Im sure some of you would be interested in knowing how my 135 tree citrus grove fared during the "global warming" winter of 2008/09. I am located in the coastal plains area of SC about 60 miles inland from Myrtle Beach.. zone 8 A. The grove was planted in April of 2007 and is now approaching 2 years. According to a friend of mine who works with the Wilmington, NC weather bureau, the months of Nov, Dec, Jan and Feb were all below normal, temperature wise.. Winter started with a bang in November when we experienced a night of 18F which is usually reserved for later in the season. In Jan and Feb.. we had two nights with lows of 14F! I have used the micro mist system to protect my satsuma grove for the past two winters and this has worked fairly well for me until this year. I went over to my farm late one winter afternoon to manually turn on the sprinklers only to discover that the spaghetti tubing that feeds the sprinkler heads had already frozen solid! With the sun sinking below the horizon, there was nothing I could do to save my trees from a brutal night that bottomed out at 14. I wasnt sure that I would have any trees left to report on after they had gone thru such a hard freeze..... They all pretty much defoliated after that episode! Now the good news! I counted this past week and have lost aprox 6 trees out of the 135... most of the dead ones were small one year trees so I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to continue on as the East Coast Northern most citrus grove! I can also report that many of the trees are budding blossoms and even some of the ones I thought were dead are re growing from above the graft. Im thinking that I may just possibly have some fruit to sell this fall after all! I will try to post some pictures in the near future.. Maybe I can do some befores and afters , They sure look ragged now but are growing out new growth so Im expecting a full recovery... To be continued.

Thanks Stan for the update. Wish you the best of success. I am hoping to stop by this fall before attending the 2009 Expo to see your place. I also want to see your "neighbors" grove west of you. - Millet (1,374-)

That's great news Stan !

On a side note, the two satsuma trees I grew from seed I got from your place 4 years ago are both blooming for the first time. Will be interesting to what the quality of the fruit will be.

thanks!!

another 100 years and and most northern citrrus grove will be in New England

I have some seedling satsumas blooming this spring for the first time also. It will be interesting to see if the fruit is of good quality or not? My trees were real troopers for the harsh winter they endured! I have the seedling satsumas planted in an area where they were totally exposed and had no protection. Im about to decide that as far as cold hardy citrus is concerned..Satsumas are as good as it gets!
Frank, I will let you plant the New England grove. I doubt I will be around to see it, but make me proud! LOL.. Stan

Seedling citrus trees are always more cold hardy than grafted trees of the same variety. Note that the grapefruit tree that Ned frequently points out was a seedling grapefruit. - Millet (1,372-)

14 degrees exposed with minimal damage is amazing!

Ned, I'm sorry to hear about the damage to your trees, glad it was not worse..I was really impress with the cold hardiness of satsumas last year when my sisters tree survived 17 F without any protection and any damage.

BTW my sister's trees are seedling trees that were burned to the ground several yrs ago when a shed next to them burned.

Hey Stan,

That's great news and best of luck with this year's crop!

It's amazing what's been done with "cold hardy" plantings over the past 20+ years. Palms surviving far below zero (Needle & Sabal Palms), intergeneric citrus hybrids surviving near zero and true citrus withstanding mid teens!

Good info Stan. I am surprised that you have some blooming trees. As noted its hard to beat a good sturdy Owari for cold hardiness. I graft them all on Pon Trif and they stand anything that the Louisiana cold months have to offer. I have some that came from seeds and they are probably a little hardier than the grafted ones...........at least they appear to be hardier. Im like Bonnie............a good Owari or Brown Select satsuma harvested at the peak is real hard to beat for taste and real hard to beat for cold hardiness.............David