Hello,

This is a great forum. I found my way over here from GW, and see that many of the most active contributors are moderators here.

I am a newbie to citrus and live in Central TX, right on the border of 8a/b. I have only three citrus: a small kaffir lime in a 3-gal container, a lemonquat in a whiskey barrel size container, and a satsuma planted directly in the ground. I stopped fertilizing in September, and the growth seems pretty hardened on all trees.

A cold front is heading in, and this is the first winter for these plants. The cold front will mean approximately 55/30 for the high/low for several days. See http://www.news8austin.com/content/weather/8day_forecast/ if you really have a lot of free time. =)

My question is, do I need to cover these citrus? And would it help if I did? I have large DuPont frost blankets that I use to protect my dwarf bananas.

My understanding when I bought the lemonquat and satsuma was that they are relatively cold hardy. On the other hand, I don't want them to lose all of their leaves. The kaffir came back from the rootstock of a neighbor's frost-killed Mexican Lime. I can put it in the garage, because it is easy to move.

Any advice you guys can give will be very helpful so I can minimize my labor (I will also be busy protecting my salad garden and bananas!) =)

Cheers,

Ed.

Recommend you plan to cover your satsuma every winter. I used to live in the hill country NW of Austin and although my satsuma survived a couple years in the 90's, it declined each year and never fruited again. I considered our location 8a (as is probably all that which is outside 620 in the hills).

If your lemonquat is synonomous with sunquat, then my guess is that it may be slightly more hardy than the satsuma.

Are you sure your kaffir isn't the standard sour orange? In TX, the most common rootstock is sour orange, the second most common is poncirus. The sour orange has a wide winged petiole similar to, but smaller than the kaffir. The kaffir's petiole is often the same size as the actual leaf (and both are large). I have never heard of a commercial grower using kaffir or ichang as rootstock in central or south TX. By the way, kaffir is generally considered less hardy than the thornless lime so if it was kaffir, the trunk below the scion must have been banked or protected.

I probably have about 50 citrus in south central TX, most are either "hardy" varieties (quat hybrids, satsuma etc) grafted on poncirus, or ichang hybrids. If you want to try a "sweet tangerine" w/o protection, I recommend Changsha. It has mediocre fruit quality and lots of seeds. However, I suspect that even the Changsha is marginal outside the urban portion of Austin.

Thanks very much for your advice. You have me convinced on the sour orange vs. kaffir comments. I only guessed kaffir because of the general shape of the leaves. I will take a picture and post it. Perhaps someone can identify it for sure.

Cheers,

Ed.

Where do you live in Texas?

I am in northwest Austin. It is not a dense urban area, so I think my garden stays a little warmer than rural Austin (or up in the hills), but not as warm as a true urban area.

mrtexas, I have often read your posts on GW with interest. I also found your website to be very informative.

I am linking to a picture of the plant (see below) I had mistakenly thought was kaffir lime. Can someone ID it as "sour orange" as a previous poster hypothesized (since it came back from rootstock)?

Cheers,

Ed.

Below are two PMs I got regarding my question. I am pasting them into the thread (with names withheld) since the information might be useful to others:

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"The sunquat does not get really sweet in the fall so it will need to be protected. a mature satsuma will with low 20s for several hours. The Kaffir lime is very cold sensitive."

"Satsuma on trifoliata or Flying dragon should withstand several hours in the low 20s. Chang Sha should stand down to about 15 on its own root. It is not as cold tolerant as a grafted plant. There is one in Port Neches that withstood the severe freezes of 1983 and 1989. In the severe freeze of 1983 we lost 70 large satsuma trees that were all grafted onto standard trifoliata orange."
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The Kaffir lime (C. Hystrix?) that I have (in a pot) has petioles that are much larger than the plant in your photo. I am relatively sure that you have a sour orange rootstock (hardy to about 15 degrees).

I am not sure why I have a Kaffir as the fruit are inedible and I don't use the leaves in cooking... Regardless, it is in the garage with a bunch of other out of zone stuff.

Sure looks like a Sour Orange to me. - Millet