrounded by bushes of other plants, which seem to offer them some cover and a little bit of insulating protection from both the cold winds of winter and the hot dry heat of summer.


This is a Dunstan citrumelo, or at least just a picture of the top part of the plant.

It has done very well and seems to be the most resistant to cold damage out of the many hardy citrus varieties I have seen here.
There's a bush at the bottom and then a tall leader branch that rises up with some more growth at the top, 78 inches tall from the ground.
It usually keeps its leaves, but there was one winter that was so cold that the leaves died and later fell off, even though most of the petiole segments of the leaf remained alive on the plant (that's the very small segment of the leaf at the base where the leaf attaches to the stem).
It has not yet shown any signs of flowering or fruiting, so it may take a few more years for it to get bigger and more mature.

It is important to keep citrus well watered in the summer, since the summers are dry in the Pacific Northwest. And likewise the desiccating effect of cold winter winds is not really a problem here (like it is on the East Coast), since the winters are almost constantly so wet. The growing season is not the longest in this region of the country. The plants mostly do not experience any real heat until after the start of June, and then by the end of October the heat is usually gone and the days are cold. There are only about 4 prime months of growing season, and even that is assuming the plants will be kept continually well watered. But on the other hand, the winters are mostly not too extreme. While constantly cold throughout the winter, the nights do not drop very low below the freezing point most of the time. This means there are many subtropical plants that can be grown in the Pacific Northwest that could never be grown at the same latitude on the East Coast of the country, and many of those plants can even bloom in late December or the middle of January. Usually there are only about 2 weeks in the year of extremely cold weather and snow. And maybe about 1 out of every 4 years the city only gets a very light sprinkling of snow that barely clings to the ground for a day.

[a_Vivaldi]

Ichang papeda not doing as well as yuzu is fascinating, and really surprises me.

All very good points about climatic differences. Sometimes I envy y'all west coasters. But other times I thank heavens I was born and raised down South. It's more chaotic here, but there's also so much life in the ground and in the air.

[SoCal2warm]

Ichang papeda not doing as well as yuzu is fascinating, and really surprises me.

There is a huge Ichang papeda bush in Portland, Oregon, in the Hoyt Arboretum, planted right against the wall of the visitor's center. The plant looks like it's doing very well and I have seen fruits on it. (Though the fruits do not have any seeds, probably due to lack of pollination because there are no other citrus varieties planted nearby, and maybe the Poncirus trifoliata next to it doesn't bloom at the same time) The bush is between 7 to 8 feet in height, and has huge thorns, many of which are nearly 3 inches long.
The precise location is at the very top of a small mountain, what amounts to a big forest preserve that is surrounded by the city. 

The fruits themselves sort of remind me of kaffir lime, but a little poorer in fruit quality, and half in a lemon flavor direction rather than only lime. The peels of the fruit are moderately tender and edible, maybe analogous to Yuzu, Calamondin, mandarinquat, or citron. Sort of dry inside, very little juice, but I imagine the peel might be useful for flavoring gin (alcohol). I can eat the peel, but if I eat more than about one or two of the whole fruits, my stomach feels a little uneasy, slightly queasy. They do have the very slightest "skunky" taste, but nothing like Poncirus.
Probably not something most people would be enthusiastic about snacking on out of hand, but I imagine they could have some culinary uses.

[drymifolia]

Here's my own yuzu seedling in WA state. My winter minimum was 14.7°F and it defoliated but no real stem damage.








It has grown more slowly this year than last year, and leafhoppers have been targeting it to the point where the new leaves often get distorted, especially in early summer.  I think some leafcutter bees might be doing some nibbling too. The Physalis peruviana next to it has been trying to take over this spot a bit, but winter will solve that one.

I probably could have fertilized it more (it got one weak dose of fish emulsion in late spring). I'm debating feeding it now but it's probably too late for this year.