I think one of the more important things for those of us growing citrus in-ground in zones 8 and lower is figuring out when it is ok to pull off the winter protection.

Here in the Georgia Appalachians I saw the last night freezing temp around the 7th of March, a week later I put my container citrus outside near the house, and also started leaving the hothouse over my in-ground Satsumas open 24 hours a day (instead of just in the daytime on days above 50F degrees.)

About a week ago we had a surprise snow/sleet and I woke to find everything covered with ice. Luckily there seems to have been little damage.



When is the first date that you generally start uncovering?

My two little Owari satsumas made it through their first winter here with no damage.
My row house with thermostat controlled heat lamps protected them from temps as low as 10-14F in January.

They started to open blooms 2 days ago.

I'm as happy as a clam.

Glad to hear cristofre, especially with the really cold winter we had. I'm in gwinnett and just bought an owari. I'm still not sure if I'm going to put it in the ground or keep it in a pot but stories like yours makes me want to try in ground.

Satsumas made it through another winter completely undamaged here in the Georgia mountains. They just started to bud out in the last week or so.

I pulled the protection completely off a few days ago, but probably could have done so at the beginning of March. Playing it safe though.

Had a few nights in the low teens in December and January(lowest 11F/-12C), February to March seems to have been uncharacteristically warmer than usual.

My only other citrus planted in ground before this Spring were Poncirus T. plants. (completely unprotected)
These were a really good graphic example for me of the variation of microclimate in my yard.

They started budding out over a period of a few weeks depending on their placement in my yard. I have a sloped yard with about 30 feet / 10 meters in variation from lowest to highest elevation, the plants near the top of the slope budded out weeks ago, the ones at the lower elevations have only started to do so in the last few days.

Thank you for the report Cristofre, it was very interesting. Glad your citrus are doing well.

Go to this Georgia weather link to find past years first and last freeze date for your area as well as a lot of good information. The warning flashing sign says they are losing their funding from the state so best write down the archived information very soon.


http://www.georgiaweather.net/


Randy