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Arctic Frost Report

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GregW:
Greetings.
As I have mentioned before, I have two Arctic Frost trees that are around five years old. They have up until this point been a disappointment. The first orange was terrible, with a flavor that would cut your throat. Last summer I decided to make a last-ditch effort with them and planted them in the ground. They survived the cold snap of 17 Degrees last winter. I built a makeshift shelter consisting of ladders and tarps with a space heater for four nights/days.
This summer they have held their own, but nothing to brag about. At this point, I believe that my care of the trees is substantially responsible for their mediocre performance. I failed to appreciate the high nitrogen requirements of a tree planted in the ground. I'm convinced that had I fertilized correctly, they would have had a good year.

Currently, one tree has quite a bit of fruit, and the other just a few.
Please see the attached photo's:
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I find it somewhat odd that one tree has ripening fruit and the other tree has green fruit.
Maybe this is a normal occurrence.
The ripening fruit is all rather small, not a lot bigger than a golf ball. I have picked a couple of them. I am impressed with the flavor, the burning flavor in my throat is now absent. I have honestly bought "Cuties" from the store that tasted worse.

I'm blaming the small fruit size on the lack of fertilizer.

The tree with the fruit that is still green, I don't know about. Maybe it just didn't have any new growth to set fruit on. The fruit is bigger on this tree.

Based on tree size, can anyone recommend the proper amount of Osmocote Plus for next spring's application?

poncirsguy:
You can use Jacks 25-5-15,  I use Miracle grow 24-8-16 along with 20-0-10 grass feed with iron for my in ground trees.  I got 62 lemons on my in ground New Zealand lemonade tree.

GregW:
Thank you for your reply.
I was hoping to use a time-release formulation next season, I do have a bag of the  Jacks 25-5-15.
What is the best application rate and frequency for in-ground citrus?

Thank you again.
Greg

GregW:
I'm continuing to harvest the fruit. I'm really happy with the taste.
I'm looking forward to a good crop next season. I will definitely make sure the trees are protected if the cold gets extreme.

If Arctic Frost holds true to its cold-hardy name, it's going to be a winner.

nullroar:
Hey GregW, I'm near the Harvest, AL area, so we're about 90 minutes apart. I also have an arctic frost satsuma, though shortly after purchase, I was told by many in the community that it seems to fare no better than most other satsumas, and the name appears to be mostly for marketing purposes. We'll find out soon - I've got it on the south side of my house, but this is going to be its first winter in the ground.

I can say that, however our arctic frosts perform, it appears that some of the desirable qualities here may be (as others have told me) early ripening and how the tree handles dormancy. If it is grafted, is the graft high? if it goes dormant, does it break dormancy easily? Etc.

I'm looking into some early Louisiana varieties I hear may be viable. There's also the Xie Shen, which I'm trailing, as I've heard stories that it may be slightly more cold hardy than the arctic frost due to a longer dormancy period.

Let me know how it goes!

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