Can I plant any of my citrus in the ground if I give them some kind of protection that is not a green house? And what kind of protection? I just moved to a 7b to 8a zone. I have 2 meyers, pink lemonade, nagami, washington navel, kaffir lime, page mandrin and satsuma mandrin. I have also seen the green houses that costco sells and they are nice but is there a cheaper way of building a decent green house? There is a nursery here in hurricane ut I think the zone is 7a or 7b that has a washinton navel in the ground in a greenhouse that is not heated and does good.

I went to a seminar on economics of cold protection for satsumas a couple yrs ago for LA (Lower Alabama -zone . The best protection was what they called the tunnel system which is a greenhouse frame (arches) over the rows of trees. In severe freezes the frame is just covered with plastic. That system is more expensive than the spray mist system that is designed to protect the trunk and main limbs by spraying with water--in severe freezes you loose a yr of production. Ned has this type system.

Your satsuma is certainly a candidate for inground--others depending on how much protection you can give them.

I have been to Cedar City many times. I always stop there for gas and get something to eat. If you lived a few more miles down Interstate 15 in St. George, at the bottom of the long hill, you could probably get away with growing a citrus tree in the ground inside of a non heated, or heated greenhouse, Heat would probably only be needed a few nights a year. As I am sure you are aware, St. George, has palm tress. However, in Cedar City,which is a lot higher in elevation, the weather is a lot colder then St. George. I live in Colorado, which is much colder that Cedar City, and have seven different varieties of citrus growing in the ground inside a heated greenhouse, and they do very well, producing a lot of fruit. I don't think a tunnel would protect citrus trees during Cedar City winters, unless it was closed on each end and with some heat on cold nights (which then would be called a greenhouse) - Millet (1,040-)

so have you moved down to Saint George, UT?

Thank you for all your replys. Yes I recently moved to st george but just bought a house between st george and hurricane. So I'm not quite as low as st george and no as high as hurricane. So we get snow that does not stick maybe twice a year if we are lucky. Like millet said we do have palm trees I have one in my new yard but they can handle a little bit cooler temps than some of the ones that grow in california. How would I go about building a temporary green house?

What is the best way to buy or build a green house? But a costco one or can I save some money and build one myself?

You must not live far from the huge Wal-Mart distribution center. I've built three greenhouses. The first two were lean-to style on the south side of buildings. Te first on was very small, and the second one was about 10-ft wide and 30 feet long. the east and west sides, plus the back were solid, and well insulated. I also made a night cover for the glazed south wall out of 2-inch polyurethane insulation boards. Most of the heat was with stored water in black drums. Lean-to solar greenhouse are quite easy to construct. There is a lot of Internet information on them. For the present greenhouse, I purchase a commercial structure from Nexus Corporation, and my three sons and I put it up our selves. There is a lot of greenhouse information on the Internet, as well as information on quonset style greenhouses with PVC frames on this forum. Unless you live in a warm location, cheap greenhouses will normally kill your budget with heat bills during the winter. - Millet (1,039-)

The tunnel system that Auburn was talking about is basically the frame for a greenhouse the is permanently in place over groups of about 20 trees (2 rows of 10 if I remember correctly). The do cover the ends when they cover the trees. Their frame was metal and they said they could add smudge pots if additional heat was needed.

In their climate, they only expected to have to cover the frame about once every 5-10 yrs since they expect satsumas to survive low 20s without protection. That system only paid for itself if the price of satsumas went above $1/pound--otherwise the spray mist system was most economically favorable on a per acre basis when you consider materials and labor.